I'll. .to 1.\ riiail. 
A BOMB 
Note the pit in the mud made by this rock when it fell. Few rocks of any great size were 
ejected "from the crater during the eruption 
'fH£: FLESH WAS BURNE;d BY ACIDS 
The dead and the wounded were found 
in most unexpected places. Not a few 
persons had been fleeing in terror as a 
result of the explosion which had oc- 
curred at I :o5 when overwhelmed by the 
final cataclysm at 2 :20, and had mean- 
while been able to travel a considerable 
distance from their homes. Many were 
washed inland by the waves from the 
lake and were buried under piles of 
debris. 
Most of the survivors were horribly 
injured. In numerous instances their 
flesh was lacerated and their bones were 
fractured by stones from the volcano, 
falling timbers of houses, or flying debris 
driven by the dreadful blast from the 
crater, while most of them had horrible 
injuries the exact nature of which is in 
dispute. They have been almost invari- 
ably referred to as "burns," but the fact 
that clothing was not charred in any ob- 
served instance negatives the idea that 
the dead were killed, or the wounded in- 
jured, by fire. 
It was noted, furthermore, that the 
bark of the stumps of trees on the side 
towards the volcano was often cut to 
tow, when not completely destroyed, and 
that the resulting fine strands of wood 
fiber were not burned, and in my opinion 
there is little doubt that a large majority 
of the killed and wounded were injured 
by what was in effect a gigantic sand 
blast. This view is strengthened by the 
fact that in many cases the thinnest and 
most transparent fabrics sufficed com- 
pletely to protect the underlying flesh. 
It has been stated that a large number 
of the victims were terribly scalded by 
hot mild. I doubt whether the mud was 
really liot enough to scald when it struck 
persons living at any considerable dis- 
tance from the volcano, and believe that 
many of these burns were chemical, and 
were due to the fact that the mud was 
heavily charged with strong acid (see 
also page 334). 
Chemical examination had long before 
demonstrated the fact that the waters 
of one of the crater lakes contained 
sulphuric acid in sufficient quantity 
promptly to attack the skin of one's 
hands. It was furthermore noted dur- 
ing this eruption that the thinnest coat- 
ing of mud sufficed to kill green leaves 
and grass. The volcanic ejecta are still 
so strongly acid that it has proved im- 
possible to raise crops where they have 
3SO 
