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^Morris's Story of the=
Great Earthquake of 1908

AND OTHER HISTORIC DISASTERS
EMBRACING TWO BOOKS IN ONE VOLUME

BOOK I.

CONTAINS A COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ACCOUNT
OF THE GREAT ITALIAN AND SICILIAN EARTH-
QUAKE AND TIDAL WAVE OF 1 DOS, one of the most
fearful disasters nature ever visited upon the human race,
in which more lives were lost, in a few ill-fated minutes,
than Russia lost in battle during her war with Japan.
A compendium of thrilling accounts given by eye-
witnesses who escaped death, and those engaged in the
noble work of relief, the whole being a picture of tragic
pathos, before which civilization stands in fascinated awe.
Pompeii of old, and San Francisco's great disaster pale
into insignificance beside its frightful loss of life.

BOOK II.

INCLUDES A GRAPHIC STORY OF ALL GREAT
EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN
THE WORLD'S HISTORY, TOGETHER WITH SCIEN-
TIFIC EXPLANATIONS OF THEIR CAUSES.

-EDITED B Y—

CHARLES MORRIS

The well-known Historian, Encyclopedist and Scientist. Author of "An Historical
Review of Civilization;" "The Greater Republic;" "Decisive Events in American
History;" "Man and His Ancestors;" "The Volcano's Deadly Work ;" "The San Fran-
cisco Calamity;" "Half-Hours with Best American Authors;" Associate Editor on
Encyclopedias, etc., etc. Member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Natural Sciences
and the Geographical Society of Philadelphia.

NEARLY 100 ILLUSTRATIONS

MADE ESPECIALLY FOR THIS WORK, SHOWING THE HAVOC
CAUSED BY FIRE, EARTHQUAKE AND VOLCANIC CONVULSIONS

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PREFACE

TACITUS relates how the palaces and noble residences of the
beautiful and ancient city of Pompeii were buried in ashes
fathoms deep when Vesuvius awoke in its wrath ; and sacred
history reveals the fate of the doomed Cities of the Plain when a
rain of fire and brimstone poured down upon their spires and
domes. No record of the past comes to us in more appalling form
than these stories of sudden ruin and terrible slaughter by the
elemental powers of the underworld. But once again, in our own
days, these powers have awakened, and death and destruction
have visited ancient and famous Messina, the noble city of the
Straits and of Sunny Sicily.

Dreadful is the work that follows the clashing of sinking seas
with the lakes of liquid fire pent up in the earth. Rack and ruin
attend their meeting, and the dense solid shell of the earth is rent
asunder by their might. It is to the battle of fire and water in the
depths of the rocks that the volcano and the earthquake are due, and
when these demons of the depths are at war man's puny strength
is as powerless as that of the leaf before the cyclone. Then terror
comes ; then the earth trembles to its heart and is rent in twain ; then
the ashes of a terrible burning are cast forth to bury fertile plains
and flourishing cities; then showers of burning rocks bombard the
air and rivers of glowing lava scorch the earth, and human hopes
and the results of man's labor are whelmed alike beneath the dread
torrent of death and dismay.

8 PREFACE

Earthquake and famine, fire and sudden death — these are the
destroyers that men fear when they come singly ; how much worse is
it when they come together, as they did upon the stricken people of
Sicily and Calabria in the recent terrible catastrophe, a hideous
quartette whose mission was the death or torment of human beings,
the destruction in a moment's time of the wealth they had gathered
in years of patient effort. It is the purpose of this book to make a
faithful record of the story of that awful hour of ruin when years
seemed lived in a minute, and to preserve an accurate chronicle of
its events, alike for the people whose hearts throb in sympathy to-day
and for the benefit of their posterity.

Other frightful cataclysms the world has known. The earth-
quake which dropped the greater part of the city of Lisbon into the
sea in 1755, and in a moment swallowed up twenty-five thousand of
its people; the convulsion which rent Krakatoa Island asunder in
1883, and poured on the coast of Java a tidal wave in which thirty-
six thousand human beings perished ; the whirlwind of fire which in
1902 overwhelmed St. Pierre in Martinique, with its thirty thou-
sand inhabitants; the earthquake which in 1906 ruined in a moment
of time the thronged city of San Francisco, are all significant
examples. The earth we live upon is never safe beneath our feet.
It may quake and lift into billows at a moment's notice ; it may pour
forth volumes of fire from the molten lakes which lie in its depths :
heedless as we are of all this we are never for a moment safe from
some such convulsion of nature.

In view of all this, it has been deemed desirable to make this
work a history of disasters of the character named : to gather within
its pages a record of all the great convulsions of nature which
history records; to recount the theories of the causes of earth-

PREFACE g

quake and volcanic action ; to describe the geyser, the mud volcano,
and all the minor outbreaks of the earth's internal forces. In this
way its value will be very greatly added to, as within its pages
readers will have a sufficient chronicle of all the famous historic
disasters due to these causes.

When the weakness and the folly and the sin of men bring woe
upon other men, there are plenty of texts for the preacher and no
scarcity of earnest preachers. But here is a vast and awful catas-
trophe that befell from an act of Nature apparently not more extra-
ordinary than the shrinkage of hot metal in the process of cooling.
The consequences are terrifying in this case because they involve
the habitations of half a million people; no doubt, the process
goes on somewhere within the earth almost continuously, and it
no more involves the theory of malignant Nature than that of an
angry God.

If we contemplate it, possibly we may be helped to a profitable
estimate of our own relative insignificance. We think, with some
notion of our importance, of the thousand million men who live
upon the earth; but they are a mere handful of animate atoms in
comparison with the surface, to say nothing of the solid contents,
of the globe itself.

We are fond of boasting in this latter day of man's marvelous
success in subduing the forces of Nature ; and, while we are in the
midst of exultation over our victories, Nature tumbles the rocks
about somewhere within the bowels of the earth, and we have to
learn the old lesson that our triumphs have not penetrated farther
than to the very outermost rim of the realm of Nature.

A few weak, almost helpless, creatures, we millions of men
stand upon the deck of a great ship, which goes rolling through

io PREFACE

space that is itself incomprehensible, and usually we are so busy
with our paltry ambitions, our transgressions, our righteous labors,
our prides and hopes and entanglements that we forget where we
are and what is our destiny. A direct interposition from a Superior
Power, even if it be hurtful to the body, might be required to
persuade us to stop and consider and take anew our bearings, so
that we may comprehend in some large degree our precise relations
to things. The wisest men have been the most ready to recognize
the beneficence of the discipline of affliction. If there were no
sorrow, we should be likely to find the school of life unprofitable.

For one thing, the school wherein sorrow is a part of the
discipline is that in which is developed human sympathy, one
of the finest and most ennobling manifestations of the Love which
is, in its essence, divine. In human life there is much that is ignoble,
and the race has almost contemptible weakness and insignificance
in comparison with the physical forces of the universe.

But man is superior to all these forces in his possession of the
power of affection; and in almost the lowest and basest of the race
this power, if latent and half lost, may be found and evoked by the
spectacle of the suffering of a fellow-creature.

The human family looks on with pity while the homeless and
hungry and impoverished Sicilians endure pangs. Wherever the
news went, by the swift processes of electricity, there men and
women, some of them, perhaps, hardly knowing where Messina is,
were sorry and willing and eager to help. There are quarrels within
the family sometimes, when nation wars with nation, and all love
seems to have vanished; but the world is, in truth, akin. "God
hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth," and the blood
"tells" when suffering comes.

THE PUBLISHERS.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

THE BOOT OF ITALY AND BEAUTIFUL SICILY. THE GARDEN
SPOT OF THE MEDITERRANEAN 17

CHAPTER II.

GREEK MYTHOLOGY AND THE VOLCANOES OF SICILY.
ETNA AND STROMBOLI, VULCAN'S FIERY WORKSHOPS 31

CHAPTER III.

THE HISTORIC CITIES OF SICILY. THEIR SETTLEMENT BY
THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND CARTHAGINIANS, AND
THEIR LATER ANNALS 41

CHAPTER IV.

THE STORY OF MESSINA AND REGGIO, THE DOOMED
CITIES OF THE STRAITS 56

CHAPTER V.

THE FRIGHTFUL EARTHQUAKE OF 1908 AND ITS SUR-
PASSING HORRORS 68

CHAPTER VI.

THE GIGANTIC TIDAL-WAVE AND ITS SWEEPING DE-
STRUCTION 79

CHAPTER VII.

THE HARVEST OF THE FIRE-DEMON AND ROBBERS OF
THE VICTIMS 84

i a TABLE OF ^CONTENTS

CHAPTER VIII.
THE PANIC FLIGHT OF A HOMELESS HOST 89

CHAPTER IX.
A WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES 94

CHAPTER X.

ITALY'S KING AND QUEEN HASTEN TO THE SCENE OF
DESOLATION 109

CHAPTER XL

THE BURIED THOUSANDS AND THE NOBLE BAND OF
RESCUERS 115

CHAPTER XII.

WORLD-WIDE SYMPATHY AND THE UNIVERSAL BROTHER-
HOOD OF MAN 120

CHAPTER XIII.

THE RED CROSS SOCIETY, THE LIGHTHOUSE OF INTER-
NATIONAL CHARITY, SENDS ITS BENEFICENT AID .... 125

CHAPTER XIV.
THE SUMMING UP AFTER THE GREAT CATASTROPHE . 130

BOOK II.

The History and Causes of .Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Other

Seismic Phenomena.-

CHAPTER XV.

FAMOUS EARTHQUAKES OF ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL
TIMES 139

CHAPTER XVI.
THE GREAT LISBON AND CALABRIAN EARTHQUAKES 149

TABLE OF CONTENTS 13

CHAPTER XVII.
EARTHQUAKES IN THE NEW WORLD PRIOR TO 1900 ........ 159

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALAMITY AND OTHER EARTH-
QUAKES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ................. 168

CHAPTER XIX.

THE VOLCANO AND THE EARTHQUAKE, EARTH'S DEMONS
OF DESTRUCTION .............. .......................... 204

CHAPTER XX.
THEORIES OF VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION

CHAPTER XXI.

THE ACTIVE VOLCANOES OF THE EARTH ................... 235

CHAPTER XXII.

THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS AND THE DESTRUCTION OF
POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM ............... ............ 247

CHAPTER XXIII.
ERUPTIONS OF VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI ......... 266

CHAPTER XXIV.
VESUVIUS DEVASTATES THE REGION OF NAPLES ......... 288

CHAPTER XXV.

SKAPTER JOKULL AND HECLA, THE GREAT ICELANDIC
VOLCANOES ................. .............................. 307

CHAPTER XXVI.

VOLCANOES OF THE PHILIPPINES AND OTHER PACIFIC
ISLANDS ......................................... .......... 315

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS AND KILAUEA'S

LAKE OF FIRE ............. .. ............................. 334

i4 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXVIII.

POPOCATEPETL AND OTHER VOLCANOES OF MEXICO AND
CENTRAL AMERICA 351

CHAPTER XXIX.
THE TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA 359

CHAPTER XXX.
ST. VINCENT ISLAND AND MONT SOUFRIERE IN 1812 377

CHAPTER XXXI.
MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH IN 1902 388

CHAPTER XXXII.

SUBMARINE VOLCANOES AND THEIR WORK OF ISLAND-
BUILDING 423

CHAPTER XXXIII.
MUD VOLCANOES, GEYSERS AND HOT SPRINGS 433

BOOK I.

An Account of

The Great Earthquake of 1908

The Destruction of the Cities of Reggio

and Messina and Scores of Towns;

and the Laying Waste of Vast

Sections of Country in

Italy and Sicily

A CALAMITY COLOSSAL WITHOUT A PRECEDENT

100 TIMES AS MANY LIVES LOST
AS IN SAN FRANCISCO'S

EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE of 1906
150,000 to 300,000 Dead

1,000,000 Injured and Homeless

Half a Hundred

Towns, Cities

and Villages

Partly Destroyed

The Garden Spot of

the Mediterranean

Laid Waste

THE SCENE OF NATURE'S MOST AWFUL DISASTER
(December 28, 1008)

CHAPTER I.

The Boot of Italy and Beautiful Sicily. The Gar-
den Spot of the Mediterranean: Its Tradition,
History, Geography, and Scenic Attraction.

MIDWAY in the greatest of inland seas, the famous Mediter-
ranean, lies the splendid island of Sicily, the greatest in
geographical and historical position in that great body of
water. At one time, as science and tradition tell us, it formed a
connecting link between Europe and Africa, a great natural roadway
between the two continents, dividing the Mediterranean into two
vast lakes or inland seas, one of the east and one of the west.

Geological research makes it evident that Sicily at one time
extended southwestward and joined the coast of Africa, and legend
advises us that its northeast coast closed the present Strait of
Messina, making the island an extension of the long peninsula of
Italyr It was touched, in fact, by the toe of that singular boot-like
projection which gives the south of Italy the appearance of taking
a step forward into the sea, a step which would bring it in touch with
the rock-rjbbed coast of Sicily. The Strait, indeed, is only two miles
wide in its narrowest section, and a giant foot might almost step
from mainland to island in a single stride.

Triangular in shape, Sicily has an area of 9,860 square miles,
identical with that of our state of Maryland. Its surface is elevated,
most of it standing more than 500 feet above sea level, while in many

(17)

places it is mountainous. Its loftiest elevation is that of the great
volcano of Mount Etna, which rises with an exceedingly gentle
slope from a base of 400 square miles in area to a height of 10,860
feet above sea level. In dark and never ending threat this huge
smoking and flaming mass towers above the east coast of the island,
at times pouring rivers of glowing lava down its rugged sides
while the earth quakes in responsive sympathy; levelling like ant-
hills the proudest erections of man upon its surface. Greatest and
most phenomenal of all these disasters was that of the 28th of De-
cember, 1908, whose death-roll was one of the highest ever known in
the earth's record of similar convulsions of nature. A full account
of this frightful cataclysm is reserved for a later chapter of our work,
it seeming a more satisfactory and artistic presentation of our sub-
ject to lay before the reader the scenic surroundings before dealing
with the great event which gives them such striking importance.

THE ISLAND OF SICILY.

The island of Sicily of old was given the poetical name of
Trinacria, arising from its triangular shape, and referring to its
three promontories of Pelorum (now Faro) in the northeast, Pachy-
num (now Passaro) in the southeast and Lilybaeum (now Boeo)
in the west. It occupies a part of the Mediterranean so shallow as
to indicate that it was once above water, dividing the sea into two
basins. The water between Sicily and Cape Bon in Tunis, is now,
except for a very short interval, less than 100 fathoms in depth.
The very narrow Straits of Messina, which separate it from Italy,
are much deeper, nearly everywhere exceeding 150 fathoms.

There are indications in the character of the rocks around this
strait that the island once formed part of the mainland, but was split

THE BOOT OF ITALY AND BEAUTIFUL SICILY 19

off from it at an ancient date. Afterward it seems to have been
joined again for a period, and Africa may also have been joined to
Sicily in a recent geological period, as is shown by the fossil bones
in Sicily of the African elephant, hippopotamus and hyena. But all
this was probably before man came upon the earth and inhabited
that island.

The north coast of Sicily is generally steep and has many good
harbors, of which that of Palermo is the best. In the east also
steep, rocky coasts prevail, except opposite the Plain of Catania, and
in the northern half of this coast the giant mass of Mount Etna
erects itself as a vast landmark, while its lava streams stand out for
a distance of about twenty miles in a line of bold cliffs and promon-
tories. In the west and south the coast is generally flat and less
favorable to shipping.

The tides here, as in the rest of the Mediterranean, are so slight
as to be scarcely observable, yet at several points in the west and
south coasts the water occasionally rises suddenly to the height of
three feet, and this is repeated at intervals of a minute sometimes
for a number of hours. The cause of this curious oscillation of the
water is not known.

The mountains of Sicily are chiefly in the north, their lower
slopes everywhere being cultivated and forming a continuous series
of olive groves and orange fields. The rest of the island is a plateau
of varied, elevation and to a great extent is devoted to the growth of
wheat. The only large plain in the island is that of Catania, immedi-
ately south of the foothills of Etna. It is watered by the Simeto
river.

THE SICILIAN CLIMATE.

Coming now to the question of climate, we find that Sicily has
the warm and equable temperature of most of the Mediterranean

20 THE BOOT OF ITALY AND BEAUTIFUL SICILY

region. The mean temperature of January is nearly as high as the
October temperature of southern England. Snow is rarely seen
on the coast, though on the higher peaks it lies till June and on Etna
till July. The rainfall is so low in the summer months that most
of the streams dry up in that season. In the winter it is often so
great as to make torrents of the streams.

While the summer climate is usually soft and salubrious, it
is not always so, the island being subject to a severe scourge in the
Sirocco, a hot, dry, strong and parching wind which comes from
the south, bringing with it leaden-colored and hazy skies, due to
immense quantities of reddish dust brought from the Sahara desert.
It lasts at times for three days, and while most frequent in April, no
month is quite free from it. The same name is given to a moist
and not very hot, but oppressive wind, which blows at times from
the southeast. The Sirocco is the one thing that renders Sicily an
unpleasant place of residence. Fortunately for the foreign residents
it rarely occurs in the winter, the season in which the island is most
attractive to these comfort-seeking birds of passage.

SICILIAN AGRICULTURE.

The flora of Sicily is remarkable for its wealth of species. It
being more densely populated than any other large island of the
Mediterranean and its people depending largely upon the products
of their soil, it is extensively cultivated, and many plants may be
seen in its fields which are not natives of the island. The olive,
which is widely grown for its oil, must have been introduced ages
ago, but the orange and lemon, the agave and the prickly pear, and
various other plants characteristic of the island scenery, have been
added during the Christian era.

THE BOOT OF ITALY AND BEAUTIFUL SICILY 21

There are three zones of vegetable life on the island ; that of the
orange family, which reaches to about 1 ,600 feet above sea-level ; that
of wheat and the vine, which ascends to about 3,300 feet; and that
of forest land, which extends above this level. The mountains of
Sicily are admirably adapted to foster a flourishing growth of culti-
vated trees in a climate of little rain during the warmer months.
Composed mostly of limestone, they act like so many great sponges,
the water sinking into and percolating through their innumerable
pores and fissures. Thus stored up in their interior, it wells forth
in springs at lower elevations, favoring the irrigation which is
absolutely necessary for the orange and lemon during the dry season.
Thus it is that all the higher lands in the north and northeast of the
island present an endless succession of orchards of the orange, citron
and lemon, together with groves of olives, almonds, pomegranates,
figs, carobs, pistachios, mulberries and grapes.

As an export crop the orange and lemon are especially import-
ant, and the Messina orange has a world-wide reputation. Since
the steamship era the commerce in these fruits has greatly increased,
and a striking feature in the commerce of the island is in the great
supply of its fruits which is sent to the United States. Even more
extensive than the cultivation of the orange and lemon is that of
the olive, but this is less for exportation than for home consumption.
This plant is grown to an elevation of about 2,700 feet, while that of
the vine, extends to some 800 feet higher. Among the plants
adapted to a dry climate are the date palm, the plantain, the bamboo,
and the dwarf palm, the latter growing in the greatest profusion in
parts of Sicily. In the desolate region of the southwest it is nearly
the only important vegetable product. Other plants which thrive on
the driest soil are the deep-rooted sumach, the agave, and the prickly

22 THE BOOT OF ITALY AND BEAUTIFUL SICILY

pear, the latter being a favorite article of diet. In the spring season
beans form the chief article of food.

If we now leave the region of the oak and fruit trees, which
form the chief element of the highland forests, and that of cultivated
trees, and descend to the open country, we find the soil very largely
devoted to the growth of wheat- At present — as was the case in the
days of the Greek colonies and the later ones of Roman supremacy —
Sicily is a rich granary, capable of feeding a large population.
Fully three-fourths of its cultivated surface are devoted to cereals,
especially to wheat, and it is this plant which gives character to the
Sicilian landscape through most of the year. In the plain of
Catania cotton is grown along with wheat, and the sugar cane and
tobacco are cultivated to some extent.

A singular fact in regard to the population of the island is that
the far reaching slopes of Mount Etna are far more densely peopled
than any other agricultural region of Sicily or of Italy. While the
mean population of the rest of Sicily is 88, and that of Italy 90,
to the square kilometre, that of Mount Etna numbers 450, forming
an abiding place of 300,000 of the Sicilian people, dwelling in two
cities and sixty-three villages. If we be asked the reason for this,
the answer will be that it is due to the great fertility given the soil
by the disintegrated lava. Here is an attraction to an agricultural
community that sets aside the threat of the fire-vomiting mountain,
and induces the peasantry to dare the peril of an occasional outpour
of destroying lava for the benefits which the lava-coated mass yields
them.

The island is in a very large degree an agricultural one, its one
other important industry being the mining of sulphur, the most
valuable mineral product of the island. There are about 300 mines

THE BOOT OF ITALY AND BEAUTIFUL SICILY 23

in operation, nearly all the sulphur being exported. Rock salt is
another mineral of some value, about 3,000 tons being excavated
yearly,.

THE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE.

Let us now say something of the people of the island and their
mode of life. In view of the fact that Sicily has been held at times
by the Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Saracens, the
Normans, the Spaniards, and other peoples, its population is neces-
sarily somewhat conglomerate. The Greek element prevails in the
east and the Arab in the west, while the dialect of the Lombards
survives in parts of the interior. Despite his poverty and his hard
labor, the wretched character of his home and his unpalatable food
— which consists of black bread, onions, beans, herbs, prickly pears,
bitter cheese and weak wine, with rarely a taste of meat — the
Sicilian is good humored and obliging, manly and independent.
The laborers, whose wages range from is. to 2s. a day, live in dirty,
one-roomed houses, which they share with their pigs and poultry,
with dilapidated tile roofs through which the smoke goes out and
the rain comes in; the bed, when possible, being sheltered with a
strip of matting. The craftsmen have as dirty houses, though these
have tiled floors and better furniture. As for the well-to-do inhabit-
ants of the island, they live in the cities, there being no country
gentlemen in Sicily, nor any houses for them. Even market-towns
are unknown, though at times fairs are held.

We have given the better side of the Sicilian peasantry; now
their worse side must be mentioned. The peasant is cunning and
deceitful, is very cruel to animals, and seems natively vindictive and
treacherous- Robberies and thefts are frequent, and for homicides

24 THE BOOT OF ITALY AND BEAUTIFUL SICILY

Sicily is one of the worst countries in Europe. Brigandage on a
large scale, formerly common, has been put down, though bands of
highwaymen still at times appear. The secret and law-defying
society of the Maffia continues to exist, though much reduced in
numbers and importance, and the vendetta is apt to take the place
of legal methods of punishment. This state of affairs is fostered by
the ignorance of the people, three-fourths of whom can neither read
nor write. Devout they are, in their way, but their religion con-
sists largely of superstition.

CALABRIA AND ITS PEOPLE.

Crossing now the Straits of Messina to the near by Italian
province of Calabria, the foot of the Italian boot, a district which,
near the Strait, severely felt the desolating effect of the earthquake,
we find ourselves among a people not unlike the Sicilians. Proud,
fiery and revengeful, they were long known as among the fiercest
of banditti, and were so warlike and courageous that they resisted the
armies of Napoleon until after all the rest of Italy had been subdued,
not being finally quelled until 1810.

Calabria has an area of 6,600 square miles, it being somewhat
larger than Sicily. Long and narrow, theAppenines form its back-
bone throughout, traversing its 160 miles of length; forests of oak,
beech, and chestnut clothing their sides, while pine crowns their
higher peaks. Calabria possesses only small streams, but these
give fertility to the valleys between the hills, which afford rich
pasture to the flocks and herds, and to the plains, the soil of which
is very rich.

Here grow wheat, rice, cotton, saffron, liquorice, sugar-cane,
and other useful plants, also such fruits as the orange, lemon, olive,

THE BOOT OF ITALY AND BEAUTIFUL SICILY 25

fig, and mulberry, while the tunny and anchovy fisheries of the coast
are of importance. The province is also well supplied with minerals,
including iron, tin, silver, lead, alabaster, marble, and graphite.

The warmth of the climate and the extreme fertility of the soil
are not conducive to progress among the people, and agriculture is
in a very rude and barbarous condition, the people, as may be sup-
posed from this, being ignorant and unenterprising.

SUNNY SICILY.

Passing from its material to its picturesque aspects, the Sicilian
isle is one of manifold attractions. It may well be called Sunny
Sicily, the sun shining for some three hundred days in the year, and
throwing a brilliance over land and water alike that makes this isle
a paradise for the artist and the lover of rich color and glowing
landscape effects.

The life of the Sicilian is one of endless warmth, brilliant sun-
shine, blue skies, lovely flowers, gleaming waters. The sea every-
where envelopes the island and shines like a mirror through most
of the year. All who visit that little isle at the toe of Italy find
themselves fettered by its charms. Goethe wrote of it long ago:
"Italy without Sicily leaves no image in the soul; here is the key of
all." And many to-day yield to the glamour which took the great
poet captive. Though so near Europe the vegetation of Sicily re-
sembles that of warmer climes, semi-tropic plants and fruits abound-
ing, while the soil yields two crops a year.

Everywhere in the northeast the giant bulk of Etna dominates
the scene. From Reggio, on the opposite coast of Calabria, the snow-
clad peak may be seen lifting its majestic head high above the fruit
trees on its slope and the blue waters at its feet. A traveller thus

26 THE BOOT OF ITALY AND BEAUTIFUL SICILY

gives the normal impression from this point : "The first view of the
volcano was enchanting. The day was glorious, and the bright
sunlight, the glistening snow, the clear blue-green water were all
like a dream." It is the same everywhere. The traveller quoted thus
speaks of Palermo, over the charm of whose bay many writers have
raved :

"The bay is a fine sweep, and Mount Pelligrino is a handsome
finish, but the bay is hardly as beautiful as Naples and the rock is
not so imposing as Gibraltar or Quebec. But the wonderful color-
charm prevalent in Sicily is manifest in Palermo; a certain quality
of atmosphere gives clearness and haze by turns, and each in turn
gains something more beautiful in tone than its predecessor. It is
verily an artist's paradise, a paint-box riddle. Then, of course, one
of its chief charms is the street life. Here again the artistic eye
revels — the side-alleys are a kaleidoscope of queer scenes."*

Everywhere and at all seasons scenic effects of this kind may be
looked for. In January, when snow and ice reign at the North, here
the flowers open, the perfume of blossoms is in the air, the island is
full of color and sweet smells. We might go on, lapsing into
ecstasies over the scenic beauty of this lovely Mediterranean isle,
but one more quotation from a sight-seer must suffice :

"There before us stood Sciacca straggling up the hill-side, grey
and white in the sunshine, with pretty-colored tiled domes. Below
was that turquoise-blue opalescent sea so often observed around
Sicily, and behind, on a steep, hilly summit, stood the monastery of
Monte San Cologero, rising 1,300 feet from the sea below. It
really was a wonderful panorama. The day was lovely, lights
sparkled on the white houses, while the dark cypress and grey olives,

* " Sunny'Sicily," by Mrs. Alice Tweedie.

THE BOOT OF ITALY AND BEAUTIFUL SICILY 27

the white almond blossom and blue-grey olive, made a perfect land-
scape, with goat-herds wandering along the roadside to add pictu-
resquesness to the scene."

ANIMAL LIFE IN SICILY.

Speaking of the goat-herds, we are led to say something about
the animal life of Sicily, and especially about the goat, that ubiquit-
ous tenant of hill and plain. The goat is to be seen everywhere.
No country can surpass Sicily, few equal it, in numbers of these
animals. We may see them by the thousands. Wherever we go
they intrude their forms as part of the landscape. They forage for
themselves, it costing next to nothing to keep them. Anything of
food character — bits of lemon or orange peal, strips of sea-weed,
straggling blades of grass — serve their turn. They are very fond
of the prickly pear, — when it is cut up for them, — it is too hard and
spiny for them to attack it when growing.

Whole herds of goats are owned by some, often a single one by
others. This is sent off in charge of a child every morning to
browse by the roadside and brought home at evening to be milked,
and often to sleep with the family. Butter, milk and cheese from
this animal are to be had anywhere, and even in the large cities the
goats are driven through the streets and their milk sold to any one
who comes with a vessel to receive it.

Cows are also driven through the streets for the same purpose,
their owner calling out that milk is for sale — though this is con-
sidered inferior to that of the goat. The cow heralds her approach
by a bell around her neck. These animals wear wooden collars, six
to eight inches wide, on which are painted quaint religious pictures.
Sheep are also raised in numbers, and may be seen daily following
the shepherds along the roads.

28 THE BOOT OF ITALY AND BEAUTIFUL SICILY

SICILY IN ITS HISTORIC ASPECT.

Sicily has long lain in the path of the conqueror and has for
ages been the prize of the most enterprising. The north coast looks
toward Italy and was overrun by the Romans; the southeast coast
faces Greece and became the prey of Greek wanderers ; the southwest
invited the Moors and Saracens from Tunis, and they occupied Sicily
for two centuries.

Going back to the remote times we are told of the fabulous
Cyclopes as the first inhabitants of the island. The earliest known
people there were the Sikans, and in the north were Sikels, a people
from Italy. Coming to distinctly historic times we find the sea-
going Phoenicians in the island, founding cities represented by the
modern Palermo and Solanto. But for the real settlers and civil-
izers of Sicily we must look to the Greeks, the founders of many
cities, such as Messina, Syracuse, Catania, Agrigentum, and vari-
ous others. These cities, long independent, in time fell under the
rule of ambitious individuals, of whom Gelon in 485 B. C. trans-
ferred the seat of government from Gela to Syracuse, which for
many centuries afterward was the chief city of the island.

Soon from Carthage, the great African seat of commerce, came
settlers of a new race, battling with the Greeks. Of early important
events were the battle of Himera, in which Gelon won a great victory
over Hamilcar of Carthage, and the fatal expedition of an Athenian
fleet to Syracuse in 415 B. C., which led to the fall of Athens as the
great power in Greece.

The next events of interest were the invasion of Sicily by the
first Hannibal, who destroyed various cities and founded Lilybaeum ;
and the reign of Dionysius the Tyrant (405-36? B. C.), who fought
Carthage in four wars, defeated her armies, and invaded Italy.

8.B

THE BOOT OF ITALY AND BEAUTIFUL SICILY 29

This struggle between the Greeks and the Carthaginians continued
until Rome came into the field as the great enemy of Carthage, the
wars of these two great cities beginning on the soil of Sicily. The
Roman invasion ended in 210 B. C, the whole island then becoming
a province of Rome, and remaining so for centuries afterward.

When the Roman Empire fell, the Vandals, under Genseric,
were the first of the barbarian hordes to invade and occupy the
island (440 A. D.). In 535 it was taken by Belisarius, an able
general of the Eastern Empire, and remained under the sole rule of
Constantinople until 827 A. D., when the Saracens of northern
Africa made their first invasion. For more than a century their
work of conquest continued. Syracuse was taken by them in 877,
and the last stronghold, Rametta, in 965, and for nearly a hundred
years later no one questioned their dominion.

In 1038 the emperor at Constantinople sent George Maniakes,
with an army in which were many Normans, to attempt the recon-
quest of Sicily. Various towns were taken, the Normans came to
the front in the conflict, and at length the whole island fell into their
hands, Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger ruling in 1090. A
second Roger, son of the first, was crowned in 1130 as the first king
of Sicily, and proved himself a great monarch. Christianity was
introduced by him, and for many years he ruled wisely and well.

The crown fell to the German emperor, Henry VI, in 1 194, and
in 1 197 to his son Frederick II. , who ruled the whole empire from his
throne in Sicily. In 1264, Charles, Count of Anjou, was made
king, and Sicily fell under French control. It was handled in a
manner that exasperated the Sicilians, and in 1282 they revolted in
the bloody "Sicilian Vespers," in which they massacred every French
man, woman and child in Palermo.

30 THE BOOT OF ITALY AND BEAUTIFUL SICILY

Other changes took place in Sicilian rule, Spain eventually
gaining control, and holding it for centuries. The last important
political event was when Garibaldi invaded the island in 1860, took
Palermo, and opened the way for Sicily to be added to the new king-
dom of Italy. There it is likely long to remain.

Nothing has been said above of the convulsions of nature to
which Sicily is subject, the occasional destructive explosions of
Mount Etna, and the more frequent ruinous earthquakes, of which
the island has had many terrible visitations. Chief among these
may be named the one which destroyed Catania in 1170, burying
15,000 of its inhabitants in the ruins, and that of 1693, which ruined
fifty-four towns and 300 villages, with the loss of more than 100,000
lives. To these must now be added the frightful one of 1908, the
ravages of which are fully described in the following chapters. It
is well to say here that the latter had a political significance in the
self-sacrificing devotion of the monarch of Italy to the sufferers of
Messina, which aided greatly in cementing the union between Italy
and Sicily, making it a union of hearts as well as of states, of sym-
pathetic feeling as well as of political expediency.

CHAPTER II.

Greek Mythology and the Volcanoes of Sicily
Etna and Stromboli, Vulcan's Fiery Workshops.

MYTHOLOGY has its place in the beautiful Sicilian isle as
in all the lands settled by men of the Grecian race. This
island early attracted the attention of the sea-wandering
Greeks, and they transferred to it many of the adventures of their
deities, especially the giant early ones, those of vast and brutal power.
We cannot deal with the island without some reference to this
feature of its traditional lore, and we do this in confidence that
readers will find something to attract them in the monstrous doings
of the mighty earl) gods.

The leading gods of Sicily are the gods of force, the deific
representatives of the tumultuous elemental powers. It was to the
vast power of Etna that the poets directed their attention, and in
their fancy this vast, flaming pile, with its earthquaking accom-
paniments, was a fitting prison-house for the giant Typhon or
Enceladus, the monstrous son of the Earth and Tartarus, of the
terrestrial and the demonic powers. A gristly monster was this huge
creature of the elements. A hundred dragons' heads whirled in
snaky threat from his vast frame, and he dared rebel against heaven
itself. In the mighty war that followed Zeus, the king of the gods,
overcame this monster rebel and imprisoned him under the mighty
bulk of Etna. Here he has ever since lain, if we may credit the

(ii)

32 GREEK MYTHOLOGY AND THE VOLCANOES OF SICILY

fables of the poets, groaning in his helpless fury until his roaring
voice pours in thunder from the crater's mouth. When he breathes
his fiery breath forms the flames of the volcanic terror. And more
terrible is he when he turns on his rocky couch, for then the whole
earth above him is lifted and desolating earthquakes rock the island.

Pindar, the famed Greek poet, speaks of him in his first Pythian
Ode, written when King Hiero of Sicily won in the chariot race of
474 B. C. Thus he sings of Typhon : "He is fast bound by a pillar
of the sky, even by snowy Etna, nursing the whole year's length
her dazzling snow. Whereout pure springs of unapproachable fire
are vomited from the inmost depths ; in the daytime the lava streams
pour forth a lurid rush of smoke, but in the darkness a red, rolling
flame sweepeth rocks with uproar to the wide, deep sea."

Etna is also famed as the home of another god, one of less
monstrous attributes, the Greek Hephaestus, known to us more
familiarly by his Roman name of Vulcan. This deity, one of the
court of the gods on Mount Olympus, was the "Tubal-cain" of
heathen mythology, the fire-god, the blacksmith of the deities. The
son of Zeus, he was flung from heaven by his great father in a
moment of rage and was lamed by his fall. This story of the fall
of fire doubtless represents the lightning flash in its descent from the
clouds to the earth. From this time we find Vulcan as a terrestrial
deity, the mighty blacksmith of the gods, setting up his great forge
in the profound depths of Etna, where the sound of his hammer is
still to be heard, as he forges the weapons of the gods.

While Etna is thus in mythology the prison of a chained giant
and the workshop of a swart and sooty god, there are other deific
beings who inhabit its depths. These are the Cyclopes, who worked
as slaves of Vulcan at his forge in the heart of the burning moun-

GREEK MYTHOLOGY AND THE VOLCANOES OF SICILY 33

tains, not only Etna, but also Stromboli and Lemnos, forging out
thunderbolts for Zeus or Jupiter. Sons of Uranus, and belonging
to the race of the Titans, their father, in dread of their enormous
strength, confined them in the centre of the earth, but in the wars
between the gods and the Titans, Zeus set them free and furnished
them with thunderbolts to aid him in the mighty struggle. Their
names, Brontes, Steropes, and Arges, indicate the noise and flash of
a volcanic eruption.

Homer gives us another legend of the Cyclopes, also connected
with Sicily. In the "Odyssey" we find them as a wild and impish
race of giants, dwelling on the sea coast of that island; while
Hesiod tells us that they were one-eyed, having a single eye in the
middle of the forehead. It was with Polyphemus, the most celebrated
of this giant race, that Ulysses had his famous adventure. When he
landed in Sicily, he found this huge giant dwelling in a cave, which
he entered with twelve of his companions. Polyphemus seized six
of these wanderers and consumed them at a single meal. Fearing
for himself and the other six the shrewd Greek placated the giant,
induced him to drink wine until he fell into a drunken slumber, then
bored out his one eye with a burning pole and, escaping with the aid
of a cunning device from his cave, he took to his ships, which barely
escaped from the huge rocks which the blind and raging giant flung
after the Greeks in their flight.

There is a natural origin for this mythological story. It is
supposed that the Cyclopes may represent the many small craters
on the slopes of Etna, their single eye being the single fiery vent of
the crater, while the stones which Polyphemus hurled after the flee-
ing Greeks were probably those vomited forth by the volcano itself.

The famous voyage of Ulysses — the Odysseus of Greek legend

34 GREEK MYTHOLOGY AND THE VOLCANOES OF SICILY,

— as set forth in Homer's noble epic poem, the "Odyssey," has much
to do with Sicily, and its stories of that island are of so much mytho-
logical interest that we feel impelled to add to the tale of the Cyclopes
that of the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis, especially as these had
their abiding place in the immediate vicinity of the recently wrecked
Messina.

These sea perils remain to-day, but shorn of their early terrors.
To our sober geographers they are two "races" or rapids in the
Straits of Messina, arising from the flow of opposing currents
through the narrow channel, Scylla being the one near the Italian,
Charybdis that near the Sicilian coast. The dangers of these
"races" have been greatly exaggerated. In old times, when small,
open vessels preceded the ships of modern times, they were so greatly
feared by seamen as to be converted by the poets into two frightful
monsters, and to give rise to the proverbial "To shun Charybdis and
fall into Scylla." With this needful preliminary, we will proceed
with Homer's story of the adventures of Ulysses.

In the poetic version, Scylla and Charybdis were two sea-mon-
sters of frightful mien, dwelling on the opposite sides of the narrow
strait, and taking deadly toll from every seaman's craft that passed.
Scylla was a horrid creature, with twelve feet and six long necks
and mouths, capable of reaching far out and down from the rock-
cave in which she dwelt. In each mouth were three rows of sharp
teeth, and while awaiting her prey she barked like a dog. Charybdis
dwelt on the other side, under a cliff on which grew a single, pro-
truding fig tree. Thrice each day she sucked the waters of the sea
down into her capacious maw and thrice threw them up again —
this being the poets' picture of a whirlpool.

The rock of Scylla was fabled to be a sharp peak, so high that

GREEK MYTHOLOGY AND THE VOLCANOES VF SICILY 35

its head was lost in the clouds, its surface so smooth and polished
that no one could climb it, even if possessed of twenty feet. In its
mid-height, beyond the utmost arrow flight, lay the cave of Scylla,
from which she barked with hideous voice and stretched out her
heads in search of prey. So fierce and bold were these savages of
the deep that Neptune himself could not save mariners from their
assaults. When Ulysses found it necessary to pass the straits,
Circe, the magic sorceress, advised him to hug the shore on Scylla's
side and dare her fury rather than to have ship and crew sucked into
the yawning jaws of the opposite monster.

Ulysses twice passed through the perils of the strait, once with
his vessel and crew, the second time floating back on the wrecked
timbers of his craft. On the first passage Scylla reached down her
long necks and seized six of the seamen, one in each dreadful mouth.
On his return, a lone passenger on the floating hull of his vessel, he
was carried past Charybdis, who sucked in the waters and their float-
ing freight, Ulysses saving himself by seizing a bough of the fig
tree that grew above. Here he hung with his feet dangling in the
air until the monster vomited forth again the drunk-in sea, with its
floating raft. On this Ulysses let himself fall and was borne in
safety away.

This was not the only adventure of the wanderers in this region.
After passing Scylla they landed on the island Thrinacia (Sicily),
on which feed the sacred oxen of the sun. Some of these cattle were
killed and eaten by the famished Greeks. For this act of sacrilege
they were doomed never to see Greece again, their vessel was
wrecked, and Ulysses escaped alone by daring the perils of Charyb-
dis as above narrated.

Here, too, or in this vicinity, the Greek hero had his famous

36 GREEK MYTHOLOGY AND THE VOLCANOES OF SICILY

adventure with the Sirens. These mythical beings sang so sweetly
as to enchant all who heard them. They dwelt on an island near the
Italian coast, which may well have been one of those in the Sicilian
seas, and sat in a meadow near the shore, alluring with their voices
all who sailed past. He who listened to their song forgot his home
and all he held dear and remained with these enchanters until he
perished or became brutalized.

Ulysses, with his usual shrewdness, managed to hear their sweet
song and escape its fatal effect. Making his sailors plug up their
ears so that they could hear nothing, and forbidding them to pay any
heed to his gestures or demands, he bade them to tie him to the mast
of the ship. While passing the isle, the song of the Sirens allured
him as it had done many victims before, but his frantic gestures to
be freed had no effect upon the crew, and he escaped the wiles of the
singing enchantresses.

For another adventure of Ulysses we must seek the Lipari or
Aeolian Islands, north of Sicily in its Messinian quarter. Here are
the ever-burning Stromboli and the burned-out Vulcano. Of old
there was more than this, if we may credit Homer, for here dwelt
Aeolus, the god or ruler of the winds. Some of the old writers
place his home in Stromboli, others in Lipari, while still others find
him a place of residence in Rhegium, Italy — now the earthquake
ruined Reggio.

This deity, the son of one of the gods, had all the winds in his
care, confining them in a vast cavern. In the "Odyssey" he is
spoken of as the king of the Aeolian Islands, to whom Jupiter had
given the care of the winds, to let them out or confine them at his
will. Friendly to Ulysses, he gave the wandering hero all the
adverse winds tied up in a bag, leaving loose only the favoring

GREEK MYTHOLOGY AND THE VOLCANOES OP SICILY 37

breezes. Of course, as happens in all such cases, meddlers opened
the bag and the storm winds got abroad.

For a vivid description of the country of the winds, and of their
prison, constructed of high mountains, whence they could issue only
on the permission of Aeolus, we may quote the following passage
from Virgil's Aeneid," as translated by Corrington.

"Here Aeolus, in cavern vast,
With bolt and barrier fetters fast
Rebellious storm and howling blast.
They with the rocks' reverberant roar
Chafe blustering round their prison door;
He, throned on high, the sceptre sways,
Controls their moods, their wrath allays.
Break but that sceptre, sea and land,

And heaven's etherial deep,
Before them-they would whirl like sand,

And through the void air sweep."

It may seem to our readers that Ulysses had most of his adven-
tures in or about Sicily. He certainly did find that island and its
vicinity strangely inhabited. Since his day the one-eyed Cyclopes,
the man-eating monsters of the Strait, Aeolus the wind god, the
alluring Sirens, and all that mythical crew, have vanished, and with
them the Lotophagi or lotus-eaters. These, it is true, probably made
their home on the coast of Africa, though Homer's account might
apply to Sicily. Ulysses visited them with his companions, who
found the sweetness of the lotus fruit as enchanting as the song of
the Sirens, those who ate of it losing all desire to return home and
even forgetting that they had any other home. This feeling of

38 GREEK MYTHOLOGY AND THE VOLCANOES OF SICILY

happy and listless content has been beautifully delineated in Tenny-
son's poem, "The Lotus Eaters." As usual, Ulysses escaped the
charm.

There are other myths connected with Sicily, besides those given
by Homer, an interesting one being that of the loves of Acis and
Galatea. Acis was a son of Faunus, the Roman god of fields and
shepherds. A handsome youth, he loved the nymph Galatea, who
returned his love, and in so doing awakened the jealousy of another
lover, the huge Polyphemus. Furious with rage at his rival, the
one-eyed Cyclop crushed the lover with a huge rock. From under
this flowed his blood, which was changed by the nymph into the
river which bore his name ; now known as Fiume di Jaci.

We now come to the most interesting and famous of the myths
connected with Sicily, that of the goddess Ceres and her daughter
Proserpine — the Demeter or Persephone of the Greeks. The
Greeks placed the scene of this myth irf the Nysian plain, in Asia, but
the Latin poets made Enna, in Sicily, the scene of the abduction of
the maiden goddess. This beautiful maiden was the daughter of
Jupiter and Ceres, the latter the earth goddess, the patroness of
agriculture and fruits.

The myth runs as follows: While Proserpine, with her girl
companions, was gathering flowers in the meadows of Enna, she was
attracted by a splendid flower, which bloomed magically before her.
Stooping to pluck it, the earth opened and, drawn by immortal steeds,
Pluto, the dark god of the nether world, rose from the yawning
chasm. Seizing the terrified girl, who called in vain on her father
for aid, he bore her in his golden chariot to the gloomy realm over
which he reigned.

In distraction at the loss of her daughter, Ceres sought foer with

CREEK MYTHOLOGY AND THE VOLCANOES OF SICILY 39

blazing torches in all parts of the world and in her passionate search
for her daughter lighted the fires of Etna. Fnally Helios, the god of
the sun, told the tale of the abduction to the distracted mother, and
Ceres, burning with anger, left the abode of the gods upon Olympus
and descended to dwell among men. She also withdrew her bounty
from the soil and the crops withered, the fruits shrunk, and men were
threatened with famine. To bring back fruitfulness to the earth
Jupiter sent his messenger to Pluto's realm with orders to the latter
to restore the abducted daughter of Ceres.

Before letting her go, Pluto induced her to eat part of a pome-
granate with him, and this held a charm that compelled her to spend
a third of the year in her husband's gloomy realm, returning to her
mother for the remainder of the year. Later writers say that she
spent half of her time in Hades, the other half on earth. There can
be little doubt that this beautiful myth is a representation of the
revival of the earth in spring after the gloom of the winter. Its
appropriateness to our purpose lies in the fact that Enna in Sicily
is the scene of the story, as told by the Roman poets, and that Ceres
wandered over the Sicilian hills with her torch in the search for her
lost daughter.

To the early Greek mariners, Sicily lay in the remote regions of
the west, and became to them a region of such wonders as those
we have detailed. It was long to the Greeks what the Spanish
Main was to the rovers and buccaneers of a later date — a land for
piraticalincursion. The Sicels were slaveholders, and if we return
to the "Odyssey," we find the suitors of Penelope, the wife of Ulysses,
advising her son Telemachus to seize his undesirable guests and sell
them as slaves to the Sicels, who would pay a good price for them.
Among these guests was his own father in disguise. All readers of

40 GREEK MYTHOLOGY AND THE VOLCANOES OF SICILY

the "Odyssey" will know the prompt and effective way in which
Ulysses retaliated on the suitors, who had taken advantage of his
long absence to annoy his wife with their claims for her hand. As the
story goes, the faithful Penelope evaded their importunate demands
by promising to accept one of them when she had finished a shroud
for the aged Laertes, the father of Ulysses. By ravelling out at
night what she had woven by day, she managed to postpone her
answer until the return of the wanderer.

It will appear from the above narration that Sicily was as much
a home for the creations of mythology as Greece itself, and especially
for its darker and more terrible forms. These the imagination of
the poets wove into a network of horrors which seem strangely out of
consonance with the Sicily of to-day, but which doubtless had their
origin in the terrific outbursts of its fiery mountain, its earthquaking
tremors, and the difficulty and danger of navigating the Straits
of Messina by the small craft of that early age.

MESSINA'S SHATTERED TENEMENTS.

This is one of the poorer tenement houses after the earthquake and tidal
wart. The wall* wtre stripped from this row of kovsos.

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SEARCHING RUINED HOMES AT MESSINA.

A guard stands in the foreground, while his fellow-soldiers are trying to
locate possible survivors who may be buried among the debris.

CHAPTER III.

The Historic Cities of Sicily. Their Settlement by

the Ancient Greeks and Carthaginians

and Their Later Annals.

FAMOUS cities dot the coast of Sicily, some of them being
among the most ancient of cities, coming down to us from that
remote and largely legendary time when Greece was just
making its young force felt in distant realms, and Carthage, the
greatest of the colonies of old Tyre, was winning the rank of the
greatest of commercial cities, the mistress of the Mediterranean,
Most renowned in history of these cities is Syracuse, now shrunk in
population to some 32,000, yet once playing a large part in the
world's annals. Equally ancient, and now more important, is Mes-
sina, the chief seat of the great disaster with which we are here
specially concerned. This city, with its 150,000 population, is of
the same size as Catania, but is largely exceeded by the great mart
of Palermo, with a population of 310,000. Messina, as the centre
of present interest, will be dealt with specially in the next chapter,
yet some description of the other leading cities will be of interest
and importance in this place,.

Syracuse, the chief Greek city of ancient Sicily, had a checkered
career of conquest, reconquest, growth, importance, and decay, and
in one of its sieges was directly concerned with one of the chief
events of ancient Greece, the fall of Athens from its proud supremacy

(40

4* THE HISTORIC CITIES OF SICILY

among the Greek cities. It was one of the earliest Greek settlements
upon the island. There are various legends about its origin, but it
is held as certain that it was founded about the year 735 B. C, by
Archias of Corinth, as part of a joint enterprise with Corcyra. He
found, however, a Phoenician settlement already there.

The first settlement was made on a small island called Ortygia,
separated from the coast by a very narrow channel. It is a fact of
some interest that Syracuse, after its 2000 years of existence, during
which it spread to great size and importance, is to-day confined to
its original site on the island of Ortygia, with about two and a half
miles of circumference. A bridge formerly crossed the narrow
channel between mainland and island, and this has now given way
to a road, or rather a passage too wide for a road, the Plemmyrium of
ancient times. Ortygia, therefore, is no longer an island, but a
peninsula.

Of the early history of Syracuse we know very little, but after
the beginning of the fifth century B. C. it grew rapidly into impor-
tance. Under the rule of Gelon, famous for his victory over the
Carthaginians, it spread to the mainland, Ortygia remaining the
inner city, the stronghold of the ruler. In those days the island was
too small to contain the whole population, and the great tombs, the
Greek theatre, the Roman amphitheatre, and other structures of
importance were built on the mainland.

The victory spoken of, that of Himera in 480 B. C., put an end
to Carthaginian supremacy, and the great era of Greek sway in
Sicily began. Gradually three populous quarters were added to
the city, which became one of the great cities of ancient days, its
public edifices including a temple of Zeus Olympias, a splendid
statue of Sappho, the Greek poetess, and fine monuments to Tim-
oleon and Dionysius.

THE HISTORIC CITIES OF SICILY 43

Hiero, who succeeded Gelon, did much to foster art and civiliza-
tion, and men of genius, such as the dramatist Aeschylus, the poet
Pindar, and others, dwelt for a time under his favoring rule. At a
later period Sicily enjoyed a free and democratic government, and
during this period the celebrated siege by the Athenians, above
alluded to, took place (415-414 B. C).

The story of this famous contest and its direful results is far
too long to be given here. It must suffice to say that a fierce assault
ended in a complete defeat of the Athenians and the closing of the
mouth of the harbor by a line of Syracuse ships, so as to prevent
the escape of the Greek fleet. A terrible engagement ensued, in
which the one hundred and ten Athenian ships remaining were
reduced to sixty, and the sailors, their spirit broken, refused to
attempt to cut their way through the Syracusan line and determined
to land and make their way through Sicily. It was a wretched and
hopeless expedient. The Athenian army, 40,000 in number, largely
destitute of provisions, and many of the men sick or wounded, were
destined to ill fate. Cut off in their march and surrounded by supe-
rior forces, they fought until, at the end of the sixth day, but 9,000 of
the 40,000 remained. Then came the surrender and the wretched
fate of these captives, who were treated with shameful inhumanity
by the Syracusan victors. Near the city were deep stone quarries
into which the greater part of the prisoners were lowered, and left
in that confined space, lying upon one another without the least
protection or convenience.

Escape was impossible, and for food each received daily a
ration of one pint of wheat bread and half a pint of water, not half
enough to save them from hunger and thirst, while they were daily
taunted with the gibes of the Syracusan populace, who looked down

44 THE HISTORIC CITIES OF SICILY

on them from above. Many of them speedily died, the captors not
taking the trouble to remove the decaying corpses. In this terrible
j)rison they remained for seventy days, when all were removed and
sold for slaves except the native Athenians and the few Italian and
Sicilian Greeks, who were left in the wretched hole. What became
of them in the end we are not told. As regards Athens, it was so
weakened by the loss of this large army of its best warriors and of
its large fleet, that it fell before the assault of Sparta and lost its
proud supremacy in Greece.

Nine years after this dire event the democratic government of
Sicily was overthrown by a tyrant named Dionysius, who ruled the
people with an iron hand, but during his forty years* reign added
greatly to the strength and importance of the city, surrounding it
with fortifications and constructing large docks. His war with
Carthage in 397 B. C, added greatly to the renown of the city.

The noblest of all the rulers of Sicily was Timoleon, a Greek
of Corinth, who went to that island in 344 B. C., to endeavor to
restore the liberty of the Greek cities and drive out the Carthagin-
ians. He landed, overthrew Hicetas, one of the tyrants, and in the
following year made himself master of Syracuse. Hicetas induced
Carthage to send a large army into the island, but Timoleon met
this force with 12,000 men, only one-seventh of its number, and
routed it completely, the gods — or the weather — aiding him by
driving a blinding storm of hail into the faces of the enemy. Timo-
leon afterward drove out all the tyrants and gave free government
to all the Greek cities on the island. Then, with a moderation that
has had few examples in history, he gave up all his power and
authority and settled as a private citizen in Syracuse, enjoying the
love and admiration of the whole Greek world until his death, six
years after his landing on the island.

THE HISTORIC CITIES OP SICILY 45

Twenty years later the despotism was restored by a successful
soldier and continued for more than a century, when Syracuse fell
a prey to the growing power of Rome. The story of the siege
(214-212 B. C) is famous for the aid given by the great mathema-
tician Archimedes in the defense of the city. During the siege by
the Romans this celebrated scientist and engineer almost wore out the
patience of Rome by his ingenuity in defense. He constructed a
number of great machines for destroying the Roman works and
ships, and the improbable story is told of his setting fire to the
Roman fleet by the aid of mirrors.

The dramatic part of his story is the following: When, at
length, the Romans took the city by surprise, their general was very
anxious to save the life of the great mathematician, whose renown
had spread throughout the civilized world. The tradition relates
that when the Romans rushed in Archimedes, heedless of danger,
was seated in the public square in deep thought, a series of geomet-
rical figures being drawn around him in the sand. Seeing a Roman
soldier rushing upon him, sword in hand, he called out to him not
to spoil the circle. But the rude soldier cut him down.

Such is the early history of Syracuse. Under the Roman rule
its importance fell away and it slowly declined, though its handsome
public building and its artistic and intellectual culture made it for
centuries still the foremost city of Sicily. Its fate came in 878
A. D., when the Saracens, who had invaded the island, captured
this great city, which they pillaged and burned, leaving it a mass
of ruins. From this misfortune it never recovered, sinking into
complete decay. To-day it is a slow, sleepy, ugly and dirty town,
without even the attraction of a picturesque situation, and with little
trace of its ancient glory, beyond its Greek theatre, which is the

46 THE HISTORIC CITIES OF SICILY

largest and most important in Sicily, and some other relics of its
storied past. No one entering it to-day would dream that it had
ever been, as Cicero describes it, "the largest of Greek and the most
beautiful of all cities."

A feature of the past which still remains is the famous fountain
of Arethusa, which, though lying within a few feet of the sea-shore,
long gave forth the purest and sweetest of waters. This is no longer
the case, for an earthquake destroyed its purity and the water is
now brackish. Yet about this fountain centres a pretty mytho-
logical legend, which is well worth telling. Thus it runs :

There was a river god Alpheus, the deity of the Alpheus river,
the chief stream of Peloponnesus. In its waters bathed the nymph
Arethusa, and was seen by the god of the stream, who loved and
wooed her so ardently, that she, who did not return his love, sought
desperately to escape his pursuit. In her extremity she prayed to
Artemis, who changed her into a fountain, and opened a passage
for her under the sea to the Sicilian isle of Ortygia. The river
pursued her, without mingling its waters with the sea, and came to
the surface again in the spring which bubbles up by the island shore,
close to the fountain of Arethusa.

Much space. has here been given to Syracuse, not from any
importance which it now possesses, but from its greatness in the past,
when it was the capital of the monarchs of Sicily, its history being
largely that of the island. It was a favorite place of residence or
visit for some of the famous Greek writers, such as Aeschylus and
Pindar, above named, and also Plato, who dwelt there long enough
to offend the tyrant Dionysius by his freedom of speech, who at first
threatened his life and afterward sold him as a slave. He visited
Syracuse twice more, during the reign of the younger Dionysius.

THE HISTORIC CITIES OF SICILY 47

In addition to these visitors, Syracuse had the honor of being
the birthplace of the most famous pastoral poet of antiquity, the ,
renowned Theocritus, whose splendid idyls are among the choicest
treasures of the poetic world. It was the charm of rural life in rare
Sicily that Theocritus sang, and with a richness and sweetness that
remain unsurpassed. It is in such glimpses as this that our poet
pictures for us the charm of his native land :

"There we lay

Half-buried in a world of fragrant reed
And fresh-cut vine leaves; who so glad as we;
A wealth of elm and poplar shook o'erhead;
Hard by, a sacred spring flowed gurgling on
From the Nymph's grot, and in the sombre boughs
The sweet cicada chirped laboriously.
Hid in the thick thorn-bushes far away
The treef rog*s note was heard ; the crested lark
Sang with the goldfinch ; turtles made their moan,
And o'er the fountain hung the gilded bee.
All of rich summer smacked, of autumn all;
Pears at our feet, and apples at our side
Rolled in luxuriance; branches on the ground
Sprawled, overweighted with damsons; while we brushed
From the cask's head the crust of four long years."

In the records of Sicily we find the histories of many other
towns and cities of ancient fame, from Naxos, settled as long ago as
735 B. C. Of these, we must confine our descriptions to a few of the
more important, and must leave Messina, from its present thrilling
interest, for a separate chapter.

Chief among the Sicilian cities of the present day is Palermo,
an active seaport and commercial centre of its northwest corner.

48 THE HISTORIC CITIES OF SICILY

Formerly the capital of the island, its population of 310,000 raises
it to the rank of the fifth city of Italy in numbers, though scarcely
so in fame. It occupies a picturesque site, at the mouth of a fertile
valley called the Conca doro ("Golden Shell"), with mountains in its
rear and a beautiful bay in its front. It has handsome streets and
many fine old buildings, the oldest of its public edifices dating from
the Norman period and belonging to two styles of architecture, the
Saracenic and the Byzantine. Most attractive among them is the
cathedral of St. Rosalia, built 1169-85. There is also the royal
palace, with magnificent mosaics, and various other striking build-
ings.

As a shipping port, Palermo does an important business in the
fruits and other agricultural products of the island, and in imports
from other lands, and has a coasting trade of some importance.
Though it has taken the place of Syracuse, it ranks far below it
in historical importance. It has had its history, however, and
has passed through the ravages of war. All this may be briefly
described.

In origin it dates far back, the first we know of it being as a
Phoenician colony and the stronghold in Sicily of Carthage. It was
then known by the name of Panormus. Pyrrhus, the Greek invader
of Roman Italy, conquered it in 276 B. C, and it was afterward
taken by all the invaders of the isle, by the Romans in 254 B. C.,
the Vandals in 440 A. D., Belisarius in 535, the Saracens in 835, the
Pisans in 1063, and the Normans in 1071.

The latter made it the capital of their kingdom of Sicily, and it
remained such under later holders. In 1820 and again in 1848 it
revolted from the Bourbon kings of Naples, and it was freed from
them by Garibaldi in 1860, since which time it has been only a

THE HISTORIC CITIES OP SICILY 49

provincial capital. It has not escaped the ravages of the earth-
quake demon to which its country is subject, having suffered severely
from this evil in 1693, 172&> and 1825. In the 1908 terror it was
too far beyond the area of peril to feel more than a trifling quiver,

Next to Palermo in size come two other cities, Catania and
Messina, which on Christmas day of 1908 were almost exactly
equal in population, having about 150,000 each. Three days later
Messina had practically been wiped off the face of the earth, the
great majority of its inhabitants dead or dying beneath its ruins,
and Catania stood without rival as the second city of Sicily.

This distinction in fate is in a measure surprising, since Catania
stands at the southern foot of Mount Etna, the danger point of the
island, while Messina lies many miles to the north. Catania,
indeed, has not escaped the visitations of its terrible neighbor in
the past, but the present disaster was confined to the northeast
section of Sicily and beautiful Catania remained unharmed. It has
not always had this good fortune. It was destroyed by an earth-
quake in 1169* and five hundred years later, in 1669, was again
severely shaken and threatened with utter destruction by a river of
molten lava. The story of this visitation and the efforts to stop its
ravages are told in chapter 23 of this work, and we need here speak
only of another eruption and earthquake in 1693, which again almost
destroyed the city. On this occasion its fine harbor was choked by
a stream of lava, and it is still unsafe, although a mole to improve
it has been built at great expense.

Since that date it has stood secure, and is to-day the finest and
handsomest city in Sicily, it being built on a beautiful and consistent
plan, to the details of which every builder is obliged to conform.
From the sea it has a most attractive apearance, and this is not lost

So THE HISTORIC CITIES OF SICILY

to those who tread its streets, which are straight and wide and
finely paved with blocks of lava, the most abundant building material
in its vicinity. Lava, with trimmings of limestone and marble, is
used in its public buildings, which are spacious and handsome, as are
also many of its private residences. The finest of its squares, that
in front of the cathedral, has for ornament an ancient statue in
lava of an elephant bearing a granite obelisk. The cathedral men-
tioned holds first place among its many churches, it being founded
by Roger I., the Norman, in 1091, but largely rebuilt since the
earthquake of 1693. The great Benedictine abbey of San Nicolo
occupies an area of twenty-one acres, there being not more than two
or three buildings of the same kind in Europe to be compared with
it. Its church is remarkable for a grand organ, with seventy-two
stops and 2,916 pipes, built by Donato del Piano in 1760.

Back of the city spreads the fine Catanian plain, the only one
of any large extent on the island. Fertile and well-cultivated,
extending far along the southeast base of the great volcano, it is
known as "the granary of Sicily," and largely to it the city owes its
complimentary title of "La Bella Catania." Aside from all ques-
tions of beauty and attractive situation, the city is very active com-
mercially, its people being distinguished for their industry and enter-
prise. It has manufactures of silk and linen goods, and of articles
in lava, wood, amber, etc., while its exports embrace these manu-
factures and also sulphur, olives, grain, and other products of its
fertile plain.

Like all the important cities in Sicily, Catania has a history
going back to far ancient times. Under its old name of Catana, if
was founded by a Greek colony from the neighboring city of
Naxos about 730 B. C, which, once of importance, has long since

THE HISTORIC CITIES OF SICILY 51

ceased to exist. Catana maintained its independence until 476 B. C,
when it was in a flourishing condition, but met with a sad reverse
at the hands of Hiero I., who took it, removed its inhabitants to
Leontini, and repeopled it with ten thousand Greeks and Syracusans,
changing its name to Aetria. This change did not last long. Hiero
died, the old citizens returned, got possession of their city, and
restored its name of Catana.

It had other misfortunes. It was taken by the Athenians under
Nicias, and later by Dionysius of Syracuse, who plundered the city,
sold its inhabitants for slaves, and planted there a body of merce-
naries from Campania. Under the Romans it regained its old im-
portance, and in the time of Cicero was a flourishing and wealthy
city, but in later wars suffered so severely that Augustus had to
repeople it. Later the Goths plundered it, it was sacked by the
Saracens, was conquered from them by the Normans, was ravaged
by the emperor Henry IV, and was several times besieged in the
fourteenth century.

Despite all the disasters from war and earthquake which Catania
has suffered, many relics of ancient grandeur exist, the remains
from the Roman times being numerous and extensive. These include
a theatre, an amphitheatre, an odeum, baths, tombs, and fragments
of a temple ascribed to Ceres. Lava has buried much of the theatre,
and the remainder has served as a quarry for more modern buildings.

We might go on indefinitely describing places of ancient fame
in Sicily, most of them now insignificant places. Among those we
cannot pass by the Greek Akragas, the Roman Agrigentum, the
modern Girgenti. Now a town of about 20,000 inhabitants, it was
of old the second city in Sicily, with about 200,000 inhabitants, and
a wealth and commerce that surpassed those of Syracuse. The

52 THE HISTORIC CITIES OF SICILY

temples of Agrigentum were on the grandest scale of magnificence,
scarcely equalled elsewhere in Sicily. Chief among them was the
noble temple of the Olympic Zeus, 340 feet long. Of this only some
fragments remain, but of the others there are numerous and splendid
ruins, the best preserved among them being the Temple of Concord.
Long independent, and possessing a territory which extended across
the island, disaster fell upon it in 406 B. C., when it was taken by the
Carthaginians and utterly destroyed. It never regained its old im-
portance.

As a town, the Girgenti of to-day owes its attraction chiefly to
its ruins and the beauty of its situation. It is so old fashioned that
its best hotel has to send to Palermo, — six hours by train — for butter
and meat. But when spring comes Girgenti. is a dream of beauty,
with its thousands of almond trees, snow-clad with blossoms, the
tender green of its wheat fields, the scent of orange blossoms perfum-
ing the air, wild flowers blooming everywhere, color, perfume,
warmth, all that can fill the soul with enjoyment, while the rugged
temples of the past rise to give an old-world grandeur to the scene.

For temples, however, we must go to Selinus, in the vicinity of
modern Castelvetrano, where are to be seen the ruins of six vast
Doric structures, some of them among the largest known. The
Temple of Apollo, said to be the largest ever built, was 371 feet
long and, including its steps, 177 feet wide. Its columns were 53^
feet high and 11% feet in diameter at base. As they lie to-day, it
takes the arm-stretch of six or seven men to reach around one of
them. This temple, built about 2,500 years ago, was never finished,
as its columns to-day show.

Baedeker speaks of Selinus as the "grandest ancient ruins in
Europe." They arc not erect, like some of those at Girgenti, but

THE HISTORIC CITIES OF SICILY 53

lie in rows of fallen columns whose vastness holds us spell-bound
with wonder and awe. There are sculptures among them, big, un-
gainly, lacking grace, but of interest from the fact that they rank
with the most ancient Greek sculptures known. When one gazes
at all this, seemingly the work of giant hands, the amazement of it
all is that these old builders, destitute of our sources of power and
mechanical expedients, could have had the hardihood to undertake
such vast labors and the perseverance to succeed. If the whole
modern world were overthrown by an all-embracing earthquake, it
would leave no ruins to compare with those that have come down to
us from the past.

Let us visit another Sicilian city in our journey over the island,
one well-known as a place of resort for American tourists, the
modern Taormina, the old-time Tauromenium. This town was built
about 385 B. C, and of it many relics remain, including an aqueduct,
tesselated pavements, and what is left of a theatre which is regarded
as one of the most splendid ruins in Sicily, and the site of which
commands a view of almost unparalleled magnificence.

Taormina, lying 35 miles southwest of Messina and not far
north of Etna, was one of the towns at first reported destroyed by
the recent earthquake. It fortunately escaped with nothing worse
than a terrifying shake, luckily for the foreign residents, for whom
it has long been a favorite place of resort. Standing, as it does, on
a rock 900 feet above the sea, it seems perched like an eagle's nest
in the air, and is at once beautiful to look at from a distance and
commands a grand and highly attractive view.

To Taormina hastens every visitor from abroad, drawn by its
reputation of being one of the most lovely spots on the earth. When
Ruskin was an old man, not long before his death, he told a relative

54 THE HISTORIC CITIES OF SICILY

that the one spot on earth he would wish to see again, before leaving
this lower realm, was rock-perched Taormina; and many there are
who would share with him this wish. With the sea spread far and
wide before it, the huge pile of Etna in near view, all the charm of
color, of light and shade, and of picturesque views on every side, it
is not surprising that artists haunt the place, busy in transferring
to the canvas the many artistic points of view which find hosts of
admirers.

We might go on indefinitely seeking to give in words the charm
of Sicily and the interest attaching to its many historic sites. We
must round up this chapter, however, with a quotation from Mrs.
Alec-Tweedie's "Sunny Sicily," in which are given her impressions
of the chief attraction of the isle.

"What is the chief charm of Sicily? Surely its varied color-
ing. It is an artist's paradise. Again and again we revelled in
the soft grays of the olive, prickly pear, aloe, cactus, and fig; the
pink of the peach and almond blossom; the yellow of the orange,
lemon, broom and gorse; the green of the palm and date, banana
and wheat; the carpet of wild flowers of every huej and then the
colors of sea and sky, the bright shawls of the women, the red
scarfs and blue capes of the men, the scarlet cotton umbrellas and
gay donkey harness, the smartly painted carts of Palermo, the vivid
uniforms of the gendarmes — color, color, color everywhere.

"It is this color, with quickly changing sky effects, that consti-
tutes the charm. One may stay for days in a place, and yet every
day that place looks different ; every hour it seems to change. Nature
has many moods, and each has its fascination. Sometimes the sky
is of oriental blue, and the heat tropical, then everything reminds
one of hotter climes; sometimes grey mists and dull haze over-

THE HISTORIC CITIES OF SICILY 55

spread everything, and we fancy ourselves back in northern Europe ;
or, again, a windy sky, with quickly chasing clouds passing over a
rough, wild sea, makes us forget we are in Sunny Sicily at all. Yes ;
its color and its climate — those are its greatest charms.
"Sicily is a kaleidoscope of beautiful pictures,."
And the attraction of the island is not alone that of rich land-
scape effects, brilliant coloring, warm sunshine, luxuriant vegeta-
tion. There is much in its story to attract the historian, much in its
architectural remains to enchant the antiquarian. All the nations
of the Mediterranean, the Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Romans,
the Saracens, and even the Normans from the far North, have built
upon its shores and left fine examples of their varied architecture
scattered over its hills and valleys. And all of them have fought
upon its soil, struggled for possession of its coveted territory,
so that there is hardly a spot upon the island without its history, and
it is probable that Sicily has witnessed more struggles for posses-
sion of its domain than any other area of land of its size upon the
face of the earth.

CHAPTER IV.

The Story of Messina and Reggio, the Doomed
Cities of the Straits.

THE city of Messina, or what was the city of Messina before the
earthquake demon swept it from the face of the earth, has a
history in which earthquake evils played a prominent part
in the past as in the present. On Christmas day of 1908 an active,
bustling, happy community, stirring with trade and thronged with a
busy population, engaged in the multifarious duties incident to the
life of a commercial city, on New Year's day of 1909 it lay a heap of
ruins, under which weltered in their blood a vast multitude of dead
and wounded, the latter the more unfortunate of the two, from the
terrible suffering which their situation entailed upon them.

The disaster which overwhelmed this City of the Straits, how-
ever, must be left for later chapters, as we are concerned here merely
with its history and situation. Messina is very picturesquely
placed, lying between the sea and a range of sharp and rugged hills,
the Dinnamare range, which rise to a height of 3700 feet. Running
round the harbor in a semicircle, the town as seen from the sea, until
recently, presented a very attractive aspect, the houses rising tier
after tier upon the slope of the hills behind it, which climbed in the
distance to lofty and wooded summits. Looking from this back-
ground across the Straits, the coast of Italy is easily visible, it being
only four miles distant at this point. Elsewhere the channel of sep-

THE STORY OF MESSINA AND REGGIO 57

aration between Italy and Sicily narrows until it is no more than
half this width. Yet the waters between lie deep, as if some giant
hand had scored a vast and profound ravine between the two ranges
of coast land.

Messina owes largely its prominence as the second city of
Sicily to the excellence of its harbor, which is the main element in
its commercial prosperity. This is formed as if nature had intended
this spot for the site of a flourishing community. A tongue of low
land runs out from the shore and curves round in the shape of a
sickle, enclosing a round basin, of about a square mile in area, open
only to the north, the entrance channel being about 500 yards wide.
The basin is deep enough for the largest ships to lie in safety in its
waters, and the city is visited annually by more than 10,000 steam
and sailing vessels, the carriers of its extensive commerce.

The name of Messina is familar in our country from the excel-
lent oranges to which it is attached, and of which large numbers
annually reach our shores. Lemons and raisins help to make up its
trade, together with wine, oil, liquorice and hides, the product of
the fertile island. Trading is the chief business of the place, its only
manufactures of importance being silk goods. But its situation is
favorable to the pursuits of the fisherman, and many of the inhabi-
tants long made this their vocation, tunny being their chief catch,
though sword-fish are captured in the Straits during July and Aug-
ust, the harpoon being used in this fishery. Valuable coral beds also
lie beneath the waters and many of the people engage in the pursuit
of this treasure of the depths.

Before its catastrophe, indeed, Messina was, next to Palermo,
the chief commercial city of Sicily, with about 150,000 inhabi-
tants. Including in this count the surrounding country and small

58 THE STORY OF MESSINA AND REGGIO

suburbs adjacent it approximates 200,000. It is the seat of an appel-
late court and is an archbishopric, and boasts a university unexcelled
elsewhere in Sicily. Its university is situated on the Faro, or
Stretta de Messina, a promontory due north of the city of .Messina,
which juts into the straits and reaches nearer to Calabria than at
any other point. Directly across from the Promontory de Faro is
the great Calabrian rock Scilla, over which is the town Scilla. This
rock and the whirlpool beneath it, formed the direful Scylla of
Greek mythology, which, with the Charybdis of eddies and unbridled
currents in the straits, were thought by the ancients to be fraught
with infinite danger. These cross currents have in recent years
been greatly tamed, and Scilla is a delightful little port with no
reminiscent suggestion of her quondam horrors.

On the Sicilian shore of these tumultuous straits is a range of
rugged peaks. They lend dignity and grandeur to the wide
stretches of scenery and are second in all Sicily only to Palermo.

WHAT MESSINA IS LIKE.

Messina was, comparatively speaking, well constructed through-
out. It has several beautiful streets, chief among which is the Via
Garibaldi, named after this soldier's memorable invasion of Sicily,
when Messina was his point of attack. About the edge of the bril-
liant harbor runs the Marino, or Corso Vittorio Emmanuele. Par-
allel to the Marino and the Via Garibaldi are the Corso Cavour and
the Via dei Monasteri.

The original city lay between the torrents of Portalegni, but it
was extended north and south under Charles V., and has since
incorporated within itself the suburbs of Zaera and San Leo.

Owing to the frequency of attack made upon the city by the

THE STORY OF MESSINA AND REGGIO 59

warring elements about her, Messina contains fewer relics of antiq-
uity than any other ancient Sicilian city.

Foremost in its list of attractions is the Cathedral of La Mat-
rice, an edifice of the Norman period begun in 1098. Parts of it are
still standing as originally built, but as a whole it has been almost
entirely rebuilt, owing to the destructive effects upon it of successive
earthquakes. Like the town, the cathedral has had many vicissi-
tudes and bears the marks of most of them. In 1254 it was
damaged by fire which broke out in the course of the funeral of
Conrad IV. In 1559 the spire of the campanile was burned down.
In 1783 the campanile and the transept were overthrown by an earth-
quake.

All of the parts of this old edifice authentically of the past
are the portals of the facade, indescribably enriched by carving in
stone, and still more celebrated twelfth century mosaics, which were
counted unequalled in Italy. From far and near the pious wended
to La Matrice to lay votive offerings on the various altars to propiti-
ate Providence in favor of the sailor folk. The trait is inherited
from the Pagan forefathers of the island, since a Temple of Neptune
that existed near the city attested that the sailor folk used to deposit
offerings to the sea god to save the mariners from the demons of
Scylla and Charybdis hard by the city in the strait beyond. Twenty-
six columns from this Neptune temple were used in erecting the
cathedral of St. Matrice.

The cathedral has also a gorgeous high-altar and baldacchino,
while its choicest treasure is a letter claimed to have been written by
the Virgin Mary to the townsmen. Its splendid mosaics are rivalled
by those in the two other old churches of St. Gregory and St. Niccola.

Other buildings of past times are the citadel, built by Charles II,

60 THE STORY OF MESSINA AND REGGIO

of Spain in 1680, the Gonzago Castle, dating from 1140, and
another castle of almost equal antiquity. The remaining important
buildings, the handsome theatre, the palaces, and the official build-
ings, are for the most part modern — or rather were, for they have
largely ceased to be. Among them we may name a university
originally founded as long ago as 1549, a college of the fine arts, an
academy of the arts and sciences, scientific collections, and technical
schools.

MESSINA LA NOBILA.

"Messina la Nobila" presented to the curious eye only another
form of the well built modern Italian city. In fact, the inexpres-
sible grandeur of the scenery, the vine-terraced mountains, the pur-
ple fumes arising from Etna, the enchantingly graceful outlines of
the four-mile crescent forming the harbor, so eclipsed all human
work, that the city made little impression. Situated right at the
water's edge, with no possible means of sea defence, Messina was
always the first point assaulted by the covetous races bent on possess-
ing the key to the Mediterranean. Hence, Messina, though its site
is one of the oldest of those of the southern cities, was the most
modern of the capitals identified with successive races. Without
the relics of antiquity, Messina possessed only the charm of its delici-
ous climate, its gay street life and the bewildering vistas seen from
the successive parterres of vine-clad loveliness winding skyward.
There had been relics of Grecian, Saracen, Norman and Roman
citadels, amphitheatres and what not until the unspeakable Bomba
let loose his demoniac soldiery in 1848 to put down the insurrec-
tionary forces bent upon forming a civilized system on the island.
After the bombardment by his troops and the consequent destruc-
tion, its antique ruins had largely ceased to be.

THE STORY OF MESSINA AND REGGIO 61

Messina's people were scattered along the narrow fringe of
land between the foot hills and the curving beach, hence the swift
destruction that followed the invasion of the "thirty-five feet of
water" that is described as rising after the few seconds of shock
that tumbled the walls and slaughtered the sleeping victims. Not
long ago a very perfect system of seismographic instruments were
set up along the coast to give warning to threatened cities; the
mechanism was so ingenious that scientific folk have travelled from
far and near to watch its astonishing accuracy, its almost super-
natural sensitiveness to the slightest earth tremors. Its warnings,
however, were of no avail against such sudden shocks as that with
whose results we are now concerned. Disasters which come in the
dead of night and complete their work of destruction while the
second-hand of the clock is half completing its brief round leave no
time for the most complete seismograph to give notice, and what-
ever may have been its value to science, the Messinian instrument
was of no use to the threatened inhabitants.

ANTIQUITY OF MESSINA.

The history of Messina begins very early in the Greek era. It
was founded in 732 B. C, by pirates from Cumae and Chalcidia, but
this was not its first appearance, for an ancient Sikelian town occu-
pied the site on which these piratical invaders settled, drawn thither,
doubtless, from its splendid adaptation to sea-faring purposes and
its convenient nearness to Italy. They named the place Zancle
(a sickle) from the shape of its harbor, its title of Messina coming
several centuries later.

Eighty years afterward the town had become so prosperous as
to be able to sent out a colony of its own, which settled at Himera.

6a THE STORY OP MESSINA AND REGGIO

A new influx of inhabitants came after the Persian conquest of the
Greek domain in Asia Minor in 494 B. C, fugitives from Samos and
Miletus sailing thither and taking possession of the city. A year
later came another change in its fortunes, when Anaxilas, the tyrant
ruler of Rhegium on the Calabrian shore, seized the place and
peopled it by a colony of Messenians from the Peloponnesus. These,
to keep with them a memory of their home, changed the name of
the place to Messana, the Doric progenitor of the present title.

About thirty years later the sons of Anaxilas were expelled by
the rebellious citizens and their old republican government was
restored. Under this home rule the city continued for the follow-
ing seventy years, it taking no part in the great war between Athens
and Syracuse, the effects of which were felt widely throughout Sicily.

Its greatest ancient disaster came in 396 B. C., when the
Carthaginians, during their wars with Dionysius of Syracuse,
captured it, and destroyed it so utterly that it had to be entirely
rebuilt. This was done by Dionysius, who drove out the foreign
foe and made the place a part of his extended kingdom. During
the next fifty years Messina had several changes of masters, until
in 343 came Timoleon, the great Greek deliverer, who put an end
finally to the Carthaginian occupation of the city.

The next important era in the history of Messina was that of
the first Punic war, between Rome and Carthage. The Syracusans
and Carthaginians were then at war in the island and the fierce
struggles that followed led to an appeal to Rome for aid which
was quickly responded to. In this way Messina was concerned .in
the origin of the long and desperate conflict between the two great
warlike republics of that age. At the close of what is known as the
first Punic war, the early era of that great struggle (241 B. C.),

THE STORY OF MESSINA AND REGGIO 63

Messina came under the control of Rome, and remained so until the
fall of the empire.

Even then it did not escape the ravages of war. During the
civil wars that followed the assassination of Julius Caesar, Messina
was one of the cities that supported Sextus Pompeius. As a result
it was taken by Octavian in 35 B, C, and sacked by his troops.
When he became emperor, as Augustus Caesar, he founded a colony
there, and for centuries thereafter it flourished as a trading port as
it had done for centuries before.

MESSINA'S LATER HISTORY.

The most important event in the history of Messina came after
eight centuries of relief from war's vicissitudes. The Saracens had
now made their power felt in northen Africa and invaded Sicily
from Tunis, rapidly gaining control in the island. Messina fell into
their hands, and was held by them for more than two centuries,
when the Normans came to dispute their dominion in Sicily, Messina
being the first permanent conquest made by them. This was in
1 06 1 A. D. The Crusades soon followed and Messina reaped a
harvest from them, it being a favorite place of rendezvous for
Christian soldiers on their way to dispute the ownership of the Holy
Land with the Saracens.

Misfortune came to it, however, in 1190, when the burly and
hot-headed Richard Cceur de Lion stopped there with his crusading
army. He spent six months in the city and, as usual with him, got
into a quarrel with Tancred, the last of the Norman rulers, and let
his soldiers loose on the town. They sacked it in the thorough
manner of the warriors of fortune of that day. Four years later
Messina, with the rest of Sicily, came under the control of Henry
VI., the German emperor.

64 THE STORY OF MESSINA AND REGGIO

After a period of German occupation the French became domi-
nant in Sicily, and held it till 1282, the year of the Sicilian Vespers,
when the people rose and drove the invaders from their land. In
the war that followed, Charles of Anjou besieged Messina, but its
people boldly and bravely defended their city, and for once in its
history it repelled an invading army.

In 1282 Spain became dominant, and held Messina until 1713,
a period of more than four centuries. Here the fleet fitted out by
the Holy League against the Turkish lords of the Mediterranean
assembled in 1571, under Don John of Austria, and set out for its
great victory at Lepanto. He returned thither with his victorious
fleet and celebrated his success with a triumph in the city. To
commemorate his visit a statue in his honor was erected in the
Piazza dell' Annuziata.

For a century after this Messina enjoyed great prosperity, but
an ill destiny was at hand, due to internal dissensions which ended
in destroying its commercial importance. In 1674 a bitter struggle
broke out between the aristocratic faction, or Merli, and the demo-
cratic faction, or Mavizzi. The democratic faction appealed to the
French and the other to the Spaniards. The former faction were at
first victorious, but eventually were deserted by the French, the city
was taken by the Spaniards, and when the struggle was over the
population was reduced from 120,000 to about a tenth of that
number,.

The town never fully recovered from this disaster. Whatever
recovery was made was neutralized in the eighteenth century by a
series of disasters. In 1740 about 40,000 persons died of the plague,
and in 1783 the town was almost entirely overthrown by the great
earthquake of that year. Great damage was caused by bombard-

THE STORY OP MESSINA AND REGGJO 65

nient in September, 1848. The cholera carried off no fewer than
16,000 victims in 1854, and earthquakes in 1894 and 1906 also caused
loss of life and property. In 1860 the town was occupied by Gari-
baldi. It became a part of united Italy the following year. It was
the last city on the island taken from the Bourbons and brought
under the rule of Victor Emmanuel.

REGGIO DI CALABRIA.

Across the Messinian straits to Reggio di Calabria, so called
to distinguish it from Reggio nell'Emelia, is one of the prettiest trips
between the two countries, that bridging the gulf between Sicily and
Italy proper. In Reggio the devastation of the latest tragedy has
been almost as widespread as in Messina, although Reggio is far
smaller, and less important from the historical and artistic point of
view.

It has been for the most part safely out of the path of the vol-
canic eruptions which have destroyed its Sicilian neighbors, though
the earthquakes and tidal waves resultant upon Etna's upheaval
have struck Reggio as hard as the rest. The district in which it
is situated is the extreme toe of what is called the foot of Italy, the
town being placed on the Italian side of the Straits of Messina, a
few miles farther south than the city of that name. With 44,000
population before its recent disaster, Reggio is the capital of a
province of the same name having about 430,000 inhabitants, very
many of whom felt some severe effects from the recent earthquake-
Like so many of the cities of Sicily and southern Italy, Reggio
owes its origin to the Greeks, being founded in 732 B. C. by a colony
of fugitives from Messina, under the name of Rhegium. Prosperous
in its early career, it suffered much in its later history from the

66 THE STORY OF MESSINA AND REGG1O

ravages of war. Anaxilas mastered it about 494 B. C, adding
Messina soon to his dominion. In 399 B. C. Dionysius of Syracuse
made an attack upon it which was the beginning of a protracted
struggle, ending in 387 in its complete destruction and the sale of
all its inhabitants as slaves.

It was restored by the second Dionysius, but in 280 B. C, dur-
ing the war between Rome and Pyrrhus, admitted a Roman garrison,
which revolted, killed all the men of the town, and held the place
against the Romans for ten years. In the Middle Ages it was
captured in succession by the Goths, the Saracens, the Pisans, the
Normans and the Turks.

An interesting incident in its history is the visit there of Paul
the Apostle in his voyage from Caesarea to Rome. Mention of this
is made in the Acts of the Apostles, and the fact is made known by
an inscription from the Acts carved across the front of the Cathedral.

Reggio (pronounced Red' jo) suffered frightfully in the earth-
quake of 1783, the horror being so great that very little of the past
appeared in the modern city which fell under earthquake throes in
1908.

The place, before its disaster, was one of many attractions.
George Gissing, in his "By the Ionian Sea," speaks of its "regular
streets, amphitheatre-wise, upon the slope that rises between shore
and mountain. From the terrace road along the shore, Via Plutino,
beauties and glories indescribable lie before one at every turn of the
head. Aspromonte, with its forests and crags; the shining straits,
sail-dotted, opening to a sea-horizon north and south, and, on the
other side, the mountain-island, crowned with snow."

At Reggio, Sunday was market day and crowds of country
folk came into town with the products of the soil. Stalls filled the

THE STORY OF MESSINA AND REGGIO 67

open spaces temporarily, the donkeys, ubiquitous beasts of burden
there, being tethered during the hours of selling. Roundabout was
a veritable garden spot, the vegetables being famous. There were
cauliflowers with the white measuring over a foot across. Flowers
were everywhere. The women on these days were quite as busy as
the men. The female water-carrier poised on her head a long slim
cask which rested on a pad. She suggested the Sicilienne who, after
her husband had fought for and obtained a traveler's luggage, put
it on her head and trudged off up the mountain-side with the new-
comer while her marital partner remained to lounge at the wharf.

The Musea Civico contained a fine collection of terra cottas,
lamps, vases, statuettes, and other examples of curious, early native
art, now probably all destroyed. Among its most interesting works
was a relief of women dancing of the sixth century B. C, with its
architectural framework painted black, red and yellow. One of the
far-famed Laocoon groups was also housed here.

In the piazza adjoining the railroad station was a fine statue of
Garibaldi, under which a military band often played. Back of
Reggio rises the imposing, forest-clad Aspromonte, due north of
which is Scilla.

The smaller cities which are buried under the streams of lava
or deluged with the slime and water of the tidal waves all bear the
same general characteristics of the cities whose share of the burden
was heaviest. All the small cities in Sicily and Calabria have kept
their little quota of historical relics jealously guarded against in-
vasion and sacrilege. Each has been forced to build over again the
homes and streets in which its populace dwelt. Each has known
the same tribulation, learned through long sojourn near Etna, the
great monster of southern Italy and Sicily.

CHAPTER V.

The Frightful Earthquake of 1908 and Its Sur-

nflQQi'nor Hnrmrc

passing Horrors.

NO more delightful season comes to the people of the Christian
nations in these later days than that of Christmas, the era of
festivities, home gatherings, the giving of gifts and happy
reunions of all kinds. It is the season in which no one is apt to
dream of death and disaster, and on the Christmas of 1908 it is not
likely that a single inhabitant of that portion of Italy surrounding
the Straits of Messina had other thoughts than of enjoying the
happy season to the utmost. All over the civilized earth, indeed, joy
and good will reigned and gloom and disaster found no abiding
place in men's minds.

Yet disaster impended, dire, deadly, earth-rending disaster;
beneath the unquiet earth the demons of destruction were gathering,
and to the old disasters of the region a new one of unprecedented
horror was about to be added. A quiet Saturday and Sunday fol-
lowed the day of festive enjoyments, and the people of the threatened
district sank to their wonted rest, prepared to take up again the
accustomed burden of life when the next day dawned.

Alas for them, and for all sympathetic souls, no day was ever
again to dawn to the great majority of that slumbering multitude,
no burden of life was again to be taken up, and for most of those
whom death was not ready to claim, pain and agony, in many cases
life-long, impended.

'68;

THE FRIGHTFUL EARTHQUAKE OF 1908 69

The night passed; the late hours preceding the dawn arrived;
five o'clock came and passed and the whole city seemed buried in
slumber, awaiting the hour near at hand when the sun would call
it to life and activity again.

Suddenly, without a moment's warning, the earth's surface
was lifted, houses and churches rocked and swayed, ceilings fell and
buried the sleepers in their beds, falling floors carried the beds and
their occupants alike to red ruin, walls crashed and tumbled, and
before thirty seconds had passed the great city of Messina fell into
almost utter ruin, burying vast numbers of its inhabitants in a grave
from which they would never emerge.

A scene of universal horror succeeded the frightful catastrophe.
Thousands of the people lay buried under the ruins, the most fortu-
nate among them those who fell to sudden death and escaped the long
agony that awaited many of those who lay under the fallen walls,
terribly multilated and suffering untold tortures, or those who, while
unhurt, were pinned fast by fallen beams, and saw with starting eyes
the red flag of the flames which soon began to crawl towards them,
licking the frightful spoil with red, devouring lips.

Few in comparison were those who gained the streets, clamber-
ing over piles of wreck, half clad or unclad, many of them bleeding
from painful wounds, most of them so terjor-stricken as to forget
their hurts, to forget all but the instinct of flight. Screams of hor-
ror, demoniacal cries, moans of anguish filled the air, drowned fre-
quently by the roar of falling walls, often filling the streets from
side to side and crushing new victims among those who had safely
fled from the first peril. And upon it all came a torrential down-
pour of rain, soaking and chilling the survivors and adding to the
gruesome aspect of the frightful situation.

70 THE FRIGHTFUL EARTHQUAKE OF 1908

The sufferings of the people were awful to contemplate. Bodies
were found which bore mute testimony of the torture endured
before death relieved their sufferings,. Several of these persons had
died gnawing at their arms and hands, evidently delirious from pain
and hunger. Other bodies brought from the ruins had portions of
shawls and particles of clothing in the mouths, and one woman had
her teeth firmly fixed in the leg of a dead baby.

MANY MIRACULOUS ESCAPES.

The stories related by the survivors in the hospitals, and at the
food supply stations, where rations are issued twice a day, all reflect
the horror of the fateful December 28. There were many mir-
aculous escapes, but the cases of bereavement were without number.
A cobbler named Francesco Missiano related that immediately after
the first shock he and his wife and children rushed out into the street.
Fires were breaking out all around them. Hearing groans from a
pile of debris nearby the cobbler made a hurried examination. He
found two girls dying. The head of one was split open, while the
chest of the other had been crushed in.

The cobbler picked up a baby, but it expired in his arms. Seized
with mad terror the man fled toward the sea. It took his party two
hours and a half to traverse the heaps of ruins between his house
and the water front. After placing his family in safety he returned
to seek his mother and sisters, but he was obliged to give up the
effort. It was impossible to make his way back to his home. During
the thirty-six hours the cobbler passed among the ruins he did not
see more than 5,000 or 6,000 survivors.

All of the survivors told dismal stories of the misery suffered
by cold and hunger after their escape, and of the rarity of other

THE FRIGHTFUL EARTHQUAKE OF 1908 71

survivors seen in the streets and open places, so that often they
believed themselves to be the only persons saved ; of the dense, chok-
ing cloud of dust which hung over the city for a long time, obscur-
ing their vision and adding to the horrors of their bewilderment; and
of the greater horrors of the succeeding earthquake shocks, espe-
cially in the darkness, which seemed to forbid all hope of final escape.
A tragic note was struck by an elderly couple, who described how
they were imprisoned in the lower part of their ruined house. They
could only cry for help and heard no answer, save other cries for
help from the darkness around them.

It was impossible to pass through most of the streets, which
were blocked in some places with huge mounds of fallen debris.
Here and there bodies could be seen in inaccessible places, pinned in
by beams or masonry and projecting from the upper stories of the
houses, sometimes lying half buried and horribly contorted.

In front of the city the sea wall had broken up and fallen and
the sea walk was sunk under water. Behind this were streets upon
streets of fallen houses. In some places the appalling scene beg-
gared all description; everywhere horrors beyond mention making
the scene one fit for the pen of a Dante.

FREAKS OF THE DISASTER.

Curious freaks of the earthquake were everywhere to be ob-
served. Standing walls had fallen out, exposing one tier of rooms
above another in which nothing seemed to have been disturbed
Pictures hung straight on the walls, lamps were on tables and vases
and flowers on mantelpieces. In one place two buzzards were sun-
ning themselves on a window-ledge over the dead body of a woman,
whose wealth of black hair covered her face and shoulders. Dogs
and cats were killed by the soldiers whenever caught feeding on the

72 THE FRIGHTFUL EARTHQUAKE OF 1908

dead. The buildings that best resisted the shock were the old royal
palace, now the prefecture, and the Archbishop's palace, where ten
of the inmates lost their lives.

The survivors of the disaster were so dazed and worn out that
they were quite incapable of describing their experiences connectedly,
but the accounts of all agreed that the devastation was accom-
plished in less than one minute. All those capable of analyzing
their sensations said that when the shock came they felt an upward
thrust of the earth. This was followed by an oscillatory motion
and the crust of the earth vibrated. A great and terrifying roar,
like a series of subterranean thunder claps, accompanied the jump-
ing, dancing, hurling about of everything movable, which was so
severe that some of the survivors were flung from their beds three
feet into the air several times before they could get upon their feet
and make their way to the street by stumbling down crumbling stair-
ways or dropping from windows upon the ruin below.

