SECT, xxvi.] EARTHQUAKES. 283 



the accident of Sir Stamford Raffles 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 

 Ternate, 720 miles in the opposite direction. The most 

 dreadful whirlwinds carried men and cattle into the air ; 

 and, with the exception of 26 persons, the whole population 

 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 pe- 

 netrate the mass of cinders which floated on the surface of 

 the sea for several miles to the depth of two feet. A cata- 

 strophe 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 afterwards. 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 upwards of 

 400 leagues to the windward of that volcano. Many volcanoes 

 supposed to be extinct have all at once burst out with incon- 

 ceivable 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 memory of man. Vast tracks are of vol- 

 canic origin where volcanoes have ceased to exist for ages. 

 Whence it may be inferred that in some places the subter- 



