GEOLOGY. 659 



same volcano destroyed a part of this country town which 

 had been rebuilt after the disaster. 



The great lava floods sometimes jDresent a tolerably 

 smooth surface, like that of a river which has descended 

 peaceably from the mountain heights to the bottom of the 

 valley. The lava then forms a ready-made road, and I have 

 traversed several which the fire of thevolcano seemed to have 

 thus prepared for the wants of man. But more frequently 

 these immense lava fields, as is seen in the approaches to 

 Etna, Hecla, and so many other volcanoes, are contorted 

 and broken like a furious sea which the wand of a fairy 

 had suddenly transformed into fractured and blackened 

 rocks, only that they are still more horrible than any sea. 

 A man who lost himself for many hours in these frightful 

 solitudes would infallibly perish. 



Some volcanoes in their eruptions throw out mud, and 

 these occasionally constitute a very remarkable phenome- 

 non. A very learned Japanese writer, Tit-singh, relates that 

 in 1793 a volcano of the island of Kiou-siou, one of the 

 largest of the empire, suddenly ejected such torrents of 

 liquid matter, that more than 50,000 of the inhabitants 

 perished, swept away by the waves. Similar circum- 

 stances have taken place in America. A large village 

 near the equator was destroyed in 1797 by a river of vol- 

 canic mud.^ 



^ Instances of submarine volcanic eruptions are not uncommon, and the Bay 

 of Santorin, the ancient Thera, in the Grecian Archipelago, contains several small 

 islands which owe their origin to this cause. The last eruption occurred in 1866. 

 It began about the end of January with a noise like a heavy cannonade. In a 

 short time flames issued from the sea, rising sometimes to the height of fifteen 

 feet. This continued till the 14th February, when the eruptions became more 

 violent and the sea more troubled. Gas forced its way upwards from the bottom 

 with terrific noise, flames arose in several places, and a dense column of white 

 smoke mounted steadily to an immense height. A new island appeared next 

 morning, which by the 28th had reached a height of thirty feet with a circumfer- 

 ence of 300 yards at the sea-level. It was composed of a heap of loose clinker 



