in the Island of Siimlawa. 97 



dust with some noise. In the month of December, 1814, the 

 Honourable Company's cruizer Ternate passed near it, and we 

 had an opportunity of observing the hill, though at a very con- 

 siderable distance. It was then emitting smoke in a dense co- 

 lumn of immense circumference. So very great was the diame- 

 ter of the column of smoke, and so dense was it, that we at first 

 took it for part of the mountain ; for at the distance we were 

 off, the mountain and the smoke had nearly the same colour. 



From the 5th to the 1 hh of April, 1815, the mountain emitted 

 dust and frequent loud sounds every day The dust caused a 

 haziness of the atmo:-phere at places many degrees distant from 

 Tanbora; and the noises which were heard equally far off, 

 sounded at Beema (a to n al)out sixty miles east of the hill) ge- 

 nerallv like the firing of the largest cannon close to the ear 5 at 

 other times the noises were of a rumbling kind. 



On the night of the !Oth and morning of the 1 1th of April the 

 loudness and frequency of the reports increased. The showers 

 of grevish black dust which had been falling at Beema increased 

 so much by 7 A.M. on the 11th, as to produce there a total 

 darkness. This complete darkness continued until 7 A.M. on 

 the 12th, after which the dust fell in less and less quantity, and 

 at noon it entirely ceased. 



Pumice-stone of a brown colour was thrown out in immense 

 quantity at the crater of the mountain. Great fields of it, with 

 scorched trunks and branches of trees, were afterwards found 

 floating in the neighbouring sea ; and much of these were thrown 

 up on the shores of Bally Java, Madura, Celeb's, &c. These 

 shoals were troublesome, and even somewhat dangerous, to ships 

 passing near them. The country ship Dispatch fell in with many 

 fields of this pumice-stone and wood, and was obliged to steer 

 clear of them ; some of the pieces of wood were noted in its log- 

 book as being about'*' six feet in diameter, and of very great 

 length." 



Trees of great size (many from sixty to eighty feet long) were 

 thrown into the sea, some of which 1 saw in the bay of Beema; 

 they seemed to have been scorched, and to have had their small 

 branches and roots torn off. Some of those trees 1 saw sticking 

 in the nmd near the shores of the bay, with one end upjicrmost. 



.Some of the houses of the town of Beema were materially in- 

 jured by the eruption ; and I understand from our resident there, 

 Mr. Pil'ott, that this had been occasioned by the discharges from 

 the mountain. 



In the bay of Beema the nature of the bottom was for some little 



depth changed from a soft nmd to a firm mud, resembling a 



greyish-black clay, which did not allow our ship's lead to sink in 



it. This change, 1 presume, was occasioned by the depth of 



Vol. .jG. No." 2Gy. Auv. Ib2(). N volcanic 



