108 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
of hot water and flowing mud, while most of the stones 
and ashes and sand that were thrown out passed com¬ 
pletely over them, and destroyed villages that were 
farther removed from the centre of this great eruption. 
The thundering was first heard at half-past one o’clock. 
At four o’clock the extreme violence of the eruption was 
past; at five, the sky began to grow clear once more, and 
the same sun that at noon had shed its light over a rich 
and peaceful landscape, at evening was shining over the 
same spot now changed into a scene of utter desolation. 
But this was not all. A second eruption followed 
on October 12th, even more violent than the first. Hot 
water and mud were again vomited forth, and great 
blocks of basalt were thrown to a distance of seven 
miles from the volcano. There was at the same time a 
violent earthquake; the summit of the mountain was 
broken down, and one side, which had been covered with 
forest, became an enormous semi-circular gulf. The rivers 
bore down to the sea the dead bodies of men and the 
carcases of deer, rhinoceroses, tigers, and other animals. 
The base of the mountain could not be approached for a 
month, and it was found that the surrounding country 
had been covered with a layer of greenish-blue mud, 
which in places was 50 feet in depth. The official 
accounts state that 114 villages were destroyed and 
4000 persons killed. 
Passing to the central and eastern groups of volcanoes, 
we find them to be uniformly of greater height than 
those of the western portion of the island. Ho less than 
nine attain an altitude of over 10,000 feet. Of these 
S’lamat is remarkable as much for the regularity of its 
shape as for the thick cloud of smoke which it continually 
pours forth from its summit. Of the great crater of 
Prau one-half of the lip alone remains, the southern 
