ERUPTIONS OF TERKATE 



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^at I liad seen since leaving Java. Many fimall 

 ridges extend from its crest part way down its sides, 

 and tlien spread out into little plateau-like areas; 

 and there the natives have cleared away the luxuriant 

 shrubhery and foiTned their gardens, and from them 

 were rising small columns of smoke as if from sacri- 

 ficial altars. The whole island is mei'ely a high vol- 

 cano, whose base is beneath the ocean. Its circum- 

 ference at the shore line is about sis miles, and its 

 height five thousand four himdi'ed feet. From Val- 

 entyn, Rein ward t, Bleeker, and Jiinghuhn, we learn 

 that severe and destructive eruptions took place in 

 1608, 1635, and 1G53. In 1673 another occurred, 

 and a consider al)le quantity of ashes was earned 

 even to Amboina. Tlien, for one hundred and sixty- 

 five years, only small clouds of gas rose from the sum^ 

 mit — not even hot stones were thrown out, and the 

 mountain seemed to have undergone its last labor, 

 when, on the 26th of Febniary, 1838, another but not 

 a severe eniption took place. This, however, came 

 suddenly — so suddenly that, of a party of six natives 

 who chanced to be on the summit collecting sulphur, 

 four who had gone down into the crater did not 

 have time to escape, and the two who remained on 

 its edge only saved themselves by hastening down 

 the mountain ; and even they were badly burned and 

 lacerated by the showers of hot stones. On the 25th 

 of March, of the next year, a more violent eruption 

 occurred, A hea\7^ thundering roared in the earth, 

 thick clouds of ashes enveloped the whole island, and 

 streams of glowing lava flowed down the mountain. 

 Again, the next year, on the 2d of February, at nine 



