SECT. XX VI. VOLCANIC ERUPTTONS. 247 



world ; and many must occur or have happened, even on 

 the most extensive and awful scale, among people equally 

 incapable of estimating their effects and of recording 

 them. We should never have known the extent of the 

 fearful eruption which took place in the island of Sum- 

 bawa, in 1815, but for the accident of Sir Stamford Raf- 

 fles having been governor of Java at the time. It began 

 on the 5th of April, and did not entirely cease till July. 

 The ground was shaken through an area of 1000 miles 

 in circumference ; the tremors were felt in Java, the 

 Moluccas, a great part of Celebes, Sumatra, and Borneo. 

 The detonations were heard in Sumatra, at the distance 

 of 970 geographical miles in a straight line ; and at Ter- 

 nate, 720 miles in the opposite direction. The most 

 dreadful whirlwinds carried men and cattle into the ah* ; 

 and with the exception of 26 persons, the whole popu- 

 lation of the island perished to the amount of 12,000. 

 Ashes were carried 300 miles to Java, in such quantities 

 that the. darkness during the day was more profound 

 than ever had been witnessed in the most obscure night. 

 The face of the country was changed by the streams of 

 lava, and by the upheaving and sinking of the soil. The 

 town of Tomboro was submerged, and water stood to 

 the depth of 18 feet in places which had been dry land. 

 Ships grounded where they had previously anchored, 

 and others could hardly penetrate the mass of cinders 

 which floated on the surface of the sea for several miles 

 to the depth of two feet. A catastrophe similar to this, 

 though of less magnitude, took place in the island of Bali 

 in 1808, which was not heard of in Europe till years 

 afterward. The eruption of Coseguina in the Bay of 

 Fonseca, which began on the 19th of January, 1835, and 

 lasted many days, was even more dreadful and extensive 

 in its effects than that of Sumbawa. The ashes during 

 this eruption were carried by the upper current of the 

 atmosphere as far north as Chiassa, which is upward 

 of 400 leagues to the windward of that volcano. Many 

 volcanos supposed to be extinct have all at once burst 

 out with inconceivable violence. Witness Vesuvius, on 

 historical record ; and the volcano in the island of St. 

 Vincent in our own days, whose crater was lined with 

 large trees, and which had not been active in the mem- 



