The Rajah of Sangir, a village about fourteen miles southeast of the volcano, was an eye-witness of the eruption, and thus describes it:

About 7 P. M., on the 10th of April (1815), three distinct columns of flame burst forth near the summit of the mountain, all of them apparently within the verge of the crater: and after ascending, separately, to a very great height, united their tops in the air in a troubled, confused manner. In a short time the whole mountain next to Sangir appeared like a mass of liquid fire, extending itself in every direction. The fire and columns of flame continued to rage with unabated fury until the darkness, caused by the quantity of falling matter, obscured it about 8 P. M. Stones

at this time fell very thick at Sangir, some of them as large as a man's two fists, but generally not exceeding the size of walnuts.

Between 9 and 10 P. M. showers of ashes began to fall, and soon afterwards a violent whirlwind ensued, which overthrew nearly every house in the village of Sangir, carrying along with it, their lighter portions and thatched roofs. In that part of the district of Sangir, adjoining the volcano, its effects were much more severe; it tore up by the roots the largest trees, and whirling them in the air, dashed them around in the wildest confusion, along with men, houses, cattle, and whatever else came within the range of its fury. The sea rose nearly twelve feet higher than it had ever been known before, and completely destroyed the only small spots of rice lands in Sangir, sweeping away houses and everything within its reach.

The captain of a ship dispatched from Macassar, to the scene of this awful phenomenon, stated, that as he approached the coast, he passed through great

quantities of pumice stone floating on the sea, which had at first the appearance of shoals, so that he was deceived into sending a boat to examine one, which at the distance of a mile, he supposed to be a dry sandbank, upwards of three miles in length, with black rocks projecting above it here and there.

Mr. Bickmore speaks of seeing the same kind of stones floating over the sea, when approaching (in April, 1865) the Strait of Sunda. He adds: Besides the quantities of this porous, foam-like lava that are thrown directly into the sea by such eruptions, great quantities remain on the declivities of the volcano and in the surrounding mountains, much of which is conveyed by the rivers, during the rainy season, to the

ocean.

(Bickmore: Travels in the Eastern Archipelago.)

VOLCANIC FIRE-BELT OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE.

Humboldt gives a list of the volcanoes of the world, calculated many years ago. It therefore may be accepted as under-estimated, as there are some 900 volcanoes, extinct and active, to be found in the Eastern Archipelago alone.

As will be seen by the map accompanying this

work, the volcanic fire-belt very nearly surrounds and

outlines the western hemisphere. At Mount Erebus, but a few hundred miles from the South Pole, we see one of Nature's grandest outbursts-one of the world's greatest volcanoes in ceaseless eruption. With its lurid glare reflected back in a hundred ways by the icy mirrors of frozen seas, and the prismatic colorings of towering icebergs, it forms a spectacle too grand for description. Based and capped in the regions of perpetual ice and snow, its fiery peak, 13,000 feet, reaching up in the clouds, is a beacon light in an unknown, untrodden land.

THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA.

From this source we shall trace the volcanic, eruptic fire-belt. Making its way north, the great subterranean fire-stream -one branch of which passes under the South Shetland Islands, and on under the restless Atlantic; the other passes through Terra del Fuego, and across the Straits of Magellan into South America. Here the fiery current forces its resistless way under the towering peaks of the Chilean Andes, breaking out at the volcanic peaks of Acacagua, Hulliaciaca, Villarica, San Jose, Peteroa, Antuco, Hamatua, Chillan, Calbuco, Corcovado, Osomo and Zandeles. Through Bolivia, appearing in the volcanoes of Isluya, and Sajama, whose peaks tower 22,350 feet above the sea, and on into Peru, breaking out in angry flames in Arequipa, from the towering peaks of Mesta, Chacarni, Pan de Azucar, burying the cities of Arequipa and Orite, Tultapace and Ubinos, in burning lava and ashes, in the sixteenth century. And again, at Cotopaxi, 19,500 feet above the sea, boiling over and forcing its fiery way out of a height of 17,000 feet at

Sangaii, still in Peru, pouring out sulphurous smoke, ashes, cinders and lava, the flames lighting up the country around for one hundred and fifty years past. Hugging the Pacific shores, along into Ecuador, where the great extinct crater of Chimborazo lies, while a branch of the stream, now extinct, makes off to the west some six hundred miles or more, and burst out in the Galapagos Islands, whose numerous extinct craters, nearly two thousand in number, give evidence of a severe eruption in past ages.

CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO.

From Ecuador, the current flows on through New Granada, Guatemala, Central America and San Salvador. The current through these latter countries seems to be in a quiescent state, as, although abundant evidences of its eruptic forces can be traced in the past, there are no active volcanoes in existence in those countries at the present time.

Still onward pursuing its northerly course, to break out again in Mexico, in Anahuac and in Michiochan, in the volcanoes of Tuxtla, Orizaba, Popocatapetl, Isztachuatl, Toluca, Jornillo, and in Colima, in Zapotai, Tancitari and Soconusco. These are nearly all in an inactive state at present, if we except a little smoke and sulphurous vapors emitted from some of the craters.

Tuxtla, though (in the State of Vera Cruz), emits a flame day and night, lighting up the heavens with a glare that may be seen far away at sea.

The current branches here again, one stream making its way due west, under the sea, for over 2,500 miles, to appear again in those majestic volcanic out

bursts of Kilauea and Mauna Loa, in the Sandwich Islands.

PACIFIC COAST.

The other stream pursues a peaceful course on through North America, following the line of the Pacific shore, on through California, Oregon, Washington Territory and British America, into Alaska. Through these countries, the flow of the fiery channel below may be traced by the evidences, not only of extinct volcanoes, but of the vast overflow of lava and volcanic tufa, to be found all along the route named.

Of Mount Hood, Shasta, Mount St. Helena, and some others of lesser note, there is little to be said. Their peaks, rising from eleven to fourteen thousand feet, have no doubt formed vents for the restless fluid beneath. The geysers, hot springs and mud ebullitions, found all along the Pacific coast, owe their existence and activity to the yet unsubdued fires of the volcanic belt.

THROUGH THE ISLANDS.

Breaking out again at Mount St. Elias, in Alaska, in fitful outbursts, and but lately on one of the islands of the Aleutian chain, we see the mighty forces of the fire-stream still at work.

Crossing from Alaska to Kamptchatka, through the Aleutian Islands, and touching the southern portion of the latter country, the eruptic current turns southby-west, and flows on through the Kurile Islands, and through the main groups of the island empire of Japan, whose uneasy foundations are truly said to be rocked in the cradle of the deep.