Early visitors to the scene found the streets of the wrecked city
piled twenty or thirty feet high with debris. It was a wilderness
of ruin a mile wide and two miles long. Beautiful churches, splendid
villas in the foot-hills, hospitals, barracks and the university — all
shared the common lot. Two-thirds of the magnificent Norman
Cathedral, the pride of Messina, were in ruins, and little or nothing
remained of the relics of Phoenician, Greek, Roman and Saracen
architecture which marked the stages of Messina's centuries of tragic
and tumultuous history.

THE RUINS OF REGGIO.

While attention was concentrated upon Messina, the inhabitants
of many other towns and villages in Sicily and Calabria were suffer-
ing the same horrors. Chief among these was Reggio, a Calabrian

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SEEKING REFUGE IN THE CATHEDRAL AT ST. PIERRE,
The last refuge from destruction, yet not a refuge.

THE FRIGHTFUL EARTHQUAKE Of- 1908 73

city of one-third the size of Messina, and like the latter in the centre
of the area of shock. News from this city came later than from
Messina, but it was of the same tragic character.

The ominous absence of details concerning Reggio proved to
be due to the fact that not only the city itself, but its whole popula-
tion, with the exception of a mere handful, had disappeared.

A torpedo boat which ran close to the coast was unable to dis-
cover a trace of the city. Where, two days before, stood an aggrega-
tion of buildings and busy streets there was nothing seen but rocks
and earth. The city had vanished as completely as Aladdin's
palace under the magician's spell. The first idea was that Reggio
was completely swallowed by the earth collapsing beneath it, and
the yawning site was filled by the sea, which advanced in a huge
wave, as at Messina. And this, while an exaggeration of the fact,
was not wholly out of consonance with the situation,. Refugees
from this city confirmed in part this story of dreadful ravage, say-
ing that the lower part of the city had been swallowed up, and that
the public buildings, the churches, the barracks, the city hall, and
most of the houses of the people were nothing but crumbled masses
of ruins. Later tidings from Reggio told the same story of horror
indescribable. For two days the survivors were cut off from the
outer world. Looters took possession of the ruins, and ultimately
respectable citizens were forced to arm themselves and fight for food
to escape starvation.

CHASM EIGHTY FEET WIDE.

The station master at Reggio says that immediately after the
first shock a chasm eighty feet wide was opened in the earth. From
this there gushed forth a flood of boiling water, some jets rising to
the height of an ordinary house. Many injured persons who were

74 THE FRIGHTFUL EARTHQUAKE OP 1908

in this vicinity were horribly scalded by the flowing stream, and
these volumes of hot water continued to spout into the air for two
days after the earthquake,. The width of this fissure was doubtless
exaggerated, but several remained twenty feet wide.

As the station master made his way to a place of safety he saw
human limbs sticking from the masses of ruins. Frenzied relatives
strove to free their dear ones from the fallen masonry, while shrieks
from the miserable fugitives, rushing half naked and bleeding
through the streets, filled the air.

The sea inundated the suburbs of Reggio and destroyed count-
less acres of orange groves. The smaller houses of the peasants
completely disappeared, the receding waters leaving them buried
in mire. Corpses were encountered everywhere in the outskirts of
the city. The bridge near Pellaro was carried off by the sea, as
were also entire sections of the railroad.

A young seminary student, Teodoro Rositani, who walked
eleven miles to escape from Reggio, had a terrible tale to tell of the
first moments of the earthquake, in which he lost a sister and another
relative.

"Together with my companions," he said, "I was in a train
waiting to go to San Giovanni, when the carriage was literally lifted
off the tracks, the station crumbling to the ground before our eyes.
We were soon climbing the heap of rubbish, all that was left of the
station, guided by the cries of distress. We dragged forth the
family of the station-master, all of whom were badly injured.

"Meanwhile the shocks continued and the sea gathered itself
into a wall of water, destroying everything it touched. The sun
had risen before we had completed our work of rescue at the station.

"We were roused from our work by the shouts and found our-

THE FRIGHTFUL EARTHQUAKE OF 1908 75

selves in the embrace of the rest of our companions, who had escaped
from the seminary. In the joy of the reunion we all fell on our knees
and gave thanks for our escape, praying also for our less fortunate
townspeople."

DISASTER IN OTHER QUARTERS.

Messina and Reggio were the only large cities that felt the
effects of the fearful quake. Palermo was too far off to be reached,
and Catania, though very near Etna, was unhurt by the shock.
Taormina, midway between Messina and Etna, and a favorite place
of resort for American tourists, escaped with a light shake that did
little damage, though the sea was strangely affected. But within
the immediate zone of ruin were many small towns and villages
which felt the full force of the shock and had as dire a tale of horrors
to tell as had the larger cities.

The disturbance extended farther inland in Calabria than in
Sicily, but most of the residents were concentrated along the coast
line, where the configuration is not changed except within a few
yards of the shore.

Scylla, San Giovanni and Reggio, in the order named, stretch
from the north to the south along the coast line for about ten miles,
with smaller hamlets between. The inhabitants of this line of
greatest violence numbered about 70,000, of these Reggio alone lost
28,000, while similar destruction visited the other towns. San
Giovanni was a prosperous manufacturing town, containing ten
large silk mills, all of which were destroyed, with very many of their
operatives.

Back from the coast were other towns, Bagnara, with 10,000
inhabitants; San L'Eufemia, with 6,000; Palmi, with 7,000, and

76 THE FRIGHTFUL EARTHQUAKE OF 1908

various others, all of which lost heavily. At Bagnara few houses
were left standing and the city presented an aspect of terrible desola-
tion. The Mezzacapo barracks at Reggio went down in utter ruin,
nearly a whole regiment being buried beneath them. At a convent
nearby some of the nuns and all the servants were killed, and of the
sixty pupils only twelve escaped. Some of these jumped from
windows and walked twenty-five miles in their night clothes in
search of aid.

The centre of the disaster in Calabria seemed to be the region
around Monte Leone, where every town and village had its gory roll
of dead and wounded to chronicle. Thousands of people abandoned
their homes, although a terrific rain storm prevailed, and filled the
air with lamentations and prayers. In some places, such as Prizzo,
Cotrone, Santa Severina and Piscopio, the people had the courage to
enter the churches almost while they were falling, and carry out the
Saints. They bore these in procession through the open country, in-
voking the mercy of God. In the mountainous regions inland the
population took refuge in grottos and caves, where peasants and
priests, soldiers and persons of gentle birth, dwelt in common. Their
bed was the ground, and fires were kindled to keep off wild animals.

The radius of ruin and death extended back with decreasing
intensity for forty miles on the mainland and thirty miles in Sicily,
and a detachment of troops which went to the villages on the east
coast of Calabria found nothing but ruins and the bodies of persons
killed in the earthquake. The survivors had fled. There was every
reason to believe that dreadful havoc was wrought in the mountain
villages that had not yet been explored.

A report of technical observations from the observatory at
Messina says the earthquake lasted for twenty-three seconds only.

THE FRIGHTFUL EARTHQUAKE OF 1908 77

It was accompanied by remarkable atmospheric phenomena. The
surcharged air was filled with sparks and flashes of flame which
flared up until the heavens seemed afire. The crest of the earth ap-
peared suddenly to drop. These phenomena were followed by dis-
tinct lateral oscillations that threw the panic-stricken people off their
feet as they rushed to the streets.

NOTHING COULD HAVE WITHSTOOD SHOCK.

Messina, like most Sicilian and southern Italian towns, was of
tremendously solid construction. There was usually a facing of
brick or stone, and behind this was a wall of rubble — a mixture of
mortar and small stones — of enormous thickness. Three feet of
this material was nothing unusual. The forces which nature
brought to bear upon this construction show in the result that the
buildings might as well have been made of sand in the same quanti-
ties, held together between surfaces of cardboard. This explains
why the ruins of Messina made such an enormous mass. The build-
ings averaged four or five stories in height, and the scrap heaps that
remained were at least two stories above the street level, including
the material in the roadway itself.

Another peculiarity was the following. An earthquake has
usually some general direction, north and south, east and west, or
between these points. Not so this convulsion. The debris fell in
all directions, and invariably into the street, unless the front walls
failed to give way, in whatever direction the buildings faced. It
was the vertical motion, apparently, that was most destructive. The
horizontal shaking loosened everything, and then the violent tossing
brought the whole construction to the ground.

Among the most lamented results of the disaster was that of

78 THE FRIGHTFUL EARTHQUAKE OP 1908

the destruction of the great cathedral, the pride of the city. It had
suffered seriously in former convulsions, but in none so severely as
in this, which left it almost an utter ruin. Its priceless relics of art
and antiquity, representing the enormous value of $10,000,000, lay
under the wreck, and its twenty-two splendid granite columns, said
to have come from a temple of Neptune, near the Forum at Rome,
lay prostrate and in shattered pieces. The remaining churches of
the city suffered a like fate, and all the largest and best buildings of
the city went down in irreparable ruin.

As for the loss of life from this dread disaster, it may probably
never be known. The figures for Messina were estimated some weeks
later at 108,000, and those for Reggio at 28,000. There remained
those for Palmi, San Giovanni, Scylla, Gallina, Bagnara, Pellaro,
and numerous other places, probably making the gruesome total not
less than 200,000, possibly more. The principal hotel at Messina,
much frequented by foreign tourists, proved a death trap for its
many guests, among whom it was feared there were many Ameri-
cans. It fortunately proved that none were there at the time, and
the only loss to America was the greatly regretted one of the United
States Consul Arthur S. Cheney and his wife, who were crushed to
death in the fall of the consulate residence, Stuart K. Lupton, the
Vice-Consul, was just then living in another house, and to this
fact he owed his life.

It may be said in conclusion of this chapter that those who
perished immediately or died under the ruins from their wounds
formed only a part of the loss of life. Many of the rescued were so
seriously injured that their recovery was hopeless, and fully 5,000 of
them had died in the hospitals of the several cities within three
weeks of the date of the disaster.

CHAPTER VI.

The Gigantic Tidal-wave and Its Sweeping

Destruction.

IT was not alone the earthquake, but the seaquake, — a profound
uplifting of the ocean bottom and pouring on shore of huge

billows, — to which the destruction of the great Sicilian disaster
was due. This irruption of the sea-waves and overflow of miles of
inhabited country was one of the greatest in history, but preliminary
to its description, some account of similar convulsions will doubtless
prove of interest and value.

There are many interesting examples on record, of which that
of the great earthquake at Lisbon was the most destructive to human
life, while the convulsion which drowned so much of the city and
so many of its inhabitants, was felt by vessels fifty miles distant on
the Atlantic. In other cases ships eighty miles at sea have felt
shocks that came like sudden blows on their bottoms, accompanied by
a noise resembling "a dull rattle like thunder." This blow-like
effect is common, it feeling in some cases as if the ship was ground-
ing, in others like a number of sharp jerks on the cable. On February
10, 1716, the vessels in the harbor of New Pisco were so violently
shaken that masts and ropes were broken, while the water lay still.
Even cannon have been jerked up and down from the deck by these
sudden blows of the underlying water.

In the instances stated there was no disturbance of the surface

(79) w

8o THE GIGANTIC TIDAL-WAVE

of the water, but earthquakes have often been accompanied by waves
of enormous size, as witnessed in the flooding of Messina and the
drowning out of Reggio. In some cases the sea-wave has preceded
the earthquake, as at Smyrna in 1852. At St. Thomas, in 1868, the
convulsion began by the receding of the water. Then, after the land
shock, the water returned in a wave so high as to lift the United
States ship Monongahela and leave it high and dry on shore. In
the same year another large United States ship, the Wateree, was
swept a mile inland by the sea wave — or tidal wave, as these are
commonly called — that inundated Arequipa. As regards the Lisbon
earthquake, the waves ran from thirty to sixty feet high.

With this preliminary review of the subject, we shall describe
the phenomena observed on the Sicilian and Calabrian coasts in the
recent disaster, as told by eye-witnesses.

THE SWEEP OF THE WATERS.

At the time of the earthquake the torpedo boat Sappho was
lying in the harbor at Messina, and one of the officers told of the
occurrences as follows:

"At half past five in the morning the sea suddenly became
terribly agitated, seeming literally to pick up our boat and shake
it. Other crafts nearby were similarly treated, and the ships looked
like bits of cork bobbing about in a tempest.

"Almost immediately a tidal wave of huge proportions swept
across the strait, mounting the coasts and carrying everything before
it. Scores of ships were damaged, and the Hungarian mail boat
Andrassy parted her anchors and went crashing into other vessels,
Messina bay was wiped out and the sea was soon covered with masses
of wreckage, which was carried off in the arms of the receding
waters."

THE GIGANTIC TIDAL-WAVE 81

At Riposto, south of Messina, the tidal wave was terrific. At
first the sea receded for a great distance from the shore and then it
swept forward with tremendous violence. The water, advancing in
a huge wave, swept before it every house and building for a thou-
sand feet from the shore line. The waters rushed through the
streets of Riposto to a depth of from ten to twenty feet.

One observer tells his story of the sea spectacle in these vivid
words :

"I looked seaward and was transfixed by the most terrifying
sight of all. A wave was advancing toward the city that grew as it
approached, until it seemed as high as the lighthouse. It tumbled the
ships about like toys, turning them turtle or tossing them on their
beam ends. It came with tremendous velocity, but it seemed an age
to me before it swept over the lighthouse, tearing away the piers like
paper and swallowing the shore front. Far inland it swept, ex-
tinguishing many of the fires."

In the narrow strait the water formed into a huge wave, thirty-
two feet high. It then drew back from the coast as if gathering
strength for an onslaught that would obliterate the land. So violent
was the motion of the atmosphere coincident with the tidal wave that
several workmen engaged in digging a pit on the Calabrian side of
the strait were carried bodily up into the air.

Suddenly, stopping in its backward sweep, the waters of the
strait hurled themselves upon the two coasts. Inexorably they ad-
vanced, and piers, houses and gardens were swallowed up in the
flood. The ground for a great distance trembled under the shock
of the impact. A naval officer who witnessed this awe-inspiring
spectacle described it in these words :

"It seemed as if two mountains, one of water and the other of

8a THE GIGANTIC TIDAL-WAVE

land, fell furiously, the one towards the other, and as if the land
vomited human inhabitants into the sea."

All along the straits similar scenes were witnessed. Reggio
suffered frightfully. A captain of carabineers, who saw it shortly
after the disaster, said :

"The town was not swallowed up by the earth as at first re-
ported, but the sea rolled in a mighty wall of water and engulfed it.
I don't think more than a few hundred escaped out of the entire
population. I doubt if any one escaped in the lower part of the town,
which is under the deepest water. The water receded from some of
the higher points of the city. The lower part of the town is rapidly
settling and it was feared when I left that it would drop into the

sea."

Fortunately the disaster did not prove on later advices to be
so complete as here stated, but with all ameliorations it was terrific
and soul-harrowing. Later advices concerning it stated:

"The tidal wave that swept into Reggio flooded the city to a
depth of thirty or forty feet above sea level. Some of the houses
along the water front were swept from their foundations and drag-
ged out to sea. Twelve miles of the railroad near Reggio were
destroyed. A tempest added to the terror of the scene.

"The region between Rocella, Jonica and Caulonia, not far
from Reggio, is still flooded. The sea front at Reggio has been
completely swept away, according to statements of refugees. The
harbor is filled with wreckage from vessels of every kind and it is
impossible to approach Reggio by sea or by land.

"With the horrible inrush of the sea, the swallowing up of boats,
the crushing of ships and the destruction of bridges and walls, the
sea became almost instantly covered with debris containing refuse

THE GIGANTIC TIDAL-WAVE 83

of every description dotted with human bodies. When day dawned
the entire shore line of the surrounding country was utterly changed
in appearance. The coast line was greatly altered, while of all the
magnificent houses along the shore only a few tottering ruins
remained. From these ruins from time to time there sprang jets
of flame and smoke."

At Catania the tidal wave sunk 500 boats and did great damage
to several large vessels and steamers. At Messina a ferryboat
moored at one of the docks seemed suddenly to be thrown high into
the air. It landed on top of the dock and was left hanging there by
the receding waters. This was the first intimation of the crew that
anything had happened. A Russian vessel lying in the harbor was
thrown into the street. Other vessels foundered. Railway lines
were swallowed up. The square known as the Campo Santo col-
lapsed and sank-

Pulco, a chemist of Messina, had the following experience. He
had risen early and was crossing the strait from Messina to Reggio
at 5.30 o'clock on Monday morning. The boat had reached the
middle of the strait when he suddenly became aware, as he stood
on the deck, that the sea was greatly agitated. The next moment a
great chasm opened in the water, and the boat dropped seemingly
forty or fifty feet. Pulco believes that it touched bottom. Then it
was picked up by a huge wave and hurled high up on a mountain
of water, only to descend into the trough again, where it again
appeared to strike the bottom.

Most of the people on board were swept off and drowned. The
boat was badly wrecked, but it floated ashore. Pulco was still on
board. ' i '

CHAPTER VII.

The Harvest of the Fire Demon and the Ghoulish
Robbers of the Victims.

FOLLOWING the earthquake shock in Messina, as in the case
of the overthrow of San Francisco, a few years before, fire
broke out in all quarters and threatened to finish the work of
ruin which the earthquake had begun. Though the sea rushed on
shore in a fierce tidal wave and torrential rains deluged the streets,
the flames made their way in many places, with the dire effect that
numbers of those buried beneath the ruins died a terrible death from
the devouring flames.

With the water pipes destroyed, no effort could be made to stay
the fire, while from the gas pipes rent by the upheaval, new
centres of conflagration began, adding scores of small fires to the
general destruction. The soldiers bent every effort to check the
sweep of the flames, but, handicapped as they were by the lack of
water, and by explosions of gas, the extinguishing of the fire proved
a difficult task, and several days passed before it was accomplished.
Sailors from the warships in the harbor lent their aid in this work,
but the fires continued to burn in some quarters till there was nothing
combustible left to consume. The torrential rains helped in this
task and prevented the conflagration being as destructive as it might
otherwise have proved.

As the Ebro, one of the rescuing vessels, steamed through the

THE HARVEST OF THE FIRE DEMON 85

Straits, many scenes of horror and anguish could be seen from her
deck. As the darkness settled down upon Messina the conflagration
that was fast destroying what remained of the doomed city was
luridly visible, and only a skeleton of a house here and there could
been seen upright in the gloom-
As the Ebro moved onward it was seen that many once lively
villages on the neighboring shores had been completely obliterated,
or were nothing more than heaps of shapeless ruins with occasional
flames springing up to show where they once had stood.

As in all cases of human suffering, and calamity, the brood of
born brigands who usually lie dormant in the lowest depths of the
haunts of civilization were quick to take advantage of the situation,
broke loose from the restraint of the law and the police powers, and
began the career of looting and outrage which invariably takes
place in such situations. The latest historical instance of this
invariable outbreak of the wild passions of greed and brigandage
was in the San Francisco catastrophe. There it was checked as
quickly as possible by the stern hand of the powers of order, and
a similar series of events marked the terrors of the Messina earth-
quake.

The prison at Messina collapsed at the first shock. The con-
victs numbered about 650, many of whom were killed, but the sur-
vivors made their escape and joined the vandals who were sacking
the city. Such confusion reigned that the robbers met with no
resistance/ The local chief of police lay dead in the rooms of his
office. Everywhere ghoul-like figures flitted in the semi-darkness,
risking their lives among the tottering ruins, fiendishly striving to
profit by the disaster. They were vandals robbing the dead and
dying and acquiring possessions which they had no means of pro-
tecting or conveying away.

86 THE HARVEST OF THE FIRE DEMON

The robbers pillaged the ruins of shattered buildings, and even
stole clothing and valuables from the corpses of the victims. They
were not deterred by the flames that broke out in several sections of
the city, but took advantage of the light for their vandalism. The
night in Messina was one of horror indescribable — fire, robbery,
dead and dying on every side, the city in the utmost confusion and
the people panic-stricken and under a spell of terror.

Severe measures were at once taken to check this outbreak of
vandalism, the police and soldiers being ordered to shoot the looters
on sight, but the wild hope for gain led them to defy and resist the
authorities, fierce fights, some of them fatal, taking place. Thus
it was reported that six Russian sailors had been shot by thieves
while trying to prevent their nefarious work. On the other hand
a Russian sailor was said to have shot one of the thieves upon whom
were found valuables estimated to be worth $27,000.

For two days the bandits had the upper hand, the scum of the
populace being in control and dead and dying alike being victims
of their merciless depredations. One was shot while trying to tear
a ring from the finger of a dying woman and about sixteen others
were slain in the midst of their work. They grew so defiant as to
engage in a pitched battle with the sailors and custom officers, and
only after the arrival of troops did the authorities gain the upper
hand. It was necessary to proclaim martial law, as there were no
other means of dealing effectively with the pillagers, one of whom
was found in possession of $20,000 in bank notes.

THE GHOULS UNDER CONTROL.

Several days passed before the reign of disorder could be
checked, it being finally accomplished by the efforts of General

THE HARVEST OF THE FIRE DEMON 87

Mazza, in command of the troops sent to preserve order. Here is
his story of the work he had to perform:

"What especially preoccupies me is the succession of thefts
since the first day of the disaster. Hundreds of native and foreign
malefactors have poured into the devastated district searching
among the ruins for bodies to despoil or treasure to sack. The
dead have been found with fingers cut off to remove rings and with
ears torn to remove ear pendants.

"Many signs of robbery have been discovered in half ruined
houses which the thieves penetrated during the days of general
fright and disorder. The other night a group of peasants who
wanted to enter Messina for evident motives of theft fired at three
carabineers, wounding one seriously.

"Every day since the state of siege, which I intend to maintain
vigorously, the military tribunals have distributed the gravest
penalties to hundreds of persons suspected of theft. All the severity
of the military regime will be invoked against those in whose posses-
sion are found objects of value or money of which they can give
no satisfactory account.

"In order to clear the city of criminals, my programme is to
allow no one to enter the city except those whose interests make it
absolutely necessary, and to them I shall give an escort of sailors
and soldiers to guard against any harm to public or private property.
The city will be emptied as much as possible of inhabitants — above
all, the vagabonds — who obstruct the work of the authorities. The
vagabonds will be ejected, while I will try to persuade the inhabit-
ants to go to nearby villages or to construct huts outside of the
town."

Despite all efforts, however, the looters in places continued their

88 THE HARVEST OF THE FIRE QEMON

work, defying the bullets of the soldiers in their eagerness for illicit
gain, and in some instances not hesitating to murder the helpless
survivors for the purpose of theft. And even after the rigid
enforcement of martial law in Messina complete anarchy prevailed
in the outlying regions, as yet left without police or military guards.
While the fires apparently had been extinguished, they were
lying latent under the ruins, and, fanned by a high wind on the night
of January i8th, they broke out again on the following day in a
furious blaze that assumed formidable proportions before it could be
checked. It started near the remains of the City Hall and the Bank
of Italy, and during the afternoon spread over a large area, making
its way to the shore and threatening the vessels at the docks. The
remains of the Pennisi Palace fell in and added to the conflagration,
an odor of burning flesh mingling with the smoke and exciting the
fear that persons still alive were being consumed. A large section
of the quay-side walls fell in during the progress of the fire, the lack
of water and the absence of open spaces to check the flames render-
ing the work of the fire-fighters very difficult. Late in the evening
the fire burned itself out, all the inflammable material within its
reach being consumed, and probably a large amount of valuable
materials buried in the debris being destroyed. The Duke of Genoa
had a narrow escape from being buried under a falling wall while
assisting in the work. When the flames at length died out an enor-
mous gap had been opened amid the ruins in that part of the city.

EMERGENCY RELIEF FOR THE SUFFERING.

As quickly as possible temporary hospitals were erected in the least devasted

open places of Reggio and Messina. United States Amabssador

Griscom took a leading part in forwarding the necessities

of life to the homeless and the injured survivors.

DEATH IN THE FIRE.

Hundreds of bodies of persons who were unable to escape the flames were gathered and

buried by the loldiers and marines.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Panic Flight of a Homeless Host.

THE first moment of the fearful earthquake shock was one of
stupefaction. It came so utterly without warning, waking
thousands violently from profound slumber to a terrifying
vision of sudden death, their houses rocking beneath them, ceilings
and floors falling, walls being precipitated into the streets, furniture
hurled in every direction, numbers of those who were not flung to
immediate death screaming in mortal terror or moaning and groan-
ing in pain.

Starving, bleeding from injuries and almost insane from their
terrifying experiences, Messina's survivors fled wildly in all direc-
tions. The spectacle presented by the ruined seaport was described
as terrifying. Tumbling buildings killed and mutilated thousands,
while hundreds of the injured imprisoned in the wreckage were
abandoned to their fate by the fleeing populace. One of those who
escaped said:

"The earth seemed suddenly to drop and then turn violently
on its axis. The whole population, who practically were precipitated
from the houses rent in twain, were spun around like tops as they
ran through the streets. Many fell crushed to death, and others,
bewildered, took refuge for breath beside the tottering walls, where
they <oon met the fate of their companions."

Many of the fugitives were for a while imprisoned in their

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90 PANIC FLIGHT OF A HOMELESS HOST

ruined homes, the tumbled heaps of refuse making egress impossible.
Darkness still lay over all, and, fearing to move lest they should
bring down death upon their heads, many waited in trembling terror
for the coming of the light of day. Then they made their way-
out, often with terrifying perils and difficulties, clambering up
inclined floors covered with wreckage and over numberless obstruc-
tions until the streets were reached. Often they were forced to
leave behind them pleading and weeping victims, so deeply buried in
the wreckage that it was impossible to aid them. Most of those
who escaped were injured, and for the living unfortunates who
remained a dreadful death seemed to impend, from the creeping
tongues of flames that shot redly upward from a thousand places and
threatened to make the whole stricken city their prey.

THE DISTRACTED FUGITIVES.

The streets were a terrible scene. Walls still crumbling down
at intervals, people wandering about in distraction, some of them
utterly frenzied, thousands of them fleeing in wild terror for the
open country, thousands more gathering along the muddy beaches
on either side the ruined city seeking food or trying to get away
by sea, while many children died from exposure, and madness;
attacked numbers of the frenzied populace. Wounded, half -naked,
famished, in their hunger they were seen to seize dogs, tear them
to pieces and ravenously devour the raw flesh.

The search for food, in fact, became a horror as the days went
on and only meagre supplies reached the city. A frightful scene
occurred at Messina amid the ruins of the custom house. Bands
of famished individuals were groping among the debris in the hope
of discovering food. The first of the searchers who were successful

PANIC FLIGHT OF A HOMELESS HOST 91

were attacked by others with revolvers and knives, and were obliged
to defend their finds literally with their lives.

The suffering was intensified by the lack of drinking water.
The water system was entirely demolished. These survivors
assuaged their thirst by rinsing their mouths with sea water. The
wounds of the injured had to be washed with sea water. Grocers'
shops were ransacked for mineral water or anything else to drink.

Here is the experience of one observer of the scene of mad-
dened distraction: ,

"I have witnessed shocking episodes enacted by famished sur-
vivors and have myself felt the pangs of hunger. For long hours
I had nothing to eat except a few lemon rinds picked up from the
mud and have sought desperately for a morsel of bread. On ap-
proaching the military authorities I was sent to a place among the
ruins where the municipal assessor, surrounded by a howling mob,
was distributing tickets for bread and raw meat. A desperate
struggle was going on.

"The soldiers had requisitioned a few oxen, horses and asses —
lean, wounded and dying animals, which they hurried off to the
seashore, slaughtered and cut them up with bayonets. Pieces were
distributed among the people, who with difficulty were kept back by
the soldiers with their rifles. No sooner was one piece, still warm,
received than it was torn to shreds by ten ^eager mouths, and the
people struggled on the ground for any morsels that fell."

REFUSE TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES.

While the exodus of the terror-stricken was going on there
were others affected by a different sentiment. They clung dis-
tractedly to the sites of their homes, refusing to leave the heaps

93 PANIC FLIGHT OF A HOMELESS HOST

of ruins within which they had lived, crying out that their only
safety lay in fidelity to the wrecks of their houses. Force was in
many cases necessary to get them to the ships in the harbor, which
were as rapidly as possible carrying the fugitives to places of safety.

The most distressing feature of the scene was the appalling
disorganization of the rescue work in Calabria. While active
efforts at succor were made in Messina, the opposite coast was left
unaided, and until Friday night not a morsel of food had arrived
to relieve those who for four days had been suffering the pangs of
hunger. So widespread was the disaster, that it was impossible
at first to cover the whole field.

"You who are in authority, tell the Government to take us away
from here or have us all shot to end our suffering!" shrieked the
famished, wounded, desperate survivors at Reggio, crowding around
Deputy Lamagua when he appeared among them.

Every effort was made to do this. Ships crowded the harbors
carrying away numbers of the survivors to Naples, to Catania, to
Palermo, to every region where help could be hoped for. Naples
especially was filled with them, and its hospitals were crowded with
the injured.

CAMPS EVERYWHERE.

In the realm of ruin and its vicinity all that was possible was
done to care for the refugees. Camps were rigged up everywhere,
and scores of children were playing a few steps from the terrible,
wrapped-up bundles, containing the bodies of the dead. Wooden
huts were put up in avenues and squares for the survivors, some of
whom were in disabled cabs, some under mere stretchers of rags.

"A few steps further on might be seen bodies laid at street
corners and left unwatched. Then more of such open-air charnel

PANIC FLIGHT OF A\HOMELESSIHOST 93

houses at every turn. Here were dozens of corpses in a row; there
fifty, further on perhaps a hundred, and close by the survivors —
hundreds around a fire.

At the other end of the town were larger camps. The Piazza
della Porta-Bassa was crowded with tents. Mothers nursed their
babies by gypsy fires on which rations cooked while the children
played about unheeding. All were clad in strange and many-colored
odd garments. Rich and poor were mingled and one could not tell
who in the crowd might be a rich Sicilian noble or who a poor servant
from his abode. Misery made comrades of them all and reduced
them to one common level.

We shall conclude this story of the refugees by an extract from
a letter written by Mrs. C. F. Powers, an American lady then in
Naples :

"What fearful things have happened here ! We are in the midst
of such suffering and want. We go daily to the Hospital Marie
Jesu to wash and comb and feed the poor creatures who are brought
here by the hundreds from Messina. All hospitals will soon be full,
and most of them are now. The unhurt natives are in the schools,
sleeping on straw. This morning we were working over them.
The women seemed to have suffered the most and have their hair and
ears full of mud and stones and blood. Those who are not badly
wounded may have their hair combed and we are sent to do this.
This hospital, having an English nurse at its head, is a poor, com-
fortless place. Among the victims here is one poor woman who had
tin one and a half days in a room under the debris with her two
>ys, one six and the other ten years old, almost dead. She and her
msband were saved. She was badly cut and bruised, but remains
and uncomplaining."

CHAPTER IX.

A Wonderful Record of Thrilling Escapes.

SHUDDERING under the recollection of what seemed a night-
mare rather than actual reality, many of the survivors of the
frightful calamity, especially those at Messina, have tried to
picture in words of graphic intensity the hour of horror and the
succeeding day of terror which followed the catastrophe which over-
came them on that dread morn of December 28. They recount the
roar of falling structures and the pitiful cries and groans of those
pinned beneath the timbers of collapsing buildings. They speak of
climbing over dead bodies in their ruined homes and making their
way by tortuous avenues through the streets, heaped with the debris
of a fallen city. They tell of the caravan of homeless fugitives in
their wild flight to the fields and hills for safety, and some of their
accounts seem to reach the climax of dramatic presentation of human
peril and half-insane terror.

MESSINA AN INFERNO.

A graphic story of the disaster was told by a woman who was
brought to the hospital at Catania in a badly wounded condition :

" 'Infernal' is the only word that will absolutely describe the
fearful and terrifying scene," she said.

