502 Rev. M. Frater — Volcanic Eruption, Ambry m Island. 



crater walls. Volcanic bombs lay scattered around. They had been 

 ejected in a pasty condition and readily took the impress of a coin. 

 When broken the core was found to be porous, but in the passage 

 through the air the outside had become rounded and smooth. Erom 

 the lip of the crater the inner wall had a sloping dip of 1,000 feet 

 to an extensive level plateau of what appeared to be boiling mud, 

 from the centre of which rose another crater cone, which was partly 

 obscured by vapour rising from the boiling mud as well as from the 

 innumerable holes in its walls. From the inner crater came the 

 explosions of steam and ash, but there was no possibility of looking 

 into its interior. 



Eight lava streams, of lengths varying from one to ten miles, 

 flowed during the eruption. Some proceeded from volcanoes with 

 crater cones, others from fissure eruptions which were marked by an 

 absence of crater-shaped vents. The fissure eruptions ejected lava in 

 larger quantities than the crater volcanoes, though the flow was not 

 always from the central vent but from rents in the crater wall. So 

 enormous were the floods of this molten metal that the lava stream 

 pierced through the thick bush, forming tracks from 100 yards to 

 three-quarters of a mile broad. Viewed from the sea these black 

 cindery tracks, running inland through the dense vegetation, 

 resembled railway cuttings, and the smell of the cooling slag tended 

 still further to confirm the resemblance. Sometimes, the lava stream 

 parted and enclosed timber-covered islets. The trees on these islets 

 survived, like island stations on a railway line. The only trees 

 which seemed to withstand the first onset of the avalanche were the 

 giant she-oaks. The molten metal flowed round these forest kings 

 and clasped them in its embrace. The trunks were slowly consumed 

 and deep cylindrical holes were left, at the bottom of which could be 

 seen the glowing red lava. These holes, ranging from 10 to 20 feet 

 deep, assumed the shape of the tree-trunk, and on the sides of the 

 encrusted lava could be seen the impress of the tree. The cooling of 

 the lava must have been very rapid, as the bark of the trees on the 

 edge of the stream, where there was little depth of fire, was not even 

 burnt, but only scorched. Here and there on the lava streams were 

 miniature cones formed by the escape of gas and lava from the 

 liquid interior, and these cones, some of them 15 feet high, continued 

 to spout molten lava long after the main stream had passed. Three 

 months after the eruption, heated vapours were still issuing from these 

 cones. The vapours, impregnated with iron and sulphur, were acting 

 chemically on the rocks, and produced a wealth of variegated colours 

 in which white, yellow, and red predominated. Underneath the 

 surface of the lava streams there seemed to exist numerous vesicular 

 cavities in which vapour was imprisoned. The tread of the feet 

 produced a dull, hollow sound and reverberated like the noise of 

 a drum. Many fissures and cracks in the stream were still spouting 

 hot vapours, and in some of the cracks the rocks were glowing within 

 a few feet of the surface. 



The lava streams assumed a variety of structures due to the 

 amount of aqueous vapour imprisoned. Some were slaggy and ropy 

 with a smooth, glassy appearance, others of the scoriaceous type had 



