268 



VOLCANOES. 



So fully did the resemblance of the noises to the report of cannon 

 impress the minds of some officers, that, from an apprehension of 

 pirates on the coast, vessels were dispatched to afford relief. Su- 

 perstition on the other hand was busily at work on the minds of the 

 natives, and attributed the reports to an artillery of a different des- 

 cription to that of pirates. All conceived that the effects experien- 

 ced might be caused by eruptions of some of the numerous volca- 

 noes on the island; but no one could have conjectured that the show- 

 ers of ashes which darkened the air and covered the ground of the 

 eastern districts of Java, could have proceeded from a mountain in 

 Sumbawa, at the distance of several hundred miles." 



The lieutenant-governor of Java directed a circular to the differ- 

 ent residents, requiring them to transmit to the governor a statement 

 of the facts and circumstances connected with this eruption. The 

 most remarkable circumstance attending this eruption, is the distance 

 at which the explosions were heard in the islands of the Indian Sea. 

 "From Sumbawa to the part of Sumatra where the sound was no- 

 ticed, is about nine hundred and seventy geographical miles. Froni 

 Sumbawa to Ternate, is a distance of about seven hundred and twenty 

 miles. The distance to which the cloud of ashes was carried so 

 thickly as to produce utter . darkness was clearly pointed out to be 

 the Island of Celebes, and the district of Grisik in Java; the former 

 two hundred and seventeen nautical miles in a direct line, the latter 

 more than three hundred geographical miles." The greatest dis- 

 tance at which the eruption of any volcano had been previously 

 heard, is six hundred miles : according to M. Humboldt, the explo- 

 sions from Cotopaxi are sometimes sensibly heard at that distance 

 from the volcano, which is one of the largest and highest in the 

 American continent. 



The long period of repose which sometimes takes place between 

 two eruptions of the same volcano, is particularly remarkable. From 

 the building of Rome to the 79th year of the Christian era, no men- 

 tion is made of Vesuvius, though it had evidently been in a prior state 

 of activity, as Herculaneum and Pompeii, which were destroyed by 

 the eruption of that year, are paved with lava. From the 12th to 

 the 16th century it remained quiet, for nearly four hundred years, 

 and the crater was overgrown with lofty trees. The crater was de- 

 scended by Bracchini, an Italian writer, prior to the great eruption 

 of 1631 : the bottom was at that time a vast plain, surrounded by 

 caverns and grottoes. ^Etna has continued burning since the time 

 of the poet Pindar, with occasional intervals of repose, seldom ex- 

 ceeding thirty or forty years. 



The eruptions of the Peak of Teneriffe have been very rare dur- 

 ing the last two centuries. According to Humboldt, "the long in- 

 tervals of repose appear to characterize volcanoes highly elevated. 

 Stromboli, which is one of the lowest, is always burning ; the erup- 

 tions of Vesuvius are rarer, but still more frequent than those of 