"When the first shock came most of the city was fast asleep.
I was awakened by the rocking of the house. Windows swayed

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WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES j_y 95

and rattled, and crockery and glass crashed to the floor. The next
moment I was violently thrown out of my bed to the floor.

"I was half stunned, but knew that the only thing to do was to
make my way out of doors. The streets were filled. Everybody
had rushed out in their night clothes, heedless of the rain falling
in torrents. Terrified shrieks arose from all sides, and we heard
heartrending appeals for help from the unfortunates pinned beneath
the ruins.

"Walls were tottering all around us, and not one of my party
expected to escape alive. My brothers and sisters were with me,
and in a frenzy of terror we groped our way through the streets,
holding our own against the panic-stricken people, clambering
over piles of ruins, until we finally reached a place of comparative
safety. But this was not done before I was struck down and badly
injured by a piece of furniture that fell out of the upper story of a
house.

"All along the road we were jostled by scores of fleeing people,
half-clad like ourselves. The houses seemed to be crashing to the
ground in whatever direction we turned.

"Suddenly the sea began to pour into the town. It seemed to
me that this must mean the end of everything. The oncoming
water rolled in in a huge wave, accompanied by a terrifying roar.

"The sky was aglow with the reflection of burning palaces and
other buildings, and as if this was not enough, there suddenly shot
up into the sky a huge burst of flame, followed by a crash that
seemed to shake the whole town. This probably was the gas works
blowing up.

"Eventually we reached the principal square of Messina. Here
were found 2,000 or 3,000 utterly terrified people assembled. None

96 WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES

of us knew what to do. We waited in an agony of fear. Men and
women prayed, groaned and shrieked. I saw one of the big build-
ings fronting on the square collapse. It seemed to me that scores
of persons were buried beneath the ruins. Then I lost conscious
ness, and I remember no more."

A STEAMSHIP AGENTS EXPERIENCE.

Achille Carrara, agent of the General Steam Navigation Com-
pany in Messina, gives the following account of his experiences :

"Frantic with terror I shouted for my wife, my children and my
servants, and assembled them under the arch of the window. The
house rocked, but it remained erect. We dressed in darkness and
blinding dust, while everything heaved about us. We staggered
down the reeling staircase to the street.

"The street was choked with the ruins of the surrounding build-
ings, and masonry was falling. The injured were shrieking from
their tombs beneath the wreckage, and the ground was split up every-
where. Horror was piled on horror, and inky blackness pressed
upon us with here and there a flame shooting out from among the
wreckage.

"At daylight we found our way to the harbor, where the tidal
wave had thrown the water 14 feet above the quay and broken every
vessel adrift. The harbor was full of wreckage, casks and capsized
skiffs. Four steamers, which had been flung on the quay, had been
refloated as the great wave receded, and were hanging by their
anchors. They were the Ebro, Drake, Varez and another. We
hailed the Drake, and were taken aboard and well attended to.

"Later the captain of the Drake sent a party with me to rescue
my relatives, who lived in the north end of Messina.

"WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES 97

"The British consulate was found to be a mere dust heap. I
located what had been my brother's house, and after digging for
hours with our hands succeeded in breaking our way through the
fallen masonry, beams, rafters and broken furniture. We rescued
my brother, his wife and child and eighteen other persons. We
found no trace of my father, mother, grandmother, sister or aunt,
and all must have been crushed under the ruins of the three houses."

DR. DENTICE'S STORY.

Dr. Dentice, chief of the governor's cabinet, who lived in the
aristocratic quarter of the town, some distance back from the sea,
had an interesting story to tell. While his house did not fall, it was
severely shaken. He happened to be awake at the moment of the
quake, and was flung from his bed before he could get to his feet
voluntarily. He called to the others, and all managed to get down-
stairs, while the shaking continued with ever-increasing violence.
They were delayed slightly in leaving by an injury to an old aunt,
whom they were obliged to half drag, half carry with them. The
last and worst paroxysm was finishing as they reached the street,
and to this delay they probably owed their lives, for they escaped the
danger from falling masonry. The house was almost at the corner
of a small square, and to that they hastened. There they stood in
utter darkness for two hours, listening to the death throes of the
dying city.

When asked what was the effect upon him and his companions
of those two hours of suspense and what they did, he replied:

"We did nothing. We stood silent in the rain — dull, dazed,
half -stupefied. I do not remember feeling any keen emotion, not
even of fear. I think we all passed into a condition of submissive

98 WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES

indifference. With the slow coming of daylight, our faculties
awakened. The gloom revealed little until actual sunrise, and then
we strove to make our way to the lower part of the town and the sea
front.

"We found, to our astonishment, that we were prisoners.
Every street leading from the square was piled twenty feet high
with impassable ruins. We imagined that we alone were the victims
of this isolation, and we looked for the speedy coming of soldiers or
relief parties. We had no suspicion of the truth until two hours
later, when I saw a priest a little distance down one street. I
shouted to him to know what was the situation elsewhere.

" 'Messina is no more !' came back the answer. Even then I
failed to comprehend the extent of the disaster, but I began to
struggle over the debris toward the shore. I reached it after about
an hour, and then I realized that the priest had not exaggerated."

A woman who escaped unhurt from Messina told of her experi-
ence.

"We. were all sleeping in my house, when we were awakened
by an awful trembling which threw us out of our beds. I cried
out that it was an earthquake, and called to the others to save them-
selves, while I quickly pushed a few clothes into a valise. The
shocks continued, seeming to grow stronger. The walls cracked,
and my bureau split in two and then crashed to the floor, nearly
crushing me. My hands trembled so that I could scarcely open the
doors.

"To increase the terror a rainstorm, accompanied by hail,
swept through the broken windows. Finally, with my brother and
sister, I succeeded in gaining the street, but soon lost them in the
mad race of terror-stricken people who surged onward uttering
cries of pain and distress.

WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES 99

"During this terrible flight balconies, chimneys and tiles
showered down upon us continuously. Death ambushed us at every
step. Instinctively, I rushed toward the water front, but there
found the grand promenade transformed into a muddy, miry lake
in which I slipped and often fell."

Another survivor of Messina says:

"I was thrown out of bed. Then the floor of my room col-
lapsed and I fell into the apartment under me. Here I found a
distracted woman searching for her sister and son, whom she found
dead. We remained in the ruins for twenty-four hours, alone, with-
out food or drink. We made a rough shelter of boards to keep off
the rain.

"Our ears were assailed with the cries and moans of the
wounded. These sounds abated somewhat during Monday night.
Still no one came to our assistance. We were as in a tomb, with the
bodies of our children beside us. We could see no one, but every
time sounds were heard from the street there would come an out-
burst of piercing cries for help from the injured and pinioned in
the wreckage.

"Tuesday morning we ventured forth and were taken aboard
a vessel in the harbor. We passed over streets that were vast cre-
vasses and climbed over great mounds of ruins and wreckage that
were all that remained of the finest palaces of Messina."

NARRATIVES FROM CALABRIA.

The Marquis Vincenzo Genoese, a refugee from Palmi, says
he was awakened by a tremendous roar. It seemed as though the
house was whirling around like the wings of a windmill,. The walls
of his dwelling cracked and through it came a cloud of suffocating

ice WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES

dust. Stunned, but uninjured, the Marquis tried to escape to the
streets, but the stairs had collapsed. He descended from a third-
story window by a rope.

Walking was difficult, owing to the fact that the streets were
filled with debris. He assisted in dragging from beneath the ruins
eighty-six persons, all of them dead. The faces of every one of
them showed the agony they had suffered. Many had their arms
across their faces, as though to protect themselves from the falling
debris. It was necesary to release the prisoners at Palmi, and many
of them succeeded in making their escape.

A correspondent of the Paris Matin, had a harrowing experi-
ence in his journey from Naples to Messina. He said:

"My nerves will never recover from the atrocious impressions
to which they were subjected, and my eyes will retain as long as they
remain open the vision of death and devastation which oppresses
them. A mournful silence covers the country like a funeral pall.

"I proceeded as far as Palmi by train, and thence afoot Six
or seven inhabitants accompanied me to Tropead, and I decided to
reach Reggio at whatever cost. Two or three railroad firemen, cut
off from home while at duty by the catastrophe, were returning to
seek news of the fate of their families. They preceded me, brandish-
ing resinous, smoky torches. We marched in Indian file through
the tunnel from Palmi to Bagnara, holding hands and stumbling
over ballast heaps. The roof of the tunnel was cracked every-
where, and now and then rocks fell. Whole families were encamped
around wood fires and smoking torches. Many of them were
wounded. Men, women and children, stupefied by the catastrophe
and crouching among the stones, looked at us with vacant glares,
.75 if their thoughts were wandering.

"Some distance along we came upon families roasting sea birds

WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES 101

which had been killed by the tempest and cast upon the beach.
Others had the strangest objects packed in sacks. In reply to ques-
tions as to what had happened at Messina and Reggio, they made
vague and desolate gestures, and continued to gaze at us like stalled
oxen. After two hours' march we saw Bagnara, perched on the
spur of a mountain overhanging the sea.

"The country house of the Mayor, on the summit of the rock,
was half tumbled into the sea, but the Mayor was safe. He was
giving orders for the installation of a telegraph wire in a freight car.
Every house in the town and surrounding country was in ruins.
In one I saw tumbled beds and disordered dining rooms. Seated
on the broken wall was a man selling bread at exorbitant prices,
amid a chorus of curses and maledictions. Another, demented,
was trying to dig into the ruins with his fingers.

"The tunnel beyond Bagnara was impracticable. An enor-
mous portion of the mountain had fallen and obstructed the road.
We were forced to walk in the sand, often up to our knees in water.
Beyond the tunnel the track was torn and the rails twisted. Huge
rocks and dangerous masses came rumbling down momentarily.
We decided to climb the mountain and advance across the ravines
of brushwood.

"Night fell ; the rain was coming down in a deluge. My guides
marched more with their brains than their legs. I followed me-
chanically, though ready to drop. At 1 1 o'clock we reached Pavaz-
zina, a hamlet of 300 inhabitants. Only seven persons remained
and they were shivering under the shelter of a couple of sheets
stretched across two olive trees. They asked us pitifully for bread,
but we ourselves had not eaten since the start, and we knew not
what to answer ; so we left them hopeless.

"After eleven hours we had covered only twenty miles, every

102 WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES

step at the cost of the greatest exertions. Our clothes were soaked
and the torches had burned out. At Scylla we decided to rest, but
rest was impossible. The whole countryside, except to the north,
was completely blotted out. Walls were standing, but the interiors
had collapsed, carrying down the sleeping occupants."

A REFUGEE'S DRAMATIC STORY.

Giuseppe Cutroneo, a refugee who made his way to New York,
told the following dramatic story:

"I was in the cattle business in Messina, and to this fact I owe
my life. On the morning of December 28th, I got up at 4.15 o'clock
to take a trip into the country to buy steers. All was quiet as I left
my home, No. 188 Corso Victor Emmanuel, and walked to the
station, about a mile distant.

"The place where I used to buy cattle is called Milazzo. The
fare from Messina is sixty cents. I got my ticket and boarded
the train. As it happened, the car in which I took seat was the last
coach, which stood outside the train shed. Had I taken a forward
car I doubtless would have been killed. There were eleven or
twelve other men in the car. Some of us were about half asleep,
we had got out of bed so early.

"Of a sudden the car shot up in the air, falling with a crash
on one side. A deafening roar filled my head. The air became
suffocating. My body seemed to grow numb all at once. I don't
know how long I lay in a sort of stupor before I realized that there
was a hole over me, through which I climbed out.

"The spectacle again stupefied me. I thought the world had
come to an end and that I was in purgatory. I could not at first
recognize what I saw as Messina. Still the earth trembled and
quakes came intermittently, each one toppling over walls that had

WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES 103

been cracked or left standing by the first shock. I looked back at
the station. It had collapsed, the trainshed had fallen on the for-
ward part of the train and crushed it almost flat.

"As soon as I realized that I was still alive I thought of my
wife and three little children. I rushed back into Messina, although
now fires had started in all directions. Here would tower the flame
of a broken gas main, roaring and leaping like a gigantic torch.
There the wood skeleton of a house blazed like a hundred bonfires
in one. The air was full of smoke and dust. It was like a fog
that I groped through.

"Yet I could see near the shore a great rift, where the earth
had been torn apart. Into it many of the houses had fallen, catching
fire as they fell, so that the smoke that rose made the ditch look like
an elongated volcano.

"The people running about in the streets acted like lunatics.
Some were clambering over the ruins in their night clothes, search-
ing for father or mother, brother or sister. Through cracks the
people that still lived cried to those they feared were dead. Other
survivors whom I met had wound around them bits of carpet or bed
clothes, while others had forgotten all about apparel.

"I found only a heap of bricks, twisted iron and wood splinters
where I used to live. The five stories had tumbled into a heap
about fifteen feet high. My home was in a four-room flat on the
first floor. It had been buried at the bottom. Without thinking
how impossible was the task, I began to dig in the ruins. Down
below I could hear moans, and they made me work like a madman.

"I would sometimes think I heard my wife's cry, and I would
yell down into some crevice, 'Floria ! Floria ! Here is your Giuseppe !'
and then I would call to my children — to Diego, my six-year-old
little boy ; to Tony, who was four, and Natalina, the baby.

io4 WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES

"I was still digging, when some Russian soldiers came and
asked me if I did not want something to eat. Until then I did not
know I was hungry ; although I had gone twenty- four hours without
food. They told me I would go crazy if I stayed around the ruins
of my home any longer. The Russians were very kind to all of us.
They really did more than the men from the Italian man of war.
There were eighty people asleep in that house where I lived, and only
one or two besides myself escaped.

"For two days and a night I wandered about Messina until I
thought the sights of crime and death would drive me crazy. Ghouls
began to prey upon the dead, digging up corpses to rob them. When
the soldiers caught these fiends at work they would riddle them with
bullets. When I got hungry I went to the Russian sailors, and
they fed me. But for the Russians many of us would have
died.

"On the evening of December 28th, about 200 of the survivors,
including myself, went aboard the Regina Marguarita, which the
Government had made use of as a transport. We were carried to
Palermo. Some of us were so nearly naked that we hid in the hold
of the ship during the voyage. Men wore women's clothes, and
many women were dressed as men. One prominent politician of
Messina, who had been driven half insane by seeing his father
buried alive, walked around clad in a shawl.

"Many were so sick that we feared they would die. I myself
became so weak that on reaching Palermo I went to a hospital. On
my way I met a well-dressed man who, on learning I wanted to
come to America, gave me $38 for my passage."

He had only eighty cents on reaching New York, but those who
heard his tale quickly subscribed $25 for his aid.

WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES 105

BRIEF NARRATIVES OF ADVENTURE.

As the Serapin, a German steamer, was leaving Messina with
a load of refugees, a man made his way to the dock and called
repeatedly for his wife and children. The people on board listened
attentively. Then from the vessel came a woman's voice.

"I am here ! I am here I"

"Are the children there?"

"Yes, we are all here."

But there was no note of joy from the mother. Her heart was
benumbed by the experiences of the night.

When the Serapin docked the refugees were found sitting in
isolated groups. Physically they were utterly exhausted, and seemed
scarcely conscious of their surroundings.

One old man was carrying a little girl in his arms. The child
was covered with blood. "Is that your child ?" he was asked. "No,"
he replied. "Yesterday I found her on the pavement in Messina. No
one claimed her, and I could not abandon her. I have had her in
my arms ever since." Then the old man became oblivious to every-
thing around him.

There was one girl on board the German steamer, her clothing
tattered and torn, who had saved a canary bird. She was a music
hall singer. Her pet had clung to her throughout the terrible scenes
and perched on her finger the bird was chirping merrily. It was
the only happy thing on board that ship.

A soldier named Emilio de Castro related that on Sunday, the
day before the disaster, he was taken sick and was sent to the mili-
tary hospital. Early Monday morning he was awakened by a tre-
mendous roaring sound. He felt himself falling, and he though;
he was in the grip of a nightmare. It seemed to him that he had
awakened in hell, for the air was filled with terrifying shrieks.

106 WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES

He soon realized, however, what was happening. His bed
struck the floor below. It paused a moment, and was again pre-
cipitated. He struck the next floor, but this gave way at once,
and thus man and bed came down from the fifth floor to the ground.
He was not injured.

PARROT SAVED TWO WOMEN.

Here is a story of the work of rescue well worth repeating.
On the Sunday after the earthquake a party of rescuers heard a
faint cry of "Maria, Maria," coming from deep down in a great pile
of rubble. They thought it the voice of a sufferer in delirium and
they began to dig. They worked for two hours and finally reached
a bird cage containing what had once been a bright-plumed bird,
now bedraggled and dust-covered, but still voluble and lively. The
diggers were so exasperated that they yanked out the cage and one
of them suggested that they wring the worthless creature's neck.

But the removal of the cage uncovered a human hand. The
hand moved. They fell to work with greater fervor, and presently
they dragged from the dirt two living women. The doctors at the
hospital said that both would recover.

The animals of Messina were equal sufferers with its human
beings. Starvation was the fate of nearly all of them. A corres-
pondent tells the following pitiful stories:

"I tried to photograph yesterday a small monkey on the top of
a four-story wall, whence he could not descend, and the pitiful way in
which he chattered to me as I climbed over the rubbish beneath
him was almost human.

"As I passed the door of a warehouse to-day, the interior of
which had collapsed, I saw two dirty paws sticking out for half an
inch through a small crack beneath, and there came from within the

WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES 107

most heartrending wails that a cat's throat could utter. I had
chicken and meat in my pocket, and I poked half my lunch under the
crack of that door. The thanks I received were more eloquent than
any ever given me by human tongue-"

ODD FANCIES OF SURVIVORS.

An old woman was released from the wreckage of the Church
of San Francisco, who did not realize that she had been buried for
a week. She explained that she thought she was entombed in the
church after having died a natural death, and that she was living
in the hereafter.

Some of the survivors seemed to be quite incapable of helping
themselves in even the most elementary manner. The following inci-
dent is a good example of this condition. A correspondent met a
family consisting of father, mother and five children standing
practically naked in a small open square. The rain was coming
down in torrents.

"For the love of God, h«lp us to get out of this inferno," said
the father of the family. "That is easy enough," was the reply.
"Go down to the harbor and you will find boats ready to take you
away."

"How can we get there?" was the next question. "On your
two legs," was answered.

But the family refused to move, the father explaining that they
had no umbrellas. It did not occur to him that in their soaked and
almost naked condition they might safely dispense with umbrellas.

Here is another story of odd notions told by an observer:

"A short time after I came upon Signorina Tina Marina, a
well-known opera singer. She was as distracted as the other per-
sons we had met. In her hand she carried a strange appearing

io8 WONDERFUL RECORD OF THRILLING ESCAPES

cage, which upon investigation I found contained a number of live
canaries. Although they were chirping and hopping about inside
the covering, she persisted in telling me that all were dead. And
she would not discuss any other subject."

One dispatch supplies a touch of humor which almost shocks
by contrast to the tale of woe^ The Marquis Semmola was impri-
soned in a Messina cellar which was stocked with provisions. The
rescue party which was trying to extricate him was bidden to devote
their efforts to saving his children.

"Don't think of me," called out the Marquis, "I am in a bar
with plenty to eat and drink."

Paolo Riza, Mayor of Capriolo, was in Messina on a pleasure
trip that fateful morning. The floor of his room fell, and half con-
iscious he was precipitated into a mass of rubbish. His body lodged
in a niche in a wall, and he was pinioned by a heavy beam, his face
being covered by a carpet that threatened to suffocate him. He
managed to move the carpet with his teeth until he made an opening
in the folds through which he could breathe.

The man lay in this position for five hours, expecting death at .
any moment. Had it been possible, he says, he would have com-
mitted suicide. Once hope sprang up in his breast. A man passed
by and the Mayor called to him.

"What do you want ?" asked the newcomer.

"What do I want ?" repeated the Mayor. "Isn't it clear ? Help
me out ; get me out of here."

Just at this moment another shock came and the man ran away,
leaving the Mayor again alone. Finally the proprietor of the hotel
where the Mayor had been stopping came and effected his release.

CHAPTER X.

Italy's King and Queen Hasten to the Scene
of Desolation.

NO sooner had the news of the disaster at Messina reached
Rome and come to the ears of King Victor Emmanuel, than,
in consonance with his record in preceding national calami-
ties, he decided to proceed at once to Calabria and Sicily and do all in
his power to further the work of rescue, ordering a special train to
be made ready to take him as near as possible to the scene of the
disaster. From this point he designed to make use of any available
means of transport capable of conveying him to Messina and Reggio.

He was not to go alone, however. Queen Helena, on hearing
of his decision, resolved to accompany him, saying that she would
not give up her privilege of sharing all her husband's dangers. In
consequence, the King and Queen left Rome together on their errand
of mercy shortly after one o'clock of the 29th of December. A
number of Ministers, Senators and Deputies, together with the
Mayor of Rome, were at the station to bid them farewell.

Ambassador Griscom was the only diplomat to learn of the
departure of the King and Queen from Rome. He hurried to the
railroad station and offered his Majesty condolences in the name of
the United States, saying that the San Francisco disaster made it
possible for America to appreciate the calamity that had overtaken

southern Italy. The King and Queen thanked Mr. Griscom warmly

•

(109)

no ITALY'S KING AND QUEEN HASTEN TO SCENE

and asked him to convey their appreciation to the American Govern-
ment and people.

There was a great crowd at the station to see their Majesties
go. The women cried and said: "God bless you!" as they bade
farewell to their sovereigns.

Among the persons present were a number of Deputies, one of
whom, desiring to say something effective, remarked : "The presence
of your Majesty will suffice to control the stricken population."
Turning sharply upon the speaker, the King abruptly replied : "Don't
talk nonsense."

Proceeding by train to Naples, they embarked on the battle-
ship Victoria Emmanuale, reaching Messina early on the 3Oth. They
at once disembarked and made their way into the ruined city.

THE KING AND QUEEN AID THE RESCUERS.

People wept from emotion when they saw the King and Queen
of Italy come ashore. The women threw kisses to her Majesty and
both were practically carried up the pier in the arms of their sub-
jects. Crowds of the terror-stricken victims swarmed around the
royal party, prostrating themselves in the mud and crying aloud for
pity. This reception overcame her Majesty, who almost fainted.

The presence of the King acted as a general inspiration. Even
the wounded found fresh strength when they learned that his Ma-
jesty had arrived among them. An aged man who had been aban-
doned under a beam that apparently had crushed out his life revived
for a moment at the shouts of greeting to the royal pair. He
stretched out his hand and raised his head long enough to call out:
"Now I can die happy. Long life to the King!" He then fell back
and expired.

ITALY'S KING AND QUEEN HASTEN TO SCENE in

Many terrible stories were told to the King in connection with
the work of rescue. The recuers had to contend with the
deep-rooted superstition in the Sicilian mind. In many cases injured
men and women clung to the crumbling walls, refusing to let go their
hold and seek a safer position.

His Majesty, however, lost little time in listening to a recital
of difficulties. He immediately joined a rescue party and labored
as unremittingly as the others. His first act was personally to
extricate several injured persons pinned in the ruins.

The Queen quickly recovered from her faintness, caused by the
distressing sights on all sides, and followed the example of her
husband. She devoted her attention principally to the little chil-
dren and rescued with her own hands a little boy three years old
bleeding from many cuts and wounds, and carried him to tfie dock,
where she handed him over to members of the hospital corps.

This work was not without its perils, the King, while standing
in one of the streets, running great risk of being buried under the
falling walls of a wrecked building. After his work of inspection
in Messina, he visited all the wrecked villages along the Sicilian
coast, meeting everywhere the same scenes of desolation.

He sought Calabria on the 3ist, proposing to make a similar
inspection of the wrecked towns and villages in that province.
Reggio was reached in the early morning, and in company with the
Queen he visited the scenes of wreck and gave directions regarding
the work" of rescue. Then, re-embarking on a warship, he sent the
following wireless message to Premier Giolitti :

"I return from Reggio, which I found in a condition no less
disastrous than that at Messina. The Prefect of Reggio says that
grave injury has been done to the communes of his province. A

ii2 ITALY'S KING AND QUEEN HASTEN TO SCENE

Russian warship with 500 wounded on board will arrive at Naples
this morning, and everything must be prepared for their landing and
housing. Another Russian ship will carry wounded to Syracuse
It is desirable to provide at Naples a Russian ship with an abundance
of medical supplies."

On Friday, New Year's Day, the King took the decisive action
of removing from office the mayor and chief engineer of Messina,
charging them with supineness and failure to do their duty in the
work of rescue of the unfortunates buried in the ruins.

He continued his own labors in both the ruined cities, and
Queen Helena, despite his entreaties, refused to return to Rome,
saying that her post of duty at that dire time was among the
sufferers.

The presence of the King gave a great impetus to the relief
work. At Reggio he walked for hours amid the wreckage, appar-
ently taking no thought of food or fatigue in his devotion to the
needs of his subjects. Frequently he lent his hands to the work of
rescuing some unfortunate victim.

In one case he discovered a man pinned under the ruins. Only
his head and shoulders were visible. His Majesty summoned a
rescue party and while the men were at work he encouraged the
victim.

"Sire/' moaned the man, "I can wait for deliverance, but in
God's name give me food and drink."

Meeting a group of photographers engaged in taking pictures
of the sad scenes, the King chided them for their occupation.

"You had much better turn your efforts to succoring the
afflicted," said he.

Both Helena the Queen, and Helena the Duchess o* Aosta, were

ITALY'S KING AND QUEEN HASTEN TO SCENE 113

born on foreign soil, but the people of Italy could not but worship
them for their love and devotion, and the unselfish service to the
stricken sufferers given by these two women of high lineage has made
them doubly dear to all Italians. This devotion was particularly
strengthened by the Duchess conveying in her motor car many un-
fortunate little children from the bare hospitals to her royal palace
at Capodimonte.

The Queen looked far from well. She was exhausted, and the
terrible scenes she had witnessed affected her strongly. She wept
frequently, and on more than one occasion she covered the hands
of some unfortunate woman with her tears. With her own hands
she bound up their wounds, using her handkerchiefs when other
bandages were lacking. She also gave of her worldly possessions,
including the rings from her fingers, for their aid and relief.

THE QUEEN HURT IN HER WORK.

While engaged in one of the improvised hospitals, Queen
Helena was hurt as a result of the wild outcry of a crazy man, who
rushed in screaming: "The end of the world has come. The earth
has fallen in. Save yourselves! Save yourselves!"

A wounded woman, to whom the Queen was attending, sprang
in terror from her bed and started to run to the door. The Queen,
with great presence of mind, placed herself in front and extended
her arms to stop her. But the woman was out of her mind with
{right. She lowered her head and precipitated herself on the Queen,
driving her head with full force against her Majesty's breast. The
Queen fell backward. Her mouth became full of blood and this
bleeding continued for some time. Yet the next day she continued

ii4 ITALY'S KING AND QUEEN HASTEN TO SCENE

her work as usual, although every now and then her lips were
reddened with blood.

On the. 3d the King and Queen returned to Rome, but their
work was not given up, a portion of the Quirinal palace being con-
verted into a workshop in which a number of women were kept busy,
under the superintendence of Helena herself, in making clothing
for the refugees, while the two little princesses, six and seven years
old, were given a corner in which they occupied themselves in mak-
ing dolls' clothes for the poor little Calabrian children. The prom-
ise was made them that, if they did this well, they would be
promoted to the work of making baby clothes, a promise that filled
to the brim their cup of pride. The King took his share by placing
two of the royal palaces at the disposition of those engaged in
succoring the victims. The quick and warm response of the two
royal persons to the needs of the suffering did much to endear them
to their subjects, Sicilian and Italian as well.

CHAPTER XL

The Buried Thousands and the Noble Band

of Rescuers.

DAY had barely dawned upon ruined Messina, on the fatal
Monday morning of December 28th, when the hands of
rescuers were at work in the desolate streets. Only a miser-
able fragment of the populace had escaped from their fallen homes.
Of the remainder uncounted thousands lay dead in the ruins- But
thousands besides were buried alive in the fallen wreck, some of
them visible, others made known only by their call for help or moans
of pain, and to save the latter from their living death became a
duty of immediate and pressing importance.

Many ships lay in the harbor, and from these, when their crews
had recovered from the terrifying effects of the tidal wave that had
lifted and flung the vessels about like corks, the warm-hearted sailors
landed and lost no time in beginning the noble work of rescue.

British, French and Russian warships which were near at hand
were rushed to the harbor and their sailors and marines sent ashore,
where they at once began the perilous work of removing the
wounded from the tottering ruins and conveying them to places of
safety. A large number of the rescued were transferred to these
and to the Italian warships, which became great floating hospitals,
doctors and druggists beisig hurried to the scene.

The British sailors began their work by saving a family of five

(us)

n6 THE BURIED THOUSANDS AND THEIR RESCUERS

who were imprisoned in a boarding house. They aided in extract-
ing many more who were pinioned beneath the mass of wreckage.
The crews of the Russian ships Bogatyr and Slava were equally
prompt and efficient, and showed such courage and daring in their
work among the unsafe ruins as to win the highest commendation,
their praises being on every lip. They hesitated before no danger,
digging under tottering walls or entering the unsafest shells when
asked to do so by some frantic woman who had not lost all hope
that husband or child was still alive.

THRILLING INCIDENTS.

The intrepidity of these heroes from the North led them to dare
the greatest risks, as the following story shows :

The incident happened the day following the great quake. A
party of Russian sailors found in the center of the town the rear
wall of a four-story house still standing precariously. A foot or
two of the third and fourth floors remained and upon these narrow
ledges were clinging two women and three children crying for help.
There were no ladders and rescue seemed impossible. The brave
bluejackets did a heroic thing. While one stood on another's shoul-
der against the outside of the wall, a third carrying a pick, climbed
over them, and using his implement as an ice pick, drove it into the
mortar high above his head. By this means he pulled himself up to a
window sill, released his pick, used it again in the same way to gain a
nearer window above, and finally reached the terror-stricken refugees
high in the air. He lowered them with a rope to his comrades
and then slid down himself. The little party assembled in the nar-
row courtyard, prepared to depart, and one of the sailors was wrap
ping his jacket around one of the almost naked children. At that
moment the tottering wall fell upon them and killed every one, alike
the victims so perilously saved and the brave rescuers. .

THE BURIED ^THOUSANDS AND THEIR RESCUERS 117

The work of rescue at the home of the British chaplain, Hulatt,
was most pathetic The rescue party, through heroic efforts, had
succeeded on Saturday in reaching a portion of the ruins from under
which came groans, indicating that one or more of the inmates of
what had been a house were yet living. This fact infused fresh
vigor into the men, and they worked heroically; but although they
continued in their efforts until late into the night no success
rewarded their efforts.

Work was resumed at daybreak Sunday, when the men fell to
their task with a vim, feeling certain that Hulatt, his wife and four
children were alive beneath the debris. Only a voice was heard now ;
and that seemingly in amentation. Still the rescuers, among whom
were a number of sailors, persevered. Evening fell, and at 8.14 there
was another distinct shock of earthquake, which rendered the situa-
tion to those who were endeavoring to give succor extremely danger-
ous, as the tottering walls about them threatened momentarily to
collapse and bury them with the victims already there.

The sailors, however, forgetful of the danger, continued their
task, refusing to be denied the chance of rescue, and their per-
sistence was soon rewarded, for they found the bodies of Hulatt and
one child lying in bed, both dead. The bodies were badly crushed
and it seemed as though death had been instantaneous^ Undeterred
by this gruesome find, the men kept hard at work until finally the
groans beneath the twisted ruins ceased and they were convinced
that the entire family had perished. Only then the men quit work.

"IS ANY ONE THERE?"

Everywhere rescue parties of soldiers, sailors, and firemen kept
unflaggingly at work, their incessant cry, "Is any one there." being
heard on every side as they searched diligently among the ruins.

u8 THE BURIED THOUSANDS AND THEIR RESCUERS

A voice, a groan even, in response would set them vigorously at
work. All those lifted from the wreckage were covered with a man-
tle of white dust that made them look like living images in plaster.
So thick was it, that hundreds were probably smothered beneath its
choking weight.

