Home › Contents › Mountains of Fire

Mountains of Fire

NE of the large vol-ened the air, caused complete darkness in canoes in the Sand- Java, eight hundred miles off, and covwich Islands has, ered the ground and roofs of houses to a when quiet, a lake of depth of several inches. liquid lava in the The floating pumice upon the sea hollow or crater on around formed a layer two feet thick, its summit. This through which vessels with difficulty lava, like all others, forced their way. Sometimes the force consists of different with which the light pumice is cast up is rocks which have been dis- so great that upper currents in the air solved deep down in the blow vast collections of it to a great disearth below the volcano by tance, and the first notice of the eruption steam confined in a small of some volcanoes in out-of-the-way counspace, and therefore by what is called tries has been given by showers of ashes high-pressure steam. It resembles dark in well-known localities, often several bottle-glass, but under the microscope hundreds of miles distant. pieces of the original rock may be de- The great volcano named Vesuvius, tected. On the surface of the lake, the lava is cooled more or less by the escape of steam and by the wind, and a sort of fine slag is formed; this is pumice-stone; was a deep circular valley filled with vines and when the lava is ejected the pumice- and grass, and surrounded by high precistone becomes red-hot and is cast up in pices. A large population lived on the vast quantities. Thus, when the volcano Tomboro, in the Eastern Sea, was in eruption in 1815, the first notice of it was a number of explosions, which were heard at Sumatra, nearly one thousand miles off in a straight line. which is now so constantly in eruption, was described by the ancients as a coneshaped mountain with a flat top, on which sides of the mountain, which was covered with beautiful woods, and there were fine flourishing cities at its foot.

So little was the terrible nature of the valley on the top understood that in the year 72, Spartacus, a Roman rebel, en- Three distinct columns of flame were camped there with some thousands of seen to rise from the mountain to a vast fighting men, and the Roman soldiers height, and its whole surface soon ap- were let down the precipices in order to peared as if covered with fiery lava surprise and capture them. There had streams. The flames were really vast been earthquakes around the mountain, masses of the pumice or scoriæ shooting and one of the cities had been nearly deup into the air, and they fell for miles stroyed; but no one was prepared for around. The pumice and the powder of what occurred seven years after the defeat it were in such quantities that they dark- of Spartacus. Suddenly a terrific rush of smoke, steam and fire belched from the down-pour of ashes, were gradually filled mountain's summit; one side of this up with a flood of water, sand and ashes, treacherous valley was blown off, and its which came down the side of the volcano, rocks, with vast quantities of ashes, burn- and finally were covered up entirely. ing stones and sand, were ejected far into In succeeding eruptions much lava was the sky. They then spread out like a vast poured out; and in the year 472 ashes pall, and fell far and wide. were cast forth over a great part of For eight days and nights this went on, Europe, so that much fear was caused at and the enormous quantity of steam sent Constantinople. The cities were more up, together with the deluge of rain that and more covered up, and were only dis-