302 KEPORT — 1889. 



an idea of the velocity with which the debris came surging down the 

 mountain, I may mention what happened at JSTagasaka, a hamlet 7 miles 

 distant from the site of the eruption. Ashes, or gritty mud, commenced 

 to fall about one minute after the roar of the explosion, and the inhabi- 

 tants of ISTagasaka rushed from their houses to cross a valley to seek 

 refuge on the side of a mountain only 500 yards distant. Out of 97 

 people who thus fled, not one of them reached the other side of the valley 

 before they were overtaken and buried by the stream of earth and 

 boulders, which, when it reached them, had travelled nearly 10 miles. 

 This sea of earth and rock, which became muddy as it sopped up streams 

 and ponds along its course, as Professor Sekiya has calculated, now 

 covers 27 square miles of country, and spreads from its origin on the top 

 of Kobandai in a fan-shaped form to and beyond its base, where it has 

 blocked up the valley of the Nagasa. At the lower part of this fan- 

 shaped mass portions of the deluge have branched out into streams, 

 which from a distance look like the flow of lava. The bulk of the 

 material has gone towards the north to block up the course of the river 

 Nagasa and form marshes and small lakes, while a diverging stream has 

 run towards the south in the direction of Lake Inawashiro. The sides of 

 these streams are fairly perpendicular, and so well defined that you can 

 place one foot on the wall-like edge of a stream, and the other foot on 

 green grass. After the downpour of debris cauldron-like mud holes in 

 the crater, which still emit roaring columns of steam, threw up vast 

 quantities of greyish gritty mud, which was carried by the wind as far 

 as the Pacific Ocean, 62 miles distant, and which covered a land area of 

 about 1,000 square miles. The earthquake which accompanied the 

 eruption, although it was very severe near Bandaisan, only extended over 

 an area of country with a radius of about 30 miles. 



A remarkable feature in this explosion was that it was accompanied 

 by a terrible hurricane, which levelled houses and tore up trees. When 

 I visited Bandaisan I passed through forests where most of the trees were 

 prostrate, and all had been stripped of their leaves, and in some instances 

 also of their bark. The appearance of these trees was suggestive of the 

 action of some huge steam-jet which had blown over houses and trees in 

 one direction. 



Another remarkable phenomenon is a number of conical holes from 

 two or three to 20 or 30 feet in diameter, and eight or ten feet in depth. 

 These holes may be said to exist in thousands, and many of them are 

 several miles distant from the crater. That they were not formed by 

 steam is testified by the fact that, so far as I am aware, no observer 

 observed any steam escaping from them, and the mud in them was 

 always cold. Prof. Sekiya and other observers are of opinion that they 

 were formed by falling stones, and the view is supported by the fact that 

 by digging into certain of these holes boulders have been met with, and 

 beneath these boulders the crushed remains of plants. An objection to 

 this view is, that as large stones and small stones must have fallen from 

 varying heights, holes ought to have been found in all stages of forma- 

 tion, some where stones were only partly buried, and others where the 

 boulders had disappeared from view, while all the holes should contain 

 one or m re oulders. 



Tile' view I have advanced to explain their origin is, that they were 

 formed by the earthquake shock packing up the watery strata, which burst 

 to the surfaces at points of least resistance. It is certain that similar 