Under some wreckage inclosed in a kind of little cubbyhole and
protected by two heavy beams two little babes were discovered, safe
and uninjured. They were as comfortable as possible, laughing and
playing with the buttons on their clothes. No trace could be found
of their parents, who undoubtedy lost their lives-
Several children who were taken from the ruins in the first day
when hunger was not so pressing, cried and kicked until favorite
dolls or toys were found, and one youngster was found still clasping
a Teddy bear in his arms.

A sailor who went ashore at Reggio relates that during his
work of rescue he was attracted by a sound of infant voices. Look-
ing under a fallen beam he found twins about a year old in a basket.
They were uninjured and their clothing was of the best. They
have not yet been claimed.

On the Russian warship Tsarevitch, which took many refugees
to Naples, three babies were born. The Russian officers drank the
health of each newcomer in champagne. A Russian sailor offered to
adopt one of the infants, but the mother would not part with it.

SAD FATE OF CONSUL CHENEY.

Of the Americans in Sicily, fortunately all escaped death but
two, these being United States Consul Arthur S, Cheney and his
wife, who were buried in the ruins of the American consulate.
Their fate was first discovered by the Vice-Consul Stuart K. Lupton,

THE BURIED THOUSANDS AND THEIR RESCUERS 119

who escaped from the Hotel Vittoria, wearing only his trousers and
carrying his shoes and overcoat in his hands. On his way he met
a man and woman, both quite naked, and laid the overcoat over the
woman's shoulders. Reaching the Consular building, he found that
it had entirely collapsed. Over its ruins he climbed, calling out
"Cheney! Cheney!" but received no reply.

He continued feverishly to climb over the ruins, hoping against
hope, until convinced against his will that the Cheneys had perished,
and were buried beyond reach, a neighboring building having col-
lapsed upon the ruins of the Consulate.

Nothing remained to be done but the pitiful work of excavating
the ruins and recovering their bodies, and a force of sixty soldiers
were put at work on this task, which proved difficult and dangerous.
On January 1 5th, the American battleship Illinois reached Messina
from the fleet at Suez and a number of sailors were at once sent
ashore to aid the excavating force.

During the afternoon they succeeded in uncovering what had
been the bedroom of the Cheneys and in taking out the bodies, which
had lain there for eighteen days. There was every reason to believe
that death had overtaken them while asleep.

The bodies were at once prepared for shipment and taken on
board the American supplyship Culgoa to be conveyed to Naples.
The caskets containing them were sealed and each was wrapped in
an American flag, American sailors carrying them reverently to
the water front, while Italian soldiers and sailors saluted and the
people stood by with lifted hats and saddened faces. Arrange-
ments were quickly made for their conveyance with due honor to the
United States, as the sad contribution of this nation to the dire roll
of dead at Messina.

CHAPTER XII.

World-Wide Sympathy and the Universal
Brotherhood of Man.

THE heart of man beats responsive throughout the world and
sympathy for one another in misfortune extends to the ends
of the earth. Let the occasion arise and the reply is prompt
and heartfelt. This is especially the case in our days, when the
means of communication between the nations of all regions and climes
are so prompt that we learn of disasters in the Antipodes almost at
the moment of their occurrence, and have them detailed to us in
such vivid reality that we seem almost to be gazing at them as they
occur. And our hearts beat with desire to help our brothers of
whatever race or color, for in these days the universal brotherhood
of man is almost a thing accomplished, so closely linked are all the .
people of the world by bonds of immediate association.

A very recent example of this was in the case of the destructive
earthquake and fire at San Francisco in 1906, when the people of the
whole United States stood half paralyzed in startled sympathy, feel-
ing toward the sufferers as though they were brothers in blood, and
pouring out of their wealth in unstinted profusion for the relief of
the sufferers.

These, no doubt, were sons of our own land, linked to us by
the ties of nationality, but in the case of the frightful volcanic erup-
tion of Mount Pelee, a few years earlier, and the destruction of

(xao)

WORLD-WIDE SYMPATHY xai

St. Pierre with all its inhabitants, the sentiment felt for the victims
of this disaster was none the less intense and the haste to aid them
none the less immediate. The same brotherly feeling was manifested
in that other recent disaster, when the city of Kingston, Jamaica,
was overwhelmed by a seismic cataclysm and the sympathy and aid
of the world were called for. As might be expected from these
examples, the terrible disaster in Sicily and Italy, in the closing days
of 1908, awakened a like 'heartfelt response.

The heart of the whole world was touched by the dire disaster
and the sufferings of the victims, and expressions of sympathy and
offers of aid came from all the nations of Europe and of those in
America from Canada to Rio Janeiro, and other capitals of the far
South. From the rulers came expressions of condolence and from
their subjects spontaneous contributions of that aid which brings the
world closer together in times of great calamity. A hundred ships
and trains, bearing supplies, were quickly on the way to the desolated
region, and all the Ambassadors and Ministers in Rome hastened
to express their deep sympathy with Italy in her affliction.

CONDOLENCE AND RELIEF.

•

Among the earliest and promptest to offer condolence and aid
was the United States, which entered upon the work with a spon-
taneous activity that promised the best results. The first expression
of sympathy came in the following cablegram from President Roose-
velt to the Italian King:

"His Majesty Victorio Emmanuele, Rome:

"With all my countrymen, I am appalled by the dreadful calamity
which has befallen your country. I offer my sincerest sympathy.

i32 WORLD-WIDE SYMPATHY

The American National Red Cross has issued an appeal for contri-
butions for the sufferers and notified me that it will immediately
communicate with the Italian Red Cross.

"THEODORE ROOSEVELT."

The appeal for contributions here mentioned was quickly and
abundantly responded to throughout our country, as similar appeals
were being responded to in all the countries of Europe.

Stricken Italy had brought the nations of the world together in
a common cause as never before in history. From every quarter
of civilization relief funds and supplies poured into the country
desolated by the earthquake, a work marked by a magnitude and
displaying a unanimity without parallel in all the centuries that have
gone before.

Coming at a time of profound and universal peace, and yet a
time when the various powers were vicing with each other in demon-
strations of their martial power and greatness, the piteous disaster
seemed to have suddenly changed the whole rivalry of arms to
rivalry of mercy instead. All in all, the Italian disaster became a
greater force towards the accomplishment of peace and brother-
hood among the nations than the most promising of the conferences
at the Hague.

THE CELTIC OFF FOR MESSINA.

The first material response from this country came on December
3 1st, when the naval supply ship Celtic, laden with 1,500,000 rations
for the supply of the fleet then nearing Suez, sailed for Messina
under orders from the Navy Department at Washington. Admiral
Sperry, in command of the fleet, had wired from the Red Sea that

WORLD-WIDE{SYMPATHY 123

"the men could wait until after the starving and homeless people of
Italy were cared for," and in response to his generous request the
loading of the Celtic was rushed through, and at 3 P. M., she set
sail from New York on her errand of mercy.

"We will have enough food," said Captain Huse, "to feed 30,000
people for 100 days. Aboard are 1,500,000 full army rations, which
can easily be made into 3,000,000 ordinary rations.

"The lumber and tents are to provide shelter for the homeless.
Shacks and canvas can be furnished for 50,000 people. Some of

the tents are those of the hospital service, each one of which can
shelter a score or more. The Celtic makes about two hundred and
fifty miles a day, and as the distance to Messina is about 3,200 miles,
we ought to make the trip in thirteen days."

In Rome Ambassador Griscom was equally prompt and ardent.
He chartered for two weeks an Austrian steamer of 8,000 tons,
loaded it with medical supplies and provisions, put on it three doctors
and fifty nurses, and despatched it without delay to the land of
need. For the $60,000 cost, he looked for reimbursement to the gen-
erous American people.

This work of international sympathy was received with expres-
sions of warm feeling from the King and the Premier of Italy, the
later saying:

"What the United States has done on this occasion is magnifi-
cent, and shall not be forgotten. The United States stands first,
out-distancing all others in sympathy and generosity. Our grati-
tude is so great that we cannot find words in which to express it
fittingly."

All this was but preliminary. On January 4th, the United
States Congress spoke for the whole American people in voting the

1 24 WORLD-WIDE^SYMPA TH Y

splendid sum of $800,000 for relief work in Italy, in response to the
following message from President Roosevelt:

"The appalling calamity which has befallen the people of Italy
is followed by distress and suffering throughout a wide region
among many thousands who have escaped with life, but whose
shelter and food and means of living are destroyed. The ordinary
machinery for supplying the wants of civilized communities is para-
lyzed, and an exceptional emergency exists which demands that the
obligations of humanity shall regard no limit of national lines.

"The immense debt of civilization to Italy ; the warm and stead-
fast friendship between that country and our own ; the affection for
their native land felt by great numbers of good American citizens
who' are immigrants from Italy ; the abundance with which God has
blessed us in our safety; all these should prompt us to immediate
and effective relief."

Of this sum, $300,000 was to reimburse the Navy Department
for the cost of the supplies on the Celtic, already despatched, and
the Culgoa, which was loading up with supplies at Port Said, pre-
liminary to starting on the same errand of mercy.

THE PEOPLE'S AID.

While the Government thus sprang actively to the aid of
stricken Italy, the people of our country were similarly engaged.
Crowds were eager to contribute, the New York fund growing until
it neared half a million dollars, and other cities adding their quota
until the total surpassed a million. The Canadian government con-
tributed $100,000, and every civilized nation of Europe and America
added generously to the sum total.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Red Cross Society, the Lighthouse of Inter-
national Charity, Sends Its Beneficent Aid.

THE tidings of the disaster in Sicily had barely reached the
nations of the civilized world before the Red Cross Society,
that international realm of sympathy and charity, was actively
astir in its work of beneficent aid, bringing all its energies and the
opportunities of its organization to bear on the collection and
despatch of funds for the benefit of the earthquake victims. Money
flowed with remarkable freedom into its coffers, and flowed out of
them as freely for the amelioration of the sufferers from the catas-
trophe.

Not only in the United States, but in many other lands, was this
activity manifested, the International Red Cross Society being an
informal union between the Red Cross Societies of the several
nations to work in unison for the relief of the afflicted in every land
and clime. It is so organized as to make its labors wonderfully
effective. Every dollar sent, for instance, by the Red Cross of
America to the Red Cross of Italy, goes by cable order, and is put to
work at once, the cable order serving the purpose of the money itself.
Thus almost on the eve of the day of the disaster $50,000 were
telegraphed under the ocean to Italy, and the cash was there imme-
diately forthcoming for the purchase of supplies.

Shall we speak here of the organization of this help-giving

das)

ia6 THE RED CROSS SOCIETY SENDS AID

society, in which the best instincts of the age are embodied? A
brief statement of it will surely be of interest. It originated in the
several societies previously in existence for the care of the sick and
wounded in time of war. These had adopted the Red Cross as their
badge and emblem, and were first brought together as an inter-
national association at Geneva, in 1863. Other conferences have
since been held, but the International Committee at Geneva still
persists, as a central body to facilitate the action of the different
national societies.

The Red Cross Society in the United States was organized by
Miss Clara Barton in 1881, and at once joined the International
Union. It was due to Miss Barton that disasters of all kinds, such
as those of flood, famine, pestilence, etc., were added to war in the
scope of such associations. This broader idea, applied by her to the
American Society, was immediately adopted by the societies abroad,
and incorporated among their duties under the name of the "Ameri-
can Amendment." As a result, the American National Red Cross
Society has collected and distributed large sums for the relief of
suffering in such cases of calamity as the Johnstown flood, the
Russian famine, the Galveston tidal wave, the Mississippi over-
flows, the Mount Pelee and San Francisco disasters, and on other
occasions of urgent need of assistance.

The American Society was definitely organized, under a charter
granted by Congress, in 1900, and in 1904 was incorporated under a
second act of Congress, Mr. Taft, then Secretary of War, being
chosen for its president. But it still lacked completeness of or-
ganization for effective work, the collection and expenditure of
money being left to local groups, as a rule untrained in such work
and unprepared for ready and effective aid in a sudden contingency.

THE RED CROSS SOCIETY SENDS AID 1*7

To obviate this weakness in its make up, two new features were
added at its meeting in December, 1908. The new office of National
Director was created, its incumbent to be the executive officer of the
Central Committee, to give his entire time to the work, and to repre-
sent the Red Cross in the distribution of money or supplies, in any
case of need. To aid him in this work a new class of members of
the Society was instituted, these to be called Institutional Mem-
bers, and to be drawn from the great charitable organizations of
the country. Thus a trained director would be aided by trained
assistants, and by the aid of such officials its effectiveness would be
greatly increased, alike in the .collection and distribution of funds
and the other demands upon its activity.

It was divided into three departments, those of War Relief,
Emergency Relief, and International Relief, each under the care of
a special board. As thus organized, it rose at once to the position
of one of the most prominent institutions of the country. Mr. Taft
consenting to be re-elected as its President, it thus has the President
of the United States at its hea4- Mr. Ernest P. Buckness, for eleven
years General Superintendent of the Chicago Bureau of Charities,
accepted the position of National Director, and on its War Relief
Board are officers of the Army and Navy ; on its Emergency Relief
Board, men and women of wide experience in relief work ; and on its
International Relief Board, officers of the United States Department
of State-

This statement of the new and effective organization of the
American Red Cross Society is of immediate interest in view of the
fact that its services were urgently called for within two weeks from
the time its improved constitution was adopted. Occupied at the
time in the war against tuberculosis, for which funds were being

i»8 THE RED CROSS SOCIETY SENDS AID

collected by the sale of the Christmas Red Cross Stamps, a sudden
and immense test of its improved powers was made a few days later,
when the tidings of the dire disaster in Sicily and Calabria came on
the wires under the ocean waves and stirred the heart of Americans
to that labor of charity to which it is ever ready to respond.

The branches of the Society both here and abroad lost not an
instant, leaping into the breach with the alertness and effectiveness
for which they have long been notable.

Thoughout the entire United States there was hardly a city,
village or hamlet which did not join, without a day's loss of time,
in the work of raising relief funds for the earthquake sufferers.
From East, West, North and South came reports of contributions,
large and small. By midnight it was estimated that many thousands
of dollars had been subscribed to the fund in the United States.

From Germany came tidings that its Red Cross Society had dis-
patched a special car with hospital supplies for the wounded, and
that a second car was being got ready for sending on the following
day, the Emperor receiving in farewell audience Dr. Frank Colmers,
of the Society, whom the German Aid Committee sent at once to
Italy.

From other countries similar news was received and it was
widely evident that the energies of the Society everywhere were
enlisted in making the prompt response necessary. The first to
leave America on similar duty was Edmund Billings, of the Massa-
chusetts Relief Committee, who embarked for Messina for the dis-
tribution of the funds raised for the sufferers in that State.

So great was the activity of the American Society that by
December 31, three days after the news of the disaster was received,
it already had $100,000 ready for use, and much of it had been cabled
to the American Embassy at Rome, to be turned over to the Italian

THE RED CROSS SOCIETY SENDS AID iap

Red Cross Society. Through the latter Society it was decided that
all relief for the sufferers should be administered.

By the fourth of January the fund in the hands of the Society
had grown to a quarter million of dollars, and this sum Mr. Griscom,
the American Ambassador to Italy, delivered to Count Taverna,
head of the Italian Red Cross. Count Taverna was overwhelmed
and said he would make an exception to the rule which forbids distri-
buting money through any but Red Cross channels, and he returned
to the Ambassador $2,000 which he had contributed to the expenses
of the relief ship. The Count added that one of the greatest diffi-
culties to be encountered is the prompt distribution of supplies, and
therefore outside help was warmly welcomed. On the following
day, January the fifth, the subscriptions to the American Red Cross
Society had swollen to $400,000, and on the sixth they reached the
total of half a million, all of which was cabled without delay for dis-
tribution by Count Taverna and the Society which he represented.

Subscriptions continued to come in during the following days,
and the beneficent work of the Society continued as long as any evi-
dence of suffering remained. In aid of its labors, the United States
Government had prepared and sent to Italy the materials for about
3,000 small houses for the shelter of earthquake sufferers, all red
tape being swept aside, so that the vessels containing this material
might be sent without delay.

The first vessel to be loaded was the Eva, which sailed about
January 22-, and had capacity for the materials for about 500 houses.
\Yith the lumber were sent nails, putty and glass, so that the houses
could be put together with expedition. The remainder was to
follow within a few weeks, the whole being sufficient to shelter a
small city of fugitives who had been living in tents, where they had
any shelter at all.

CHAPTER XIV.

The Summing Up After the Great Catastrophe.

THE tale of the great earthquake as recited in the foregoing
page is necessarily brief. It is but a bird's-eye view of one
of the most destructive, if, indeed, it is not the most terrible,
calamity that nature has visited upon mankind since the days of
the flood. The actual loss of life will never be known. The most
conservative estimates of the destruction wrought instantly and
that which followed immediately after nature's throes of forty
seconds, in the doomed cities of Reggio and Messina, and the
country adjoining them both in Italy and Sicily, stagger the human
mind to comprehend. It is a catastrophe before which civilization
stands aghast.

It is said that Italy in this disaster lost more of her children than
Russia lost in battle in the whole of her war with Japan — the most
deadly combat in modern history. San Francisco's loss of
life, in 1906, when earthquake and fire destroyed that splendid
metropolis of the West, was insignificant in comparison with this
great Italian earthquake which devastated the garden spot of the
Mediterrean country during the closing days of 1908. The destruc-
tion of ancient Pompeii was hardly one hundredth part as great in
the sacrifice of human life as was this modern cataclysm which fills
the world with sorrow. It is a picture of tragic pathos before which
civilization stands in tearful, and yet in fascinated awe.

As the tidings of the great catastrophe came in, many items of

(X3°)

SUMMING UP AFTER THE CATASTROPHE 131

interest became known, and certain variations in the early tidings
were made. At first, for instance, it was reported that radical
changes had been made in the depth of the Strait, the harbor channel
growing deeper in some places and shallower in others, and that at a
point in the Straits where there had been 1500 feet of depth, shallow
water prevailed. It was also reported that the shore line had greatly
changed. In reverse of this opinion it was later reported that the
sea front showed little if any change, and that the geological effects
of the convulsion were very slight;.

SAVING THE TREASURE.

Mr. Henry R. Chamberlain tells the following story of the
saving of the bank treasures :

"I happened to be present about noon to-day at the rescue of
the great treasure in the vaults of the Bank of Italy in the Via
Garibaldi, and the work had a startling climax. The building was
the strongest in Messina, and it had been specially designed to resist
earthquake shocks. Against the protests of the engineers, the
authorities had insisted upon a deep foundation of concrete. Above
this were several layers of alternate iron and concrete, upon which
rested the strongroom.

"In this were stored the bulk of all the savings-bank deposits
of Sicily, amounting to more than $6,000,000 in gold and cash
and securities represnting. about $15,000,000 more. The superstruc-
ture had been badly damaged, but the strongroom was intact. A
group of escaped prisoners tried to loot the place on the day of the
earthquake, and several were shot by the police and soldiers.

"Nothing had been touched when the strongroom was opened
yesterday for the first time, after several days' work in removing
the accumulated debris. The specie was safely removed under

132 SUMMING UP AFTER THE CATASTROPHE

guard and taken aboard a battleship. To-day they got out the safe
containing the bulk of the securities,. A large force of men, guarded
by a double line of 200 soldiers, slowly hoisted the big steel box to
the surface. Just after noon they had succeeded with tackle and
ropes in dragging it through the entrance into the street.

"As I watched the operation there came suddenly the noise of
a terrific explosion as if a loo-ton gun had been fired close at hand.
The earth rocked and vibrated, and a moment later the walls of the
building, which had withstood the shock of a week ago, fell inward
with a great crash and up rose a suffocating cloud of dust. The
200 soldiers dropped their guns and fled in terror.

"The safe with its millions remained deserted for a few mo-
ments until the savage execrations of two or three officers brought
back the shamefaced troops. Had the shock come ten minutes
earlier half a hundred workmen would have been buried in the
ruins and there would have been another small tragedy to record."

It need hardly be said in conclusion that the treasure was safely
recovered and removed from the stricken city. The funds in another
of the banks, amounting to several millions, had already been re-
moved by Russian sailors and taken to Naples, and much other
wealth was recovered. All the treasure found was taken aboard
the warships. One pocketbook was picked up containing $14,000,
and much clothing was found at Messina and elsewhere with bank-
notes sewed in it.

Mr. Chamberlain further states: "I have paid little attention
to the subject of the pecuniary loss by this disaster. It may amount
to $50,000,000 — perhaps five times that sum would be nearer the
truth. I have not even attempted to count the cities and villages
which have been destroyed in this large area. All are architectur-

SUMMING UP AFTER THE CATASTROPHE 133

ally ruined, and they included a population of more than 3,000,000
souls."

There has been much interest in the effect of the Sicilian earth-
quake and the Messina conflagration upon the foreign insurance
companies operating in that section.

All the European companies have strong earthquake clauses
in their policies, exempting them from liability for losses caused
directly or indirectly by earthquakes,.

In spite of this fact the English and German companies have
been held, both at San Francisco and Kingston, Jamaica, for earth-
quake losses, and it is probable similar attempts will be made by
the Sicilian policyholders.

The principal Italian stock companies are the Compagnia de
Milano and the Fohdiaria, of Florence, while the leading mutual is
the Reale Mutau, of Turin. The Austrian companies, which have
closer relations with Italy, operate generally in that country, the
leaders being the Assicurazioni Generali and Ruinione Adriatica
ui Sicurta, both of Trieste.

The most serious effects upon foreign insurance companies
are feared among the life and casualty companies, as the deaths of
from 150,000 to 200,000 would naturally mean many heavy claims.
While most of these were peasants, hundreds of wealthy merchants
in Messina and other large cities were killed, and it is also believed
scores of tourists lost their lives, most of whom would carry large
insurances.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN ON ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE.

"It is an ineradicable custom of the Italian race to build its
habitations, even in the smallest villages, crowded and huddled to-
gether, as if space was so valuable that light and air must be sacri-

134 SUMMING UP AFTER THE CATASTROPHE

ficed to it. So-called streets are narrow lanes, giving passage to
single vehicles, and without provision for pedestrians.

"This was not true of Messina, yet even there the streets aver-
aged less than forty feet in width; the buildings, including private
dwellings, were in solid blocks, with never any space between.
Squares and open spaces were rare. Such a construction in an
earthquake country is nothing less than a death-trap. To this more
than to the violence of the earth's convulsion is due the phenomenal
proportion of the casualties,.

"San Francisco thought she suffered from an earthquake of the
first magnitude. It was child's play, compared with this cataclysm.
Messina was shaken as a terrier shakes a rat, until she dropped,
bleeding and lifeless, into her own dust. Some say that it was an
incredibly violent and swift yanking from side to side, followed by
equally rapid upheavals and depressions. Others reverse the pro-
cess. Some speak of the nauseating effect of the up-and-down
motion, but the peril and struggle to escape were too compelling to
give way to mere dizziness."

One of the most remarkable things about the Messina earth-
quake was the length of time that persons lived entombed in the
ruins. Had the propositions to burn the place or to cover it with
quicklime for the destruction of the decomposing bodies been carried
out, a number of persons would have been destroyed who were finally
rescued, long after all thought of any one surviving under the wreck
had been abandoned. More than once the search was given up as
hopeless, to be renewed again when chance led to another rescue.
Here is one example in which a dream led to a rescue.

A Sicilian soldier who had escaped from the collapse, dreamed
that his fiancee was still alive in the ruins of her home. So vivid
was his vision that he obtained permission from his commanding

SUMMING UP AFTER THE CATASTROPHE 135

officer to go with a companion and search. He called her many
times and got no response. Then they selected what seemed a
favorable spot and began digging. They worked on indefatigably,
frequently stopping to shout into the ruins. After about three
hours they thought they heard a faint reply.

Frantically they delved into the vast heap, and shortly before
noon the dream was realized. The girl lived, just lived, and
they dragged her out. Help was summoned, the stretcher bearers
came. They gave the poor creature brandy and milk and she re-
vived a little. The transports of her rescuer may be imagined as
he walked by her side holding her hand as they carried her to the
shore and finally gave her in charge of the nurse of a hospital ship.
This humble dreamer of dreams never heard of telepathy. He be-
lieves he had a vision from heaven, and who shall deny it?

Even on the nineteenth day after the earthquake a survivor was
saved from a living tomb. This was an aged and decrepit woman,
unconscious, yet still breathing. But most of those found late were
children, who survived the shock better than their elders. A five-
year-old boy was found alive and well in the ruins of Reggio two
weeks after the disaster. Two girls and a bor lay for eighteen days
under a pile of ruins. They had a supply of oil, wine, onions and
water that kept them from starvation, and dug themselves so far out
that their cries were heard by some passing soldiers. A man who
had been caught across the waist by the fall of his house and had
watched his wife and children die without being able to help them,
was rescued on the fourteenth day.

THE FUTURE OF MESSINA.

What should be the fate of Messina was a question that excited
much attention. Should it be left a ruin and its perilous locality

136 SUMMING UP AFTER THE CATASTROPHE

deserted, or should it rise again from its wrecked condition ? Signer
Orlando, Italian Minister of Justice, insisted that it should be rebuilt.

"You cannot blot out," he said, "twenty centuries of history.
The town will be rebuilt as soon as possible. It will be impossible
to leave deserted the spot where a city of 150,000 inhabitants
flourished, even if 100,000 of the inhabitants perished. The other
50,000 will refuse to abandon their native city forever.

"Loans without interest, spread over a great number of years,
will be made to landowners and a judicial commission be at once
created whose duties will be to see that the rights of property are
respected. I should consider Messina as an existing town even if
only three houses remained. I am full of hope you will see Messina
rebuilt within two years in accordance with modern ideas and follow-
ing the example Japan has adopted in districts subject to earth-
quakes. There will arise, I am sure, another Messina, with at least
fifty thousand inhabitants."

The final decision seemed to be , however, that the ruin-covered
site should be abandoned and a new town grow up on a new and
unencumbered site, a mile distant from the old, thus escaping the
great cost and toil of removing the vast heap of ruins. Many of
the survivors, however, refused to leave the sites of their homes on
any conditions, and as an example of the vitality of the place it may
be stated that, in three weeks after the earthquake, lights and water
had been restored in Messina, and the shipping of oranges and
lemons had been resumed.

MADE INSANE BY TERROR.

Terrifying experience, fearful shock and mortal peril rob men's minds of reason. This
calamity was added to the miseries of many inhabitants of the ill-fated Italian cities.

BOOK II.

History and Causes of Earthquakes,

Volcanoes and other Seismic

Phenomena.

C37)

NOTABLE EARTHQUAKES OF WORLD'S HISTORY

A. D.

157 — Pontus and Macedonia, Asia, 150
cities and thousands of lives de-
stroyed.

626. — Antioch, earthquake, 250,000 esti-
mated killed.

742 — Syria, Palestine and Asia, 500 towns
destroyed, loss of life incalculable.
938 — Constantinople overturned, all
Greece shaken.

1137 — Catania, Sicily, destroyed, 15,000
killed.

1288 — Cilicta, Asia Minor, 60.000 killed.

1458— December 5, Naples, 40,000 killed.

1531— February 2(j, Lisbon, 30,000 killed.

1623— July 30, Naples, 70,000 killed.

1637— Schamaki, 80,000 killed.

1692 — June 7, Port Royal, Jamaica, 3000
killed.

1693— September, Sicily, 100,000 killed.

1703— February 2, Tokio, Japan, 200,000
killed.

1708— November 3, Abuzzi, Italy, 5000
killed.

1716— Algeria, 20,000 killed.

1728— September 1, Palermo, Italy, 6000
killed.

1731— November 30, Pekin, China, 100,000
killed.

1746 — October 28, Lin.a and Callao, Peru
18,000 killed.

1754— Cairo, Egypt, 40,000 killed.

1755— November 1, Lisbon, 50,000 killed.

1759— October 20, Syria, 20,000 killed.

1773 — June 7, Santiago, Guatemala, com-
pletely engulfed.

1783 — February 5, Messina, 60,000 killed.

1797 — February 4. Santa Fe to Panama,
40,000 killed.

1812— March 26, Caracas Venezuela, 12.000
killed.

1822 — August 10, Aleppo, Spain, 20,000
killed.

1851— August 14, Melfi, Italy, 14.COO killed.

1852 — September 16, Manila, Philippines,
partially destroyed.

1855 — Tokio nearly destroyed.

1857— December 16, Calabria, Italy, 10.COO
killed.

1859— March 22,Quito,Ecuador, ECCC killed.

1860— March 20. Mendoza, S. A., 7COO
killed.

1833— July 2, Manila, 1000 killed.

1863 — August 15. Peru and Ecuador, 25.-
000 killed.

1875 — May 15, Colombia, South America.
14.000 killed.

1881— April 3, Scio. Italy, 4000 killed.

1883 — October 16, Anatolio, Asia, and
other towns destroyed.

1885— July 8, Cashmere 70,000 homes de-
molished.

1886— August 31, Charleston, S. C., 98
killed.

1887 — February 24, coast from Corsica to
Lyons and Geneva, Switzerland,
Italy and France • more than 20CO
killed.

1887— May 5, Hawaii, 167 killed.

1888— March. Yun Nan, China, 4000 killed.

1891 — Multitudes killed in Japan.

1902— Martinique, 32,500 killed.

1905— Southern Italy, 650 killed.

1903 — San Francisco earthquake, esti-
mated 1,600 killed.

1907— Kingston. 800 killed.

1908 — Earthquake and tidal wave in Italy.

(138)

CHAPTER XV.

Famous Earthquakes of Ancient and
Medieval Times.

THE surface of the earth is rarely quite still. Quivers and
slight tremors, usually imperceptible to us and discernible
only in the delicately adjusted seismic instruments, are of very
frequent occurrence, but only in comparatively rare cases do they
become strong enough to make their force evident to our senses.
It is only in certain limited regions, usually of volcanic character,
that an earthquake of sufficient violence to be dangerous is apt
to occur, and in some such regions the occurrence of a quake of this
kind is sufficiently frequent to keep the inhabitants in a state of
nervous uncertainty as to the security of their lives and homes
One such locality, dismally famous for its many disasters of this
kind, is that surrounding Mount Etna, Vesuvius and Stromboli;
while various others exist in the more volcanic regions of the globe.
The earthquakes on record are very numerous, and these are
largely those that have occurred during the Christian Era, those of
older date being far from fully recorded. Mallet's catalogue covers a
list of between 6,000 and 7,000 instances, ranging from 1606 B. C.
to 1850 A. D. Several of these are taken from Biblical history, and
it is a problematical issue as to what was their actual character.
The oldest of these was the shaking of the earth on the occasion of
the delivery of the tablets of the law at Mount Sinai, ascribed to

(139)

i4o EARTHQUAKES OF ANCIENT TIMES

the questionable date of 1606 B. C. A second case was that Arabic
convulsion between 1604 and 1586 B. C., when Korah, Dathan, and
Abiram were swallowed up, and a third suggested as an expla-
nation of the fall of the walls of Jericho, at a date fixed by him
at 15666. C.

Another Biblical account, considered by Boscowitz as not only
an earthquake, but one of the oldest and most remarkable on record,
was that of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as described
in the Pentateuch. According to Boscowitz it was accompanied by
a volcanic eruption, upheaved a district of several hundred square
leagues, and caused the subsidence of a tract of land not less exten-
sive, the whole water system and the levels of the soil being altered
by the destructive outbreak.

The south of Palestine, at the date of this catastrophe, contained
the splendid valley of Siddim, dotted with forests and flourishing
cities, including Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zoar, and Zeboiim, the
sovereigns of which had, just previous to the disaster, joined their
forces against the army of the invading king of the Elamites.
They had recently fought and lost the decisive battle of the campaign
when the dread subterranean forces assailed their cities, hurling
them in ruins to the ground and spreading desolation in the flourish-
ing valley in which they stood.

