152 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



fugitives may still be seen there. In latter times the last existing 

 worshippers of Siva inhabited the crater of the volcano called Tengger, 

 in the centre of which there is a cone of eruption in full activity. 

 The volcanos of Java lie nearly in a line coinciding with the prin- 

 cipal axis of the island, and those of Sumatra form a line parallel 

 to the former. When an eruption occurs, torrents, not of lava, 

 but of mud, roll down the sides of the mountain ; when such a 

 torrent meets with an obstacle, the mud generally accumulates on one 

 spot, and there forms a hillock; it is thus that the bases of these 

 volcanos are often seen studded with thousands of these incipient 

 mountains. Sometimes the eruption is dry, or consists only of ashes, 

 as is often the case with the Eamongon and the Semerso. The former 

 volcano detonates once every ten or fifteen minutes, the latter at inter- 

 vals of about three hours. 



The mud which seems to replace lava in the Javanese volcanos 

 derives its origin from the materials of the mountains themselves, whose 

 rocky structures are violently acted upon by the hot acidulated water 

 and the acid vapours emitted from the crater. The latter are extremely 

 abundant at Java, and destroy all kinds of rocks. 



In June, 1822, the Gelung-Gung volcano broke forth in violent 

 eruption, amidst earthquakes and subterranean thunder ; the inhabi- 

 tants of the plain were startled out of their sieste, at about noon, by a 

 violent report, which was heard from one extremity of the island to 

 the other. An immense column of black smoke was immediately seen 

 rising in the air that completely darkened the sky ; volumes of cinders 

 soon fell like a burning rain, the mountain sunk considerably into the 

 earth, and from its fissured sides streamed forth torrents of hot sulphu- 

 reous water and boiling mud, transforming, in an incredibly short space 

 of time, villages, forests, and rice-fields into a streaming lake, on which 

 trees, fragments of dwellings, and dead-bodies of men or other animals 

 were seen floating along. "What a picture of devastation ! Another 

 awful eruption of the same kind took place on the 8th and 12th of 

 October. Beudant assures us that in 1 772 the highest mountain of Java, 

 the Papandayan volcano, com_plctehj disappeared ^' — swallowed up, as it 

 were, in a lake of mud, together with forty villages and their inhabitants. 



{To be, continued,) 



Dr Junghuhn and Mr. G. P. Scrope both consider the truncation of Papan- 

 dayan to have been due to explosive eruptions, not to engulfment. See Journal 

 Geol. Soc, Vol. XII., p. 331. — Ed. Geologist. 



