400 
DES. T. ANDERSON AND J. S. FLEET ON THE ERUPTIONS OF THE 
did not pass over the town. A little after 2 o’clock the inhabitants heard a very 
loud sound 23roceeding from the crater. This was described to us as “ a long, loud, 
mournful, unearthly, death-like roar.” The mountain at that time was emitting 
an enormous column of .steam, which expanded and spread out laterally as it ascended 
in the air, and red-hot stones were tumbling down the slopes, giving out trails of 
sparks. A heavy fall of scoria and stones followed the outbur.st. Darkness then set 
in fairlv rapidly, though hy no means instantaneously, and the rain of ash began. It 
continued through the whole evening and the early part of the ensuing night. 
The hrst estate north of Georgetown is Mount Bentinck, and here also no lives were 
lost, though the fields were buried in ashes. Langley Park stands half-a-mile to the 
nortli of Mount Bentinck, and manv were killed there. In the main builing some 
thirty or forty bodies were found. The liouse was being cleared of ashes when we 
visited it, and as they had stuck to the surface of the walls, forming a grey laver 
like fresli cement, it woiild seem that on the edge of the cloud the dirst was in some 
places moist and adherent. This was also the case in Fancy, where on the morning 
of Wednesday it was seen that the walls of the houses were jilastered over to a 
depth of half-an-inch with fine wet ashes. 
It is clear that the Idack cloud passed over Langley Park, and that the fatalities 
which took place there are to be ascribed to its action. Mount Bentinck and George¬ 
town escaped, and this shows how sharply defined was the lateral margin of that 
mass of deadly vapours and dust. It shows also how harmless was the rain of ashes 
from above, as no one was killed soutli of the limits of the cloud, though a few were 
Injured by falling stones. 
The Rain of Ashes. 
The history of the later stages of the eruption which followed the descent of the 
great black cloud cannot he given with tlie same fulness and detail as that of the 
earlier phases. Dar-kness now covered the mountain and much of the surrounding 
country, and little could be seen except the flashes of lightning and the occasional 
fall of red-hot stones. Tire inhabitants had shut themselves up in their houses, and 
many were engaged in succouring the wounded and dying, so far as that was possible. 
Others hail liid themselves in inner rooms and cellars in momentary expectation of 
a suddeji and painfid death. No man was .sure of his life for a moment. Evervone 
believed that most of his neighbours and friends liad perished. IMany dreaded that 
the sea would invade the land in nreat tidal waves. The earth rocked and .shook 
to 
continuou.sly, and those wlio dwelt in the more substantial stone-houses were afraid 
that they would fall on them. Tlie air and sky were filled with lightnings, which 
quivered and jdayed ince.ssantly. Many houses were already on fire, and trees and 
buildings were freipiently struck. Fine ash and la])llll were raining down upon the 
roofs of tlie hou.ses, which were rattling under this bomhardment. Every now and 
