OUTBURST OF GALUNG GUXG. 101 



been known to come from the towering volcanoes 

 of the Andes. From them, however, there are 

 thrown up from time to time discharges of ashes, 

 and floods of mud and water, that surpass belief, 

 laying everything waste before them, 



L. von Buch gives the following account of one 

 of the most destructive volcanic outbursts of 

 modern times. "On the 8th of October, 1822, 

 about one o'clock in the afternoon, a frightful noise 

 was heard in the neighbourhood of Galung Gung, 

 in Java; the mountain was immediately shrouded 

 in a thick cloud of smoke, and streams of hot sul- 

 phurous muddy water poured down its slopes on 

 every side, and carried before them everything 

 they met with. There was then an awful sight in 

 Badang, the river Tsclmvulan sweeping down 

 vast multitudes of corpses of men, cattle, rhino- 

 ceroses, tigers, antelopes, and even entire houses 

 carried with them into the sea. Tins flood of hot 

 muddy water lasted but two hours; but these 

 were enough to lay waste a whole province. At 

 three o'clock it had ceased, but there now fol- 

 lowed a thick rain of ashes and pumice, which 

 utterly destroyed all that had been spared of the 

 face of the country, and burnt up all the trees. 

 At five o'clock all was at rest again, and the moun- 

 tain was seen once more. And during this short 

 time every dwelling, every village, for many miles 

 round, had been covered with mud; in places 



