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MISSIONARY TOUR 
burst open, for several miles in extent, in a direction from 
north by east, to south by west, and emitted, in vari¬ 
ous places at the same instant, a considerable quantity 
of smoke and luminous vapour, but none of the people 
were injured by it. A stone wall, four feet thick and 
six feet high, enclosing a garden at the north end of 
the village, was thrown down. A chasm about a foot 
wide marked distinctly its course; this was generally 
open, though in some places it seemed as if the earth 
had closed up again. We entered a house, sixteen 
feet by twelve in the inside, through which it had 
passed. Ten persons, viz. one man, six women, and 
three children, were asleep here at the time it occurred. 
They were lying on both sides of the house, with their 
heads towards the centre; some of them very near 
the place where the gound was rent open. The trem¬ 
bling of the ground, they said, awoke them, but before 
they could think what it was that had disturbed them, 
the earth opened with a violent percussion ; a quantity 
of sand and dust was thrown up with violence, and 
smoke and steam were at the same time emitted. After 
a short interval, a second percussion was felt, vapour 
again arose, and at the opposite end of the house to 
that in which they were lying, they saw a light blue 
dame, which almost instantly disappeared. We asked 
them if they were not alarmed ? They said they were 
at first, but after remaining awake some time, and 
finding the shock was not repeated, they lay down and 
slept till morning, when they filled up the fissure with 
grass and earth ! We examined the aperture, that still 
remained open at one end of the house, and found its 
sides perpendicular, and its breadth one foot and eleven 
inches.. The north-west corner of the house was broken 