THE BIBLICAL RECORD.

The Biblical record of this disastrous event fixes the date of the
catastrophe at sunrise, and gives us reason to understand that the
ground opened in a yawning chasm, from which red-hot stones and
burning cinders were hurled and fell like a storm of fire upon the
land. Here are the words in which the story is told in Genesis :

"The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone

EARTHQUAKES OF ANCIENT TIMES 141

and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities,
and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which
grew upon the ground. And Abraham got^ip early in the morning
to the place where he stood before the Lord ; and he looked toward
Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and
behold, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as th« smoke of a
furnace."

This is such a description of the catastrophe as might be e
pected from writers who were unfamiliar with such dread occur-
rences and were apt to attribute unusual events to supernatural
causes. The account clearly indicates the nature of the cataclysm,
even if one includes the espisode of Lot's wife being turned into a
pillar of salt ; for this substance frequently occurs in large quantities
among volcanic products. In the case in question the ashes hurled
forth from the volcanic depths of the earth might have been saturated
with salt, for that district at the present day is covered with it, one
walking there upon a thick stratum of friable salt which crunches
beneath the feet, and extends as far as the eye can reach. If Lot's
wife halted in the flight to look back upon the thrilling scene, she
might well have been overtaken by the shower of hot, saline ashes.
In this case her body would have presented the appearance of a pillar
of salt, when this substance had become crystallized upon her after
the eruption.

EVIDENCE OF THE DISASTER.

Our knowledge of this disaster is not confined to the Scriptural
account, a record of the great catastrophe being preserved still in
the traditions and legends of Syria and the writings of ancient
historians like Tacitus and Strabo, in which we are told that Lake
Asphaltite was formed during the terrific shock and opulent cities

i42 EARTHQUAKES OF ANCIENT TIMES

were swallowed up in the abyss or destroyed by fire belched fort!,
from the earth. In the eyes of a religious people, and one unfamilar
with such occurrences, it is natural that such an event would be
regarded as a visitation from the heavenly powers, a punishment,
for crime and wickedness ; but all we know of it from other sources I
indicates that it was the result of one of the ordinary convulsions of
nature.

Of the valleys watered by the Jordan, that of Siddim was the
largest and most populous. On the day of the great disaster there
is reason to believe that all the southern part of this valley, with
its woods, its fields, its towns and cities, its broad river, was up-
heaved. On the northern side the plain seems to have sunk, a vast
cavern being formed for a distance of a hundred leagues. The
waters of the Jordan, suddenly arrested in their flow by the lifting
of the soil in their lower channel, were probably at first driven back
in an impetuous wave, and then poured forward again as impetu-
ously, to fall into the great abyss opened in their channel.

When, after the catastrophe, men came tremblingly to gaze upon
its effects, they found the aspect of the country strangely altered.
The valley of Siddim had vanished, a vast sheet of water covering
its former location, into this the Jordan flowed, but beyond the great
lake this stream, which had of old fertilized the country as far as
the Red Sea, had ceased to exist. Lava, ashes and salt covered a-
country once the home of a busy population, the seat of cultivated
fields and active communities.

As the country appeared then, so it appears now. We see there
only an expanse of calcined rocks, masses of black lava, blocks of
rock salt, rough ravines, sulphurous springs, bituminous marshes,
and the vast Lake Asphaltite, now fitly known as the Dead Sea.

This Sea, the depth of which remains unknown, exists as the

EARTHQUAKES OF ANCIENT TIMES 143

fitting result of such a catastrophe. Lying about 690 feet below
the level of the ocean, in the vast depression caused by the earth-
quake, its waters extend over an area of a hundred square leagues to
the foot of the salt mountains and basaltic rocks which encircle it.
One sees here no trace of vegetable or animal life. Not a sound is
heard upon its shores, deeply impregnated with salt and bitumen.
The birds avoid even to fly over its dread surface, from which un-
wholesome effluvia arise; while in its waters, bitter, salt, and oily,
no life can exist. No wind can stir the surface of this heavy and
silent sea, and nothing moves therein, except the thick load of
asphalt which at times rises from its bottom and floats to its desolate
strand.

The upper Jordan remains, as in early times, the life-giving
artery of Palestine ; but its lower waters, which formerly found their
way to the distant Gulf of Arabia, are now entombed in this sombre
abyss, the most desolate body of water upon the face of the earth.

ANCIENT EARTHQUAKES IN CHINA AND JAPAN.

Evidences of disaster so great as the above are not to be found
elsewhere in ancient history or tradition, or in the present aspect
of any country, but records of earthquake convulsions are found in
the annals of many countries of the past. The earliest from China
dates back to 595 B. C, and from Japan to 286 B. C,., while the first
recorded in India is of the much later date of 894 A. D.

That of Japan must have been a prodigious cataclysm to give
warrant to the tradition still extant concerning it. This, which took
place in the island of Nippon, in the vicinity of the site of modern
Tokyo, must have been volcanic in character, for flames are said to
have issued from the earth and a tract of country sixty miles in
circumference to have been raised to an enormous height. This was

i44 EARTHQUAKES OF ANCIENT TIMES

the volcano of Fusiyama, the holy mountain of Japan, which, as the
legend relates, reared its lofty summit in a single night to its present
altitude of 12,258 feet. More probably it had its beginning on that
night, and has since grown, as volcanoes everywhere grow, from its
own outpourings.

At the same time, so the legend states, a depression to match
this elevation was taking place elsewhere. At a great distance from
the scene of upheaval an immense plain, shut in with lofty mountains,
was violently shaken, and suddenly sank downward, with the forests,
towns and villages upon its surface. Into the great cavity thus
formed the waters poured and a lake arose thirty-five miles in length
and ten miles in width. Such is the origin of Lake Biva, as given
in Japanese lore. But instead of bearing any resemblance to the
Dead Sea, it is a splendid and limpid sheet, the blue waters and
beautiful shores of which remind one of the Lake of Geneva.

Though we have given the date of the earliest Chinese earth-
quake record as 595 B. C, tradition goes back nearly two thousand
years beyond that date and tells us of a vast convulsion in the reign
of the mythical Yao, whose accession is given at 2357 B. C. We
are told that, at that remote period, violent earthquake shocks broke
up the eastern shore of a mighty sea that occupied the vast area of
the desert of Mongolia, its waters pouring in an overwhelming
flood upon Northern China and drowning the whole population.

EARTHQUAKE TRADITIONS OF GREECE.

It is singular that in Greece exists the tradition of a mighty
catastrophe which occurred at about the same time as that credited
to China, its date being given as about 2400 B. C. This earthquake
is said to have spread over a vast tract of country, including Greece,
Asia Minor, Thrace, and the beds of the Black and Mediterranean

EARTHQUAKES OF ANCIENT TIMES 145

Seas. At that period an isthmus, according to the tradition, sepa-
rated the Black Sea from the Sea of Marmora. The shock broke
through this isthmus and formed the Strait of Cyanes, now known
as the Bosphorus. The two seas poured in fury into the chasm
and covered the whole of Greece with their waters, such a deluge
being produced that all the inhabitants of Greece and Asia Minor
were drowned, with the exception of a few shepherds who dwelt upon
the tops of the highest mountains. The recollection of some such
catastrophe lived long in the islands of Rhodes and Samothrace and
among the Phrygians and Egyptians, though the latter suffered
little.

In another tradition of the remote past, that of the famed island
of Atlantis, lying in the Atlantic ocean far beyond the pillars of
Hercules, we are told that the men of Atlantis attacked Greece,
Egypt and other nations and that during the desperate war which
followed there came a terrible earthquake, which in one night
drowned all the army of the Greeks and at the same time engulfed
the great isle of Atlantis, which sank into the ocean which has
inherited its name. This legend, told by Egyptian priests of Solon
and given to us by Plato, may have had to do with some remote
convulsion to which tradition gave this very problematical form.

Coming to a later, but still a very remote date, that of the nine-
teenth century before Christ, we are told that the whole population
of Attica was drowned by the inundation that followed an earth-
quake. The Greeks called this the deluge of Ogyges, a king of that
name then reigning in Attica. At the same period, or as some say
three centuries later, ther,e was an earthquake in Thessaly which,
was followed by the overflow of rivers and an inroad of the sea.
This catastrophe drowned all the people except Deucalion, the king,

i46 EARTHQUAKES OF ANCIENT TIMES

and his wife Pyrrha, who escaped upon a vessel which, at the end of
a week, grounded upon Mount Parnassus. After their escape the
king and queen repeopled the country by throwing stones behind
them as they journeyed down the mountain, these being transferred
into men and women. This story bears an interesting resemblance
to that of the Noachian deluge.

Coming down from legendary to historical times, we meet in
Greece with the record of a violent earthquake in a night of the year
373 B. C, which extended throughout the whole country, its prin-
cipal injury being in the Peloponnesus, where, when day dawned,
two towns, Bura and Helice, were found to have disappeared.
Helice, though several miles inland from the Gulf of Corinth, was
engulfed in its waters, and long afterward, when the waters of the
gulf were calm, the appearance of a mysterious city might be dis-
covered in their depths. This was the once superb Helice, its
houses in ruins, its temples and marble columns in fragments.

Elsewhere we have described the remarkable volcanic eruption
of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A. D., by which two cities, Herculaneum
and Pompeii, were buried in volcanic ash. While this was the first
recorded eruption of the volcano, the region surrounding it has been
visited by earthquakes before, one of these, which occurred 63 A. D.,
having done great damage to these cities and killed many of their
inhabitants. It was a little heeded warning of their final fate six-
teen years later.

ANTIOCH AND ITS DISASTERS.

In the world's record of earthquakes there is none more destruc-
tive than that which wrecked the famous city of Antioch in 526
A. D. This great city, built in 300 B. C. by Sciences, one of the
successors to the divided empire of Alexander the Great, and which
ranked after Rome and Alexandria as the third greatest city of the

EARTHQUAKES OF ANCIENT TIMES 147

age, was specially subject to earthquake disasters, which visited it
on many occasions.

The first one on record was of the date of 148 B. C, but mythi-
cal tradition seems to point back to earlier ones. At least this may
be the correct interpretation of the myths of the giants Typhon
and Pagres, who were struck there by the thunderbolts of Jupiter.
In the early centuries of the Christian era, earthquakes were fre-
quent and severe in that locality. One of these, that of 37 A. D.,
caused so much damage that the emperor Caligula sent two Roman
Senators to Antioch to look into the state of the city. In the reign
of Claudius another followed,. To act as a preventive to any more,
the magician Dabbonius placed a bust on a purple column in the
centre of the city, with an inscription appealing to the superstitious
among the citizens. But his effort to stay the earthquake proved
vain, for the next shock overthrew the column and bust.

The most severe of these early earthquakes was that of 115
A. D. At the time of its occurrence the city was full of Roman
soldiers, whom the emperor Trajan was then leading in a campaign
against the Parthians. Great destruction to buildings and loss of
life succeeded, the rivers changed their courses, Mount Casius shook
violently, and the emperor, to escape danger from the falling build-
ings, was forced to take refuge for several days in the circus.

The greatest of the earthquakes that visited Antioch, and the
most destructive to human life of any on record, was that of 526
A. D. The city was entirely destroyed and the loss of life enormous,
it being estimated at 250,000 persons. As on the last named
occasion the presence of a Roman army added to the loss, so in this
instance the presence in the city of an assembly of the Christian
Church swelled greatly the sum of the dead.

In naming the other visitations of Antioch, we must speak of

148 EARTHQUAKES OF ANCIENT TIMES

those of 341 and 457 A. D., the latter attended with considerable
loss. In November, 528, two years only after its overthrow, the
partly restored city was again severely shaken, 5,000 of its citizens
falling victims. In 587 A. D., came another shock, followed on the
last day of October, 588, by a frightful one, attended by a terrible
loss of life. All those disasters, together with others due to war and
conflagration, proved fatal to the eminence of the city, which after-
ward passed under the hands of various masters, the Persians, the
Saracens, the Crusaders, the Turks, and finally in 1268, under that
of the Sultan of Egypt, who wrecked it so thoroughly that it never
revived. To-day it is a small town of a few thousand inhabitants
dwelling in hovels of mud and straw. Yet it is still not free from its
ancient enemy, who returned in 1822 to shock it into memory of its
old-time calamities.

Many other desolating earthquakes of early date might be
named, as may well be imagined when we consider the number of
severe ones that have occurred within a century. Of these only those
of most destructiveness need be named. The Peninsula of Hindo-
stan, while not especially subject to such convulsions, has been the
seat of several severe ones, among which that of 893 A. D. almost
rivals Antioch in the destruction of human life, the loss being esti-
mated at 180,000. One which occurred in Persia in 1 139 is credited
with 100,000 victims. Coming to a date nearer our own, we find
Lisbon credited in 1531 with a loss of 30,000, a destruction of life
approaching that of its great disaster in 1755. In 1693 Sicily was
fearfully visited, its death roll being estimated at 93,000. Returning
to the East, we find in China and Japan examples in late centuries
of enormous sacrifices to the earthquake demon, the 1703 shock
in Yeddo, Japan, slaughtering 190,000 of its people, and that of 1731
claiming 95,000 victims in Peking, China.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Great Lisbon and Calabrian Earthquakes.

NUMEROUS thrilling examples of the destructive work of the
earthquake at various periods are on record. Of these we
shall confine ourselves to a few striking examples of its
destructive action. In the record of great earthquakes, one of the
most famous is that which in 1755 visited the city of Lisbon, the
capital of Portugal, and left that populous place in ruin and dire
distress. It may be well to recall the details of this dire event to
the memories of our readers.

THE GREAT LISBON EARTHQUAKE

On the night of the 3ist of October, 1755, the citizens of the
fair city of Lisbon lay down to sleep, in merciful ignorance of what
was awaiting them on the morrow. The morning of the ist of
November dawned, and gave no sign of approaching calamity.
The sun rose in its brightness, the warmth was genial, the breezes
gentle, the sky serene. It was All Saints' Day — a high festival of
the Church of Rome. The sacred edifices were thronged with
eager crowds, and the ceremonies were in full progress, when the
assembled- throngs were suddenly startled from their devotions.
From the ground beneath came fearful sounds that drowned the
peal of the organ and the voices of the choirs. These under-
ground thunders having rolled away, an awful silence ensued. The
panic-stricken multitudes were paralyzed with terror. Immedi-
ately after the ground began to heave with a long and gentle swell,

(149)

150 GREAT LISBON AND CALABR1AN EARTHQUAKES

producing giddiness and faintness among the people. The tall
piles swayed to and fro, like willows in the wind. Shrieks of hor-
ror rose from the terrified assembly. Again the earth heaved,
and this time with a longer and higher wave. Down came the
ponderous arches, the stately columns, the massive walls, the lofty
spires, tumbling upon the heads of priests and people. The graven
images, the deified wafers, and they who had knelt in adoration

GREAT EARTHQUAKE AT LISBON, NOV. I, 1753.

before them — the worshipped and the worshippers alike — were in
a moment buried under one undistinguishable mass of horrible
ruins. Only a few, who were near the doors, escaped to tell the
tale.

It fared no better with those who had remained in their dwel-
lings. The terrible earth-wave overthrew the larger number of the
private houses in the city, burying their inhabitants under the

GREAT LISBON AND CALABRlAN EARTHQUAKES 151

crumbling walls. Those who were in the streets more generally
escaped, though some there, too, were killed by falling walls.

The sudden overthrow of so many buildings raised vast
volumes of fine dust, which filled the atmosphere and obscured the
sun, producing a dense gloom. The air was full of doleful sounds
— the groans of agony from the wounded and the dying, screams
of despair from the horrified survivors, wails of lamentation from
the suddenly bereaved, dismal howlings of dogs, and terrified cries
of other animals.

In two or three minutes the clouds of dust fell to the ground,
and disclosed the scene of desolation which a few seconds had
wrought. The ruin, though general, was not universal. A con-
siderable number of houses were left standing — fortunately tenant-
less — for a third great earth-wave traversed the city, and most of
the buildings which had withstood the previous shocks, already
severely shaken, were entirely overthrown

WATER ADDS TO THE DESTRUCTION

The last disaster filled the surviving citizens with the impulse
of flight. The more fortunate of them ran in the direction of the
open country, and succeeded in saving their lives ; but a great multi-
tude rushed down to the harbor, thinking to escape by sea. Here,
however, they were met by a new and unexpected peril. The
tide, after first retreating for a little, came rolling in with an immense
wave, about fifty feet in height, carrying with it ships, barges and
boats, and dashing them in dire confusion upon the crowded shore.
Overwhelmed by this huge wave, great numbers were, on its
retreat, swept into the seething waters and drowned. A vast
throng took refuge on a fine new marble quay, but recently com-
pleted, which had cost much labor and expense. This the sea- wave

had spared, sweeping harmless by. But, alas ! it was only for a
moment The vast structure itself, with the whole of its living bur-
den, sank instantaneously into an awful chasm which opened under-
neath. The mole and all who were on it, the boats and barges
>ii«v.ted to its sides, all of them filled with people, were in a moment
insulted Not a single corpse, not a shred of raiment, not a plank
noi 3 splinter boated to the surface, and a hundred fathoms of
water covered the spot To the first great sea-wave several others
succeeded, and the bay continued for a long time in a state of
tumultuous agitation

About two hours after the first overthrow of the buildings, a
new element of destruction came into play. The fires in the
ruined houses kindled the timbers and a mighty conflagration,
v.rged by a violent wind, soon raged among the ruins, consuming
everything combustible, and completing the wreck of the city.
This fire, which lasted four days, was not altogether a misfortune.
It consumed the thousands of corpses which would otherwise have
tainted the air. adding pestilence to the other misfortunes of the
survivors Yet they were threatened with an enemy not less
appalling, for famine stared them in the face. Almost everything
eatable within the precincts of the city had been consumed. A set
of wretches, morever who had escaped from the ruins of the
prisons prowled among the rubbish of the houses in search of
plunder, so that whatever remained in the shape of provisions fell
into their hands and was speedily devoured. They also broke into
the houses that remained standing, and rifled them of their con-
tents. It is said that many of those who had been only injured
by the ruins, and might have escaped by being extricated, were
ruthlessly murdered by those merciless villains.

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X 3

GREAT LISBON AND CALABRIAN EARTHQUAKES '53

The total loss of life by this terrible catastrophe is estimated
at 60,000 persons, of whom about 40,000 perished at once, and the
remainder died afterwards of the injuries and privations they sus
tained. Twelve hundred were buried in the ruins of the general
hospital, eight hundred in those of the civil prison, and several
thousands in those of the convents. The loss of property amounted
to many millions sterling.

WIDE-SPREAD DESTRUCTION

Although the earth-wave traversed the whole city, the shock
was felt more severely in some quarters than in others. All the
older part of the town, called the Moorish quarter, was entirely
overthrown ; and of the newer part, about seventy of the principal
streets were ruined. Some buildings that withstood the shocks
were destroyed by fire. The cathedral, eighteen parish churches,
almost all the convents, the halls of the inquisition, the royal resi
dence, and several other fine palaces of the nobility and mansions
of the wealthy, the custom-houses, the warehouses filled with mer
chandise, the public granaries filled with corn, and large timber yards
with their stores of lumber, were either overthrown or burned.

The king and court were not in Lisbon at the time of this
great disaster, but were living in the neighborhood at the castle of
Belem, which escaped injury. The royal family, however, were so
alarmed by the shocks, that they passed the following night in car
riages out of doors. None of the officers of state were with them
at the time. On the following morning the king hastened to the
ruined city, to see what could be done toward restoring order, aid-
ing the wounded, and providing food for the hungry.

The royal family and the members of the court exerted them-
selves to the uttermost, the ladies devoting themselves to the prep-
aration of lint and bandages, and to nursing the wounded the sick

*54 GREAT LISBON AND CALABRIAN EARTHQUAKES

and the dying, of whom the numbers were overwhelming. Among
the sufferers were men of quality and once opulent citizens, who
had been reduced in a moment to absolute penury. The kitchens
of the royal palace, which fortunately remained standing, were used
for the purpose of preparing food for the starving multitudes. It
is said that during the first two or three days a pound of bread was
worth an ounce of gold. One of the first measures of the govern-
ment was to buy up all the corn that could be obtained in the
neighborhood of Lisbon, and to sell it again at a moderate price
to those who could afford to buy, distributing it gratis to those who
had nothing to pay,

For about a month afterward earthquake shocks continued,
some of them severe. It was several months before any of the
citizens could summon courage to begin rebuilding the city. But
by degrees their confidence returned. The earth had relapsed into
repose, and they set about the task of rebuilding with so much
energy, that in ten years Lisbon again became one of the most
beautiful capitals of Europe.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE

The most distinguishing peculiarities of this earthquake were
the swallowing up of the mole, and the vast extent of the earth's
surface over which the shocks were felt. Several of the highest
mountains in Portugal were violently shaken, and rent at their sum-
mits ; huge masses falling from them into the neighboring valleys.
These great fractures gave rise to immense volumes of dust, which
at a distance were mistaken for smoke by those who beheld them.
Flames were also said to have been observed : but if there were
any such, they were probably electrical flashes produced by the
sudden rupture of the rocks.

GREAT LISBON AND CALABRIAN EARTHQUAKES 155

The portion of the earth's surface convulsed by this earthquake
is estimated by Humboldt to have been four times greater than the
whole extent of Europe. The shocks were felt not only over the
Spanish peninsula, but in Morocco and Algeria they were nearly as
violent. At a place about twenty-four miles from the city of Mo-
rocco, there is said to have occurred a catastrophe much resemb-j
ling what took place at the Lisbon mole. A great fissure opened in
the earth, and an entire village, with all its inhabitants, upwards of
8,000 in number, were precipitated into the gulf, which immediately
closed over its prey.

EARTHQUAKES IN CALABRIA

Of the numerous other examples of destructive earthquakes
which might be chosen from Old World annals, it will not be amiss
to append a brief account of those which took place in Calabria,
Italy, in 1783. These, while less wide-spread in their influence,
were much longer in duration than the Lisbon cataclysm, since they
continued, at intervals, from the 5th of February until the end of
the year. The shocks were felt all over Sicily and as far north as
Naples, but the area of severe convulsion was comparatively lim-
ited, not exceeding five hundred square miles.

The centre of disturbance seems to have been under the town
of Oppido in the farther Calabria, and it extended in every direc-
tion from that spot to a distance of about twenty-two miles, with
such violence as to overthrow every city, town and village lying
within that circle. This ruin was accomplished by the first shock
on the 5th of February. The second, of equal violence, on the
28th of March, was less destructive, only because little cr nothing
had been left for it to overthrow.

At Oppido the motion was in the nature of a vertical up-
heaval of the ground, which was accompanied by the opening of

156 GREAT LISBON AND CALABR1AN

numerous large chasms, into some of which many houses were in
gulfed, the chasms closing over them again almost immediately
The town itself was situated on the summit of a hill, flanked by
five steep and difficult slopes ; it was so completely overthrown by
the first shock that scarcely a fragment of wall was left standing
The hill itself was not thrown down, but a fort which commanded
the approach to the place was hurled into the gorge below. It was
on the flats immediately surrounding the site of the town and on
the rising grounds beyond them that the great fissures and chasms
were opened. On the slope of one of the hills opposite the town
there appeared a vast chasm, in which a large quantity of soil
covered with vines and olive-trees was engulfed. This chasm re-
mained open after the shock, and was somewhat in the form of an
amphitheatre, 500 feet long and 200 feet in depth,

MOST CALAMITOUS OF THE LANDSLIPS

The most calamitous of the landslips occurred on the sea-coast
of the Straits of Messina, near the celebrated rock of Scilla, where
huge masses fell from the tall cliffs, overwhelming many villas and
gardens. At Gian Greco a continuous line of precipitous rocks,
nearly a mile in length, tumbled down. The aged Prince of Scilla,
af'er the first great shock on the 5th of February, persuaded many of
his vassals to quit the dangerous shore, and take refuge in the fish-
ing boats — he himself showing the example. That same night,
however, while many of the people were asleep in the boats, and
others on a flat plain a little above the sea-level, another powerful
shock threw down from the neighboring Mount Jaci a great mass,
which fell with a dreadful crash, partly into the sea, and partly
upon the plain beneath. Immediately the sea rose to a height of
twenty feet above the level ground on which the people were

GREAT LISBON AND CALABRIAN EARTHQUAKES 157

stationed, and rolling over it, swept away the whole multitude. This
immense wave then retired, but returned with still greater violence
bringing with it the bodies of the men and animals it had previ-
ously swept away, dashing to pieces the whole of the boats, drown-
ing all that were in them, and wafting the fragments far inland.
The prince with 1,430 of his people perished by this disaster.

It was on the north-eastern shore of Sicily, however, that the
greatest amount of damage was done. The first severe shock, on
the 5th of February, overthrew nearly the whole of the beautiful
city of Messina, with great loss of life. The shore for a considera-
ble distance along the coast was rent, and the ground along the
port, which was before quite level, became afterwards inclined
towards the sea, the depth of the water having, at the same time,
increased in several parts, through the displacement of portions of
the bottom. The quay also subsided about fourteen inches below
the level of the sea, and the houses near it were much rent. But
it was in the city itself that the most terrible desolation was wrought
— a complication of disasters having followed the shock, more espe-
cially a fierce conflagration, whose intensity was augmented by the
large stores of oil kept in the place.

IMMENSE DESTRUCTION

According to official reports made soon after the events, the
destruction caused by the earthquakes of the 5th of February and
28th of March throughout the two Calabrias was immense. About
320 towns and villages were entirely reduced to ruins, and about fifty
others seriously damaged. The loss of life was appalling — 40,000
having perished by the earthquakes, and 20,000 more having sub-
sequently died from privation and exposure, or from epidemic dis-
eases bred by the stagnant pools and the decaying carcases of men

i58 GREAT LISBON AND CALABRIAN EARTHQUAKES

and animals. The greater number were buried amid the ruins of
the houses, while others perished in the fires that were kindled in
most of the towns, particularly in Oppido, where the flames were
fed by great magazines of oil. Not a few, especially among the
peasantry dwelling in the country, were suddenly engulfed in
fissures. Many who were only half buried in the ruins, and who
might have been saved had there been help at hand, were left to
die a lingering death from cold and hunger. Four Augustine
monks at Terranuova perished thus miserably. Having taken
refuge in a vaulted sacristy, they were entombed in it alive by the
masses of rubbish, and lingered for four days, during which their
cries for help could be heard, till death put an end to their sufferings.
• Of still more thrilling interest was the case of the Marchion-
ess Spastara. Having fainted at the moment of the first great
shock, she was lifted by her husband, who, bearing her in his arms,
hurried with her to the harbor. Here, on recovering her senses,
she observed that her infant boy had been left behind. Taking
advantage of a moment when her husband was too much occupied
to notice her, she darted off and, running back to the house, which
was still standing, she snatched her babe from its cradle. Rushing
with him in her arms towards the staircase, she found the stair had
fallen — cutting off all further progress in that direction. She fled
from room to room, pursued by the falling materials, and at length
reached a balcony as her last refuge. Holding up her infant, she
implored the few passers-by for help ; but they all, intent on secur-
ing their own safety, turned a deaf ear to her cries. Meanwhile
the mansion had caught fire, and before long the balcony, with the
devoted lady still grasping her darling, was hurled into the devour-
ing flames.

CHAPTER XVII.

Earthquakes in the New World Prior to 1900.

THE twin continents of America have rivalled the record of
the Old World in their experience of earthquakes sine*
their discovery in 1492. The first of these made note of was
in Venezuela in 1530, but they have been numerous and often dis-
astrous since. Among them was the great shock at Lima in 1740,
by which 18,000 were killed, and those at Guatemala in 1773, with
33,000, and at Riobamba in 1797, with 41,000 victims. It will, how-
ever, doubtless prove of more interest to our readers if we pass
over these ruinous disasters and confine ourselves to the less des-
tructive earthquakes which have taken place within our own country.
The United States, large a section of North America as it
occupies, is fortunate in being in a great measure destitute of vol-
canic phenomena, while destructive earthquakes have been very
rare in its history. This, it is true, does not apply to the United
States as it is, but as it was. It has annexed the volcano and the
earthquake with its new accessions of territory. Alaska has its
volcanoes, the Philippines are subject to both forms of convulsion,
and in Hawaii we possess the most spectacular volcano of the earth,
while the earthquake is its common attendant. But in the older
United States the volcano contents itself with an occasional puff of
smoke, and eruptive phenomena are confined to the minor form of
the geyser.

(1 59)

160 EARTHQUAKES OF THE UNITED STATES

We are by no means so free from the earthquake. Slight move*
ments of the earth's surface are much more common than many of
us imagine, and in the history of our land there have been a num.
her of earth shocks of considerable violence. Prior to that of San
Francisco, the most destructive to life and property was that
of Charleston in 1886, though the 1812 convulsion in the Mis-
sissippi Valley might have proved a much greater calamity but
for the fact that civilized man had not then largely invaded its cen-
tre of action.

As regards the number of earth movements in this country, we
are told that in New England alone 231 were recorded in two
hundred and fifty years, while doubtless many slighter ones were
left unrecorded. Taking the whole United States, there were 364
recorded in the twelve years from 1872 to 1883, and in 1885 fifty-
nine were recorded, more than two-thirds of them being on the
Pacific slope. Most of these, however, were very slight, some of
them barely perceptible.

Confining ourselves to those of the past important in their
effects, we shall first speak of the shocks which took place in New
England in 1755, in the year and month of the great earthquake
at Lisbon. On the i8th of November of that year, while the shocks
at Lisbon still continued, New England was violently shaken, loud
underground explosive noises accompanying the shocks. In the
harbors along the Atlantic coast there was much agitation of the
waters and many dead fish were thrown up on the shores. The
shock, indeed, was felt far from the coast, by the crew of a ship
more than two hundred miles out at sea from Cape Ann, Massa-
chusetts.

This event, however, was of minor importance, being much
inferior to that of 1812, in which year California and the Mississippi
Valley alike were affected by violent movements of the earth s

EARTHQUAKES OF THB UNITED STATES 161

crust. The California convulsions took place in the spring and
summer of that year, extending from the beginning of May until
September. Throughout May the southern portion of that region
was violently agitated, the shocks being so frequent and severe
that people abandoned their houses and slept on the open ground.
The most destructive shocks came in September, when two Mission
houses were destroyed and many of their inmates killed. At Santa
Barbara a tidal wave invaded the coast and flowed some dis-
tance into the interior.

It may be said here that California has proved more subject to
severe shocks than any other section of our country. In 1865
sharp tremors shook the whole region about the Bay of San Fran-
cisco, many buildings being thrown down. Hardly any of brick or
stone escaped injury, though few lives were lost. In 1872 a dis-
turbance was felt farther west, the whole range of the Sierra
Nevada mountains being violently shaken and the earth tremblings
extending into the State of Nevada. The centre of activity was
along the crest of the range, and immense quantities of rock were
thrown down from the mountain pinnacles. A tremendous fissure
opened along the eastern base of the mountain range for forty
miles, the land to the west of the opening rising and that to the
east sinking several feet. One small settlement, that of Lone Pine,
in Owen's Valley, on the east base of the mountains, was completely
demolished, from twenty to thirty lives being lost. Luckily, the
region affected had very few inhabitants, or the calamity might have
been great

The earthquakes of 1812 in the Mississippi Valley began in
December, 1811, and continued at intervals until 1813. As a rule
they were more distinguished by frequency than violence, though
on several occasions they were severe and had marked effects.

r62 EARTHQUAKES OF THE UNITED STATES

They extended through the valleys of the Mississippi, Arkansas
and Ohio, and their long continuance was remarkable in view of
the territory affected being far from any volcanic region.

