VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS. 
109 
ference was pitched twenty miles away; another of 
magnetic iron fell at a distance of fifteen. The surface 
of the earth was covered for a circuit of one hundred 
and fifty miles, with a layer of sand four inches 
deep; the air was so darkened by it, that at a place 
one hundred and forty miles off, white paper held 
up at a little distance could not be distinguished 
from black. The fishermen could not put to sea on 
account of the darkness, and the inhabitants of the 
Orkney islands were frightened out of their senses by 
showers of what they thought must be black snow. 
On the 9th of April, the lava began to overflow, and 
ran for five miles in a south-westerly direction, whilst, 
some days later,—in order that no element might be 
wanting to mingle in this devil’s charivari,—a vast 
column of water, like Robin Hood’s second arrow, split 
up through the cinder pillar to the height of several 
hundred feet; the horror of the spectacle being further 
enhanced by an accompaniment of subterranean can¬ 
nonading and dire reports, heard at a distance of fifty 
miles. 
Striking as all this must have been, it sinks into 
comparative tameness and insignificance, beside the 
