VOLCANOES AND EARTHQUAKES. 259 



province of Tomboro, only twenty-six indivi- 

 duals survived. Violent whirlwinds carried up 

 men, horses, cattle, and whatever else came 

 within their influence, into the air ; tore up the 

 largest trees by the roots, and covered the whole 

 sea with floating timber. Great tracts of land 

 were covered by lava, several streams of 

 which, issuing from the crater of the Tomboro 

 mountain, reached the sea. So heavy was the 

 fall of ashes, that they broke into the resident's 

 house at Bima, forty miles east of the volcano, 

 and rendered it, as well as many other dwellings 

 in the town, uninhabitable. On the side of Java 

 the ashes were carried to the distance of 300 

 miles, and 217 miles towards Celebes, and in 

 sufficient quantities to darken the air. The 

 floating cinders to the westward of Sumatra 

 formed, on the 12th of April, a mass two feet 

 thick, and several miles in extent, through which 

 ships and boats with difficulty forced their 

 way. 



The darkness occasioned in the day-time by 

 the ashes in Java was so great that nothing 

 equal to it was ever witnessed in the darkest 

 nights. Although this volcanic dust, when it 

 fell, was a perfect powder, it was of considerable 