The surface of the valley of the Mississippi was a good deal
altered by these convulsions — several new lakes being formed,
while others were drained. Several new islands were also raised
in the river, and during one of the shocks the ground a little below
New Madrid was for a short time lifted so high as to stop the
current of the Mississippi, and cause it to flow backward. The
ground on which this town is built, and the bank of the river for
fifteen miles above it, subsided permanently about eight feet, and
the cemetery of the town fell into the river. In the neighboring
forest the trees were thrown into inclined positions in every direc-
tion, and many of their trunks and branches were broken. It is
affirmed that in some places the ground swelled into great waves,
which burst at their summits and poured forth jets of water, along
with sand and pieces of coal, which were tossed as high as the tops
of trees. On the subsidence of these waves, there were left several
hundreds of hollow depressions from ten to thirty yards in diame-.
ter, and about twenty feet in depth, which remained visible for
many years afterward. Some of the shocks were vertical, and others
horizontal, the latter being the most mischievous. These earth-
quakes resulted in the general subsidence of a large tract of
country, between seventy and eighty miles in length from north to
south, and about thirty miles in breadth from east to west. Lakes
now mark many of the localities affected by the earthquake move-
ments. It is only to the fact that this country was then very thinly
•ettled that a great loss of life was avoided.

New Madrid, Missouri, was a central point of this earthquake,
the shocks there being repeated with great frequency for several

bARTHQVAKES OF THE UNITED STATES 163

months. The disturbance of the earth, however, was not corcircd
to the United States, but affected nearly half cf the western hemis-
phere, ending in the upheaval of Sabrina in the Azores, already
described. The destruction of Caiacas, Venezuela, with many
thousands of its inhabitants, and :t".e eruption of La Soufrieie
volcano of St. Vincent Island were .ncidents of this convulsion.
Dr. J. W. Foster tells us that on tne night of the disaster at Caracas
the earthquake grew intense at New Madrid, fissures being openee
six hundred feet long by twenty broad, i .-• jm which water and sand
were flung to the height of forty feet.

The most destructive of earthquakes in our former history was
that which visited Charleston, South Carolina, in 1886, the injury
caused by it being largely due to the fact that it passed through a
populous city. As it occurred after many of the people had re
tired, the confusion and terror due to it were greatly augmented,
people fleeing in panic fear from the tumbling and cracking houses
to seek refuge in the widest streets and open spaces.

South Carolina had been affected by the wide-spread earth-
quakes of 1812. These in some cases altered the level of the land,
as is related in Lyell's " Principles of Geology." But the effect
then was much less than in 1886. Several slight tremors occurred
in the early summer of that year, but did not excite much atten-
tion. More distinct shocks were felt on August 27th and 28th, but
the climax was deferred till the evening of August 3ist. The
atmosphere that afternoon had been unusually sultry and quiet, the
breeze from the ocean, which generally accompanies the rising
tide, was almost entirely absent, and the setting sun caused a little
glow in the sky.

"As the hour of 9.50 was reached," we are told, "there was
suddenly heard a rushing, roaring sound, compared by some to a

.64

EARTHQUAKES OF THE UNITED STATES

train of cars at no great distance, by others to a clatter produced
by two or more omnibuses moving at a rapid rate over a paved

RUINOUS EFFECT OF THE CHARLESTON EARTHQUAKE.

street, by others again, to an escape of steam from a boiler. It
was followed immediately by a thumping and beating of the earth
beneath the houses, which rocked and swayed to and fro. Furniture

EARTHQUAKES OF THE UNITED STATES 165

was violently moved and dashed to the floor ; pictures were
swung from the walls, and in some cases turned with their backs to
the front, and every movable thing was thrown into extraordinary
convulsions. The greatest intensity of the shock is considered to
have been during the first half, and it was probably then, during
the period of its greatest sway, that so many chimneys were broken
off at the junction of the roof. The duration of this severe shock
is thought to have been from thirty-five to forty seconds. The
impression produced on many was that it could be subdivided into
three distinct movements, while others were of the opinion that it
was one continuous movement, or succession of waves, with the
greatest intensity, as already stated, during the first half of its
duration."

Twenty-seven persons were killed outright, and more than that
number died soon after of their hurts or from exposure ; many
others were less seriously injured. Among the buildings, the havoc,
though much less disastrous than has been recorded in some other
earthquakes in either hemisphere, was very great. " There was
not a building in the city which had escaped serious injury.
The extent of the damage varied greatly, ranging from total demoli-
tion down to the loss of chimney tops and the dislodgment of more
or less plastering. The number of buildings which were com-
pletely demolished and levelled to the ground was not great ; but
there were several hundreds which lost a large portion of their
walls. There were very many also which remained standing, but
so badly shattered that public safety required that they should be
pulled down altogether. There was not, so far as at present is
known, a brick or stone building which was not more or less
cracked, and in most of them the cracks were a permanent dis-
figurement and a source of danger and inconvenience," In some

x66 EARTHQUAKES OF THE UNITED STATES

places the railway track was curiously distorted. " It was often dis-
placed laterally, and sometimes alternately depressed and elevated.
Occasionally several lateral flexures of double curvature and of
great amount were exhibited. Many hundred yards of track had
been shoved bodily to the south eastward."

The ground was fissured at some places in the city to a depth
of many feet, and numerous " craterlets " were formed, from which
sand was ejected in considerable quantities. These are not un-
common phenomena, and were due, no doubt, to the squirting of
water out of saturated sandy layers not far below the surface ; these
being squeezed between two less pervious beds in the passage, of
the earthquake wave. The ejected material in the Charleston
earthquake was ordinary sand, such as might exist in many dis-
tricts which had been quite undisturbed by any concussions of the
earth.

Captain Dutton made a careful study of the observations
collected by himself and others concerning this earthquake, and
came to the conclusion that the Charleston wave traveled with un-
usual speed, for its mean velocity was about 1 7,000 feet a second.
The focus of the disturbance was also ascertained. Apparently it
was a double one, the two centres being about thirteen miles apart,
and the line joining them running nearly the same distance to the
west of Charleston. The approximate depth of the principal focus
is given as twelve miles, with a possible error of less than two
miles ; that of the minor one as roughly eight miles.

The Charleston earthquake was felt as a tremor of more or
less force through a wide area, embracing 900,000 square miles, and
affecting nearly the whole country east of the Mississippi. It is
said that the yield of the Pennsylvania natural gas wells decreased,
and that a geyser in the Yellowstone valley burst into action after

EARTHQUAKES OF THE UNITED STATES i<57

four years of rest The movement of the earth-wave was in gen-
eral north and south, deflected to east and west, and the snake-like
fashion in which rails on the railroad were bent indicated both a
vertical and a lateral force.

This earthquake has been attributed to various causes, but
geological experts think that it was due to a slip in the crust along
the Appalachian Mountain chain. There is a line of weakness
along the easter.i slope of this chain, characterized by fissures and
faults, and it was thought that a strain had been gradually brought
to bear upon this through the removal of earth from the land by
rains and rivers and its deposition in thick strata on the sea-
bottom. It is supposed that this variation in weight in time caused
a yielding of the strata and a slip seaward of the great coastal
plain. Professor Mendenhall, however, thinks it was due to a
readjustment of the earth's crust to its gradually sinking nucleus.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The San Francisco Calamity and Other Earth-
quakes of the Twentieth Century.

GREATEST among the American cities of the Pacific coast is
San Francisco, seated on its splendid bay and an active
metropolis of Pacific commerce. The one bane of its exist-
ence is its perilous liability to earthquakes, fully 250 shocks having
been recorded within its history. Greatest of these was that which
we have now to record.

On the 1 7th of April, 1906, the city was, as usual, gay, careless,
busy, its people attending to business or pleasure with their ordinary
vim as inclination led them, and not a soul dreaming of the horrors
that lay in wait. They were as heedless of coming peril and death
as the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah before the rain of fire
from heaven descended upon their devoted heads. This is not to
say that they were doomed by God^ to destruction like these "cities
of the plains." We should more wisely say that the forces of ruin
within the earth take no heed of persons or places. They come and
go as the conditions of nature demand, and if man has built one of
his cities across their destined track, its doom comes from its situa-
tion, not from the moral state of its inhabitants.

THE GREAT DISASTER OF 1906.

That night the people went, with their wonted equanimity, to
their beds, rich and poor, sick and well alike. Did any of them
dream of disaster in the air? It may be so, for often, as the poet
tell us, "Coming events cast their shadows before." But, fore-

(168)

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 169

warned by dreams or not, doubtless not a soul in the great city was
prepared for the terrible event so near at hand, when, at thirteen
minutes past five o'clock on the dread morning of the 1 8th, they
felt their beds lifted beneath them as if by a Titan hand, heard the
crash of falling walls and ceilings, and saw everything in their
rooms tossed madly about, while through their windows came the
roar of an awful disaster from the city without.

It was a matter not of minutes, but of seconds, yet on all
that coast, long the prey of the earthquake, no shock like it had
ever been felt, no such sudden terror awakened, no such terrible
loss occasioned as in those few fearful seconds. Again and again
the trembling of the earth passed by, three quickly repeated shocks,
and the work of the demon of ruin was done. People woke with a
start to find themselves flung from their beds to the floor, many of
them covered with the fragments of broken ceilings, many lost
among the ruins of falling floors and walls, many pinned in agoniz-
ing suffering under the ruins of their houses, which had been utterly
wrecked in those fatal seconds. Many there were, indeed, who had
been flung to quick if not to instant death under their ruined homes.

Those seconds of the reign of the elemental forces had turned
the gayest, most careless city on the continent into a wreck which
no words can fitly describe. Those able to move stumbled in wild
panic across the floors of their heaving houses, regardless of cloth-
ing, of treasures, of everything but the mad instinct for safety, and
rushed headlong into the streets, to find that the earth itself had
yielded to the energy of its frightful interior forces and had in places
been torn and rent like the houses themselves. New terrors assailed
the fugitives as fresh tremors shook the solid ground, some of them
strong enough to bring down shattered walls and chimneys, and

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

bring back much of the mad terror of the first fearful quake. The
heaviest of these came at eight o'clock. While less forcible than
that which had caused the work of destruction, it added immensely
to the panic and dread of the people and put many of the wanderers
to flight, some toward the ferry, the great mass in the direction of
the sand dunes and Golden Gate Park.

The spectacle of the entire population of a great city thus roused
suddenly from slumber by a fierce earthquake shock and sent flying
into the streets in utter panic, where net buried under falling walls
or tumbling debris, is one that can scarcely be pictured in words, and
can be given in any approach to exact realization only in the narra-
tives of those who passed through its horrors and experienced the
sensations to which it gave rise. Some of the more vivid of these
personal accounts will be presented later, but at present we must
confine ourselves to a general statement of the succession of events.

The earthquake proved but the beginning and much the least
destructive part of the disaster. In many of the buildings there
were fires, banked for the night, but ready to kindle the inflammable
material hurled down upon them by the shock. In others were live
electric wires which the shock brought in contact with woodwork.
The terror-stricken fugitives saw, here and there, in all directions
around them, the alarming vision of red flames curling upward and
outward, in gleaming contrast to the white light of dawn just show-
ing in the eastern sky. Those lurid gleams climbed upward in
devouring haste, and before the sun had fairly risen a dozen or more
conflagrations were visible in all sections of the business part of the
city, and in places great buildings broke with startling suddenness
into flame, which shot hotly high into the air.

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 171

While the mass of the people were stunned by the awful sud-
denness of the disaster and stood rooted to the ground or wandered
helplessly about in blank dismay, there were many alert and self-
possessed among them who roused themselves quickly from their
dismay and put their energies to useful work. Some of these gave
themselves to the work of rescue, seeking to save the injured from
their perilous situation and draw the bodies of the dead from the
ruins under which they lay. Those base wretches to whom plunder
is always the first thought were as quickly engaged in seeking for
spoil in edifices laid open to their plundering hands by the shock.
Meanwhile the glare of the flames brought the fire-fighters out in
hot haste with their engines, and up from the military station at the
Presidio, on the Golden Gate side of the city, came at double quick
a force of soldiers, under the efficient command of General Funston,
of Cuban and Philippine fame. These trained troops were at once
put on guard over the city, with directions to keep the best order
possible, and with strict command to shoot all looters at sight.
Funston recognized at the s^art the necessity of keeping the lawless
element under control in such an exigency as that which he had to
face. Later in the day the First Regiment of California National
Guards was called out and put on duty, with similar orders.

RESCUERS AND FIRE-FIGHTERS.

The work of fighting the fire was the first and greatest duty to
be performed, but from the start it proved a very. difficult, almost a
hopeless, task. With fierce fires burning at once in a dozen or more
separate places, the fire department of the city would have been
inadequate to cope with the demon of flame even under the best of
circumstances. As it was, they found themselves handicapped at

172 SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

the start by a nearly total lack of water. The earthquake had dis-
arranged and broken the water mains and there was scarcely a drop
of water to be had, so that the engines proved next to useless. Water
might be drawn from the bay, but the centre of the conflagration
was a mile or more away, and this great body of water was rendered
.useless in the stringent exigency.

The only hope that remained to the authorities was to endeavor
to check the progress of the flames by the use of dynamite, blowing
up buildings in the line of progress of the conflagration. This was
put in practice without loss of time, and soon the thunder-like roar
of the explosions began, blasts being heard every few minutes, each
signifying that some building had been blown to atoms. But over
the gaps thus made the flames leaped, and though the brave fellows
worked with a desperation and energy of the most heroic type, it
seemed as if all their labors were to be without avail, the terrible fire
marching on as steadily as if a colony of ants had sought to stay its

devastating progress.

THE HORROR OF THE PEOPLE.

It was with grief and horror that the mass of the people gazed
on this steady march of the army of ruin. They were seemingly half
dazed by the magnitude of the disaster, strangely passive in the face
of the ruin that surrounded them, as if stunned by despair and not
jet awakened to a realization of the horrors of the situation. Among
these was the possibility of famine. No city at any time carries
more than a few days' supply of provisions, and with the wholesale
districts and warehouse regions invaded by the flames the shortage
of food made itself apparent from the start. Water was even more
difficult to obtain, the supply being nearly all cut off. Those who

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 173

possessed supplies of food and liquids of any kind in many cases
took advantage of the opportunity to advance their prices. Thus
an Associated Press man was obliged to pay twenty-five cents for
a small glass of mineral water, the only kind of drink that at first
was to be had, while food went up at the same rate, bakers frequently
^charging as much as a dollar for a loaf. As for the expressmen and
cabmen, their charges were often practically prohibitory, as much
as fifty dollars being asked for the conveyance of a passenger to the
ferry. Policemen were early stationed at some of the retail shops,
regulating the sale and the price of food, and permitting only a
small portion to be sold to each purchaser, so as to prevent a few
persons from exhausting the supply.

The fire, the swaying and tottering walls, the frequent dynamite
explosions, each followed by a crashing shower of stones and bricks,
rendered the streets very unsafe for pedestrians, and all day long
the flight of residents from the city went on, growing quickly to the
dimensions of a panic. The ferryboats were crowded with those
who wished to leave the city, and a constant stream of the homeless,
carrying such articles as they had rescued from their homes, was
kept up all day long, seeking the sand dunes, the parks and every
place uninvaded by the flames. Before night Golden Gate Park and
the unbuilt districts adjoining on the ocean side presented the appear-
ance of a tented city, shelter of many kinds being improvised from
bedding and blankets, and the people settling into such sparse com-
fort as these inadequate means provided.

A strange feature of the disaster was a rush to the banks by
people who wished to get their money and flee from the seemingly
doomed city. The fire front was yet distant from these institutions,
which were destined to fall a prey to the flames, and all that morning

174 SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

lines of dishevelled and half-frantic men stood before the banks on
Montgomery and Sansome Strets, braving in their thirst for money
the smoke and falling embers and beating in wild anxiety upon the
doors. Their effort was vain; the doors remained closed; finally
the police drove these people away, and the banks went on with the
work of saving their valuables. As for the people who wildly fled
toward the ferries, in spite of the fact that ten blocks of fire, as the
day went on, stopped all egress in that direction, it became necessary
for them to be driven back by the police and the troops, and they
were finally forced to seek safety in the sands. And thus, with
incident manifold, went on that fatal Wednesday, the first day of
the dread disaster.

OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

It is important here to give the official record of the earthquake
shocks, as given by the scientists. Professor George Davidson, of
the University of California, says of them :

"The earthquake came from north to south, and the only de-
scription I am able to give, of its effect is that it seemed like a terrier
shaking a rat. I was in bed, but was awakened by the first shock.
I began vo count the seconds as I went towards the table where my
watch was, being able through much practice closely to approximate
the time in that manner. The shock came at 5.12 o'clock. The first
sixty seconds were the most severe. From that time on it decreased
gradually for about thirty seconds. There was then the slightest
perceptible lull. Then the shock continued for sixty seconds longer,
being slighter in degree in this minute than in any part of the
preceding minute and a half. There were two slight shocks after-
wards which I did not time. At 8.14 o'clock I recorded a shock of

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 175

five seconds' duration, and one at 4.15 of two seconds. There were
slight shocks which I did not record at 5.17 and at 5.27. At 6.50
p. M. there was a sharp shock of several seconds."

Professor A. O. Louschner, of the students' observatory of the
University of California, thus records his observations:

"The principal part of the earthquake came in two sections, the
first series of vibrations lasting about forty seconds. The vibrations
diminished gradually during the following ten seconds, and then
occurred with renewed vigor for about twenty-five seconds more.
But even at noon the disturbance had not subsided, as slight shocks
are recorded at frequent intervals on the seismograph. The motion
was from south-southeast to north-northwest.

"The remarkable feature of this earthquake, aside from its
intensity, was its rotary motion. As seen from the print, the sum
total of all displacements represents a very regular ellipse, and some
of the lines representing the earth's motion can be traced along the
whole circumference. The result of observation indicates that our
heaviest shocks are in the direction south-southeast to north-north-
west. In that respect the records of the three heaviest earthquakes
agree entirely. But they have several other features in common.
One of these is that while the displacements are very large the vibra-
tion period is comparatively slow, amounting to about one second
in the last two big earthquakes."

If we seek to discover the actual damage done by the earth-
quake, the fact stands out that the fire followed so close upon it that
the traces of its ravages were in many cases obliterated. So many
buildings in the territory of the severest shock fell a prey to the
flames or to dynamite that the actual work of the earth forces was

niade difficult and in many places impossible to discover. This fact

176 SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

was on that led to considerable dispute and delay when the question
of insurance adjustment came up, many of the insurance companies
having confined their risk to fire damage and claiming exemption
from liability in the case of damage due to earthquake.

Among the chief victims of the earth-shake was the costly and
showy City Hall, with its picturesque dome standing loftily above
the structure. This dome was left still erect, but only as a skeleton
might stand, with its flesh gone and its spare ribs exposed to the
searching air. Its roof, its smaller towers came tumbling down in
frightful disarray, and the once proud edifice is to-day a miserable
wreck, fire having aided earthquake in its ruin. The new Post
Office, a handsome government building, also suffered severely
from the shock, its walls being badly cracked and injury done by
earthquake and fire that it is estimated will need half a million dollars
to repair.

•

FREAKS OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

One observer states that the earthquake appeared to be very
irregular in its course. He tells us that "there are gas reservoirs
with frames all twisted and big factories thrown to the ground,
while a few yards away -are miserable shanties with not a board out
of place. Wooden, steel and brick structures hardly felt the earth-
quake in some parts of the city, while in other places all were
wrecked.

"Skirting the shore northwest from the big ferry building—
which was so seriously injured that it will have to be rebuilt — the
first thing observed was the extraordinary irregularity of the earth-
quake's course. Pier No. 5, for instance, is nothing but a mass of
ruins, while Pier No. 3, on one side of it and Pier No. 7, on the other

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 177

side, similar in size and construction, are undamaged. Farther on,
the Kosmos Line pier is a complete wreck."

The big forts at the entrance to the Golden Gate also suffered
seriously from the great shake-up, and the emplacements of the big
guns were cracked and damaged. The same was the case with the
fortifications back of Old Fort Point, the great guns in these being
for the time rendered useless. It took much time and labor to re-
store their delicate adjustment upon their carriages.

The buildings that collapsed in the city were all flimsy wooden
buildings and old brick structures, the steel frame buildings, even
the score or more in course of construction, escaping injury from
the earthquake shock. Of the former, one of the most complete
wrecks was the Valencia Hotel, a four-story wooden building, which
collapsed into a heap of ruins, pinning many persons under its
splintered timbers.

SKYSCRAPERS EARTHQUAKE PROOF.

In fact, as the reports of damage wrought by the earthquake
came in, the conviction grew that one of the safest places during
the earthquake shock was on one of the upper floors of the sky-
scraper office buildings or hotels. As a matter of fact, not a single
person, so far as can be learned, lost his or her life or was seriously
injured in any of the tall, steel frame structures in the city, although
they rocked during the quake like a ship in a gale.

The loss of life was caused in almost every case by the collapse
of frame structures, which the native San Franciscan believed was
the safest of all in an earthquake, or by the shaking down of portions
of brick or stone buildings which did not possess an iron framework.
The manner in which the tall steel structures withstood the shock

1 78 SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

is a complete vindication of the strongest claims yet made for them,
and it is made doubly interesting from the fact that this is the first
occasion on which the effect of an earthquake of any proportions
on a tall steel structure could be studied.

The St. Francis Hotel, a sixteen-story structure, could be re-
paired at an expenditure of about $400,000, its damage being almost
wholly by fire. The steel shell and the floors were intact. Although
the building rocked like a ship in a gale while the quake lasted, its
foundations were undamaged. Other steel buildings which were so
little damaged as to admit of repairs more or less extensive were the
James Flood, the Union Trust, the Call building, the Mutual Savings
Bank, the Crocker- Woolworth building and the Postal building.
All of these were modern buildings of steel construction, from sixteen
to twenty stories.

A peculiar feature of the effect of the earthquake on structures
of this kind is reported in the case of the Fairmount Hotel, a four-
teen-story structure. The first two stories of the Fairmount were
found to be so seriously damaged that they would have to be rebuilt,
while the other twelve stories were uninjured.

Various explanations have been made of the surprising resist-
ance shown by the skyscrapers. The great strength and binding
power of the steel frame, combined with a deep-seated foundation
and great lightness as compared with buildings of stone, are the main
reasons given. The iron, it is said, unlike stone, responded to the
vibratory force and passed it along to be expended in other direc-
tions, while brick or stone offered a solid and impenetrable front,
with the result that the seismic force tended to expend itself by
shaking the building to pieces.

Whether there is any scientific basis for the latter theory or

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 179

not, it seems reasonable enough, in view of the descriptions given
us of the manner in which the steel buildings received the shock.
All things considered, the modern steel building has afforded in the
San FranciSco earthquake the most convincing evidence of its
strength.

From Golden Gate Park came news of the total destruction of
the large building covering a portion of the Children's playground.
The walls were shattered beyond repair, the roof fell in, and the
destruction was complete. The pillars of the new stone gates at the
park entrance were twisted and torn from their foundations, some
of them, weighing nearly four tons, being shifted as though they
were made of cork. It is a little singular that the monuments and
statues in the city escaped without damage except in the case of the
imposing Dewey Monument, in Union Square Park, which suffered
what appears to be a minor injury.

In this connection an incident of extraordinary character is
narrated. Among the statues on the buildings of the Leland Stan-
ford, Jr., University, all of which were overthrown, was a marble
statue of Carrara in a niche on the building devoted to zoology and
physiology. This in falling broke through a hard cement pavement
and buried itself in the ground below, from which it was dug. The
singular fact is that when recovered it proved to be without a crack
or scratch. This university seemed to be a central point in the
disturbance, the destruction of its buildings being almost total,
though they had been built with the especial design of resisting
earthquake shocks.

Such was the general character of the earthquake at San
Francisco and in its vicinity. It may be said farther that all, or very
nearly all, the deaths and injuries were due to it directly or indirectly,

i8o SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

even those who perished by fire owing their deaths to the fact of their
being pinned in buildings ruined by the earthquake shock, while
others were killed by falling walls weakened by the same cause.

On the night of April 23d the earth tremor returned with a
slight shock, only sufficient to cause a temporary alarm. On the
afternoon of the 25th came another and severer one, strong enough
to shake down some tottering walls and add another to the list of
victims. This was a woman named Annie Whitaker, who was at
work in the kitchen of her home at the time. The chimney, which
had been weakened by the great shock, now fell, crashing through
the roof and fracturing her skull. Thus the earth powers claimed

a final human sacrifice before their dread visitation ended.

FIRE INVADES THE CITY.

The terrors of the earthquake are momentary,. One fierce,
levelling shock and usually all is over. The torment within the
earth has passed on and the awakened forces of the earth's crust
sink into rest again, after having shaken the surface for many
leagues. Rarely does the dread agent of ruin leave behind it such
a terrible follower to complete its work as was the case in the
doomed city of San Francisco. All seemed to lead towards such
a carnival of ruin as the earth has rarely seen. The demon of fire
followed close upon the heels of the unseen fiend of the earth's
hidden caverns, and ran red-handed through the metropolis of the
West, kindling a thousand unhurt buildings, while the horror-
stricken people stood aghast in terror, as helpless to combat this
new enemy as they were to check the ravages of the earthquake
itself.

The iron mains which carried the precious fluid under the city

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES iBi

streets were broken or injured so that no quenching streams were to
be had. In some cases the engine houses had been so damaged that
the fire-fighting apparatus could not be taken out, though even if it
had it would have been useless. A sweeping conflagration and
not an ounce of water to throw upon it ! The situation of the people
was a maddening one. They were forced helplessly and hopelessly
to gaze upon the destruction of their all, and it is no marvel if many
of them grew frantic and lost their reason at the sight. Thousands
gathered and looked on in blank and pitiful misery, their strong
hands, their iron wills of no avail, while the red-lipped fire devoured
the hopes of their lives.

In a dozen, a hundred, places the flames shot up redly. Huge,
strong buildings which the earthquake had spared fell an unre-
sisting prey to the flames. The great, iron-bound, towering
Spreckles building, a steeple-like structure, of eighteen stories in
height, the tallest skyscraper in the city, had resisted the earth-
quake and remained proudly erect. But now the flames gathered
round and assailed it. From both sides came their attack. A broad
district near by, containing many large hotels and lodging houses,
was being fiercely burnt out, and soon the windows of the lofty
building cracked and splintered, the flames shot triumphantly
within, and almost in an instant the vast interior was a seething
furnace, the wild flames rushing and leaping within until only the
blackened walls remained.

All day Wednesday the fire spread unchecked, all efforts to stay
its devouring fury proving futile. In the business section of the
city everything was in ruins. Not a business house was left stand-
ing,. Theatres crumbled into smouldering heaps. Factories and
commission houses sank to red ruin before the devouring flames.

i8a SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

The scene was like that of ancient Babylon in its fall, or old Rome
when set on fire by Nero's command, as tradition tells. In modern
times there has been nothing to equal it except the conflagration at
Chicago, when the flames swept to ruin that queen city of the Great
Lakes.

When night fell and the sun withdrew his beams the spectacle
was one at once magnificent and awe-inspiring. The city resembled
one vast blazing furnace. Looking over it from a high hill in the
western section, the flames could be seen ascending skyward for
miles upon miles, while in the midst of the red spirals of flame could
be seen at intervals the black skeletons and falling towers of doomed
buildings. Above all this hung a dense pall of smoke, showing
lurid where the flames were reflected from its dark and threatening
surface. To those nearer the scene presented many pathetic and
distressing features, the fire glare throwing weird shadows over
the worn and panic-stricken faces of the woe-begone fugitives,
driven from their homes and wandering the streets in helpless
misery. Many of them lay sleeping on piles of blankets and clothing
which they had brought with them, or on the hard sidewalks, or the
grass of the open parks.

FIRE ATTACKS THE MINT.

The escape of the United States Mint was one of the most
remarkable incidents. Within the vaults of this fine structure was
the vast sum of $300,000,000 in gold and silver coin and a value of
$8,000,000 in bullion, and toward this mighty sum of wealth the
flames swept on all sides, as if eager to add the reservoir of the
precious metals to their spoils. The Mint building passed through
the earthquake with little damage, though its big smokestacks were

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 183

badly shaken. The fire seemed bent on making it its prey, every
building around it being burned to the ground, and it remaining the
only building for blocks that escaped destruction.

Its safety was due to the energy and activity of its employees.
Superintendent Leach reached it shortly after the shock and found
a number of men already there, whom he stationed at points of
vantage from roof to basement. The fire apparatus of the Mint
was brought into service and help given by the fire department,
and after a period of strenuous labor the flames were driven back.
The peril for a time was critical, the windows on Mint Avenue
taking fire and also those on the rear three stories, and the flames
for a time pouring in and driving back the workers. The roof also
caught fire, but the men within fought like Titans, and efficient aid
was given by a squad of soldiers sent to them,. In the end the fire
fiend was vanquished, though considerable damage was done to the
adjusting rooms and the refinery, while the heavy stone cornice on
that side of the building was destroyed. The total loss to the Mint
was later estimated at $15,000.

Late on Wednesday evening the fire front crept close up to
Mechanics'Pavilion, where a corps of fifty physicians and numerous
nurses were active in the work of relief to the wounded. Ambu-
lances and automobiles were busy unloading new patients rescued
from the ruins when word came that the building would have to be
vacated in haste. Every available vehicle was at once pressed into
service and the patients removed as rapidly as possible, being taken
to hospitals and private houses in the safer parts of the city. Hardly
had the last of the injured been carried through the door when the
roof was seen to be in a blaze, and shortly afterward the whole
building burst into a whirlwind of flame.

i84 SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

At midnight the fire was raging and roaring with unslacked
rage, and at dawn of Thursday its fury was undiminished. The
work of destruction was already immense. In much of the Hayes
Valley district, south of McAllister and north of Market Street,
the destruction was complete. From the Mechanics' Pavilion and
St. Nicholas Hotel opposite down to Oakland Ferry the journey
was heartrending, the scene appalling. On each side was ruin,
nothing but ruin, and hillocks of masonry and heaps of rubbish of
every description filled to its middle the city's greatest thoroughfare.

THE PALACES ON NOB'S HILL.

In the centre of San Francisco rises the aristocratic elevation
known as Nob's Hill, on which the early millionaires built their
homes, and on which stood the city's most palatial residences. It
ascends so abruptly from Kearney Street that it is inaccessible to
any kind of vehicle, the slope being at an angle little short of forty-
five degrees. It is as steep on the south side, and the only approach
by carriage is from the north. To this hill is due the pioneer cable
railway, built in the early '7o's.

Here the "big four" of the railroad magnates — Stanford
Hopkins, Huntington and Crocker — had put millions in their man-
sions, the Mark Hopkins residence being said to have cost $2,500,-
ooo. These men are all dead, and the last named edifice has been
converted into the Hopkins Art Institute, and at the time of the fire
was well filled with costly art treasures. The Stanford Museum,
which also contains valuable objects of art, is now the property of
the Leland Stanford University. The Flood mansion, which cost
more than $1,000,000, was one of the showy residences on this hill,
west of it being the Huntington home and farther west the Crocker

^mvm

^J i Ufa* itt.A* lf

186 SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

residence, with its broad lawns and magnificent stables. Many
other beautiful and costly houses stood on this hill, and opposite the
Stanford and Hopkins edifices the great Fairmount Hotel had for
two years past been in process of construction and was practically
completed. On the northeastern slope of this hill stood the famous
Chinatown, through which it was necessary to pass to ascend Nob's
Hill from the principal section of the wholesale district.

This region of palaces was the next to fall a prey to the in-
satiable flames. Early Thursday morning a change in the wind
sent the fire westward, eating its way from the water front north of
Market Street toward Nob's Hill. Steadily but surely it climbed
the slope, and the Stanford and Hopkins edifices fell victims to its
fury. Others of the palaces of the millionairedom followed. Huge
clouds of smoke enveloped the beautiful white stone Fairmount
Hotel, and there was a general feeling of horror when this magnifi-
cent structure seemed doomed. To