329 
of Dust and Ashes . 
The ship Niantic , from Canton to New York, being 
in 7° 5' N., 121° 10' E.,at2 a.m. on the 5th April, 1840, 
about sixty miles from Mindanao, one of the Philipine 
Islands, came up with a fine breeze from N.E., which 
was attended by a shower of dust resembling that of 
ashes. The sun and moon were obscured : the eyes of 
the sailors were filled with it; and the Niantic was 
covered from the royal-mast-head down to the water’s 
edge. The decks were J-inch thick with the ashes, of 
which one half bushel was swept up, and three or four 
more might have been saved. It lasted for about an 
hour; but fell in small quantities for several days. 
The English whaler Margaret^ which was met with on 
the loth, had the shower the same day, 300 miles N.E. 
of the Niantic; on the 12th the whaler found several 
villages deserted on the Island of Madura*, which led 
to the belief that an eruption had proceeded from that 
quarter. In proceeding to the northward, no ashes fell 
after the 9th April. The information was derived from 
a note to Professor Silliman from the Rev. Peter Parker, 
M.D., passenger in the Niantic.f 
* It is not stated wliat island is meant; it can hardly be Madura, 
off the north coast of Java. 
f Silliman’s Arner. Journ., Jan. 1841, p. 198. The dust which the 
J\ia?itic fell in with was, probably, from some eruption of the end of 
March, not far from the spot itself. The grounds for this conclusion 
are these:—The Florentia, Capt. Goodwyn, in her voyage from 
Sydney, discovered the island of St. Matthew's (22°24' S., 172°35' E.) 
in violent eruption on 23rd March. (N. M. 1841, p. 449.) On the 
same day, the year before, an earthquake occurred at Ameerapoora, 
in 21° 54' N., 96° 3' E. The line joining these points passes through 
the spot marked by the dust,—a line which nearly coincides with the 
general direction of the islands of New Caledonia and the north 
coast of New Guinea. About eight days after the eruption of St. 
Matthew’s, occurred also an earthquake at Adelaide; viz. on the 
31st March. The earth was, therefore, greatly convulsed on both 
sides of the Equator at that period ; and, therefore, it may be pre- 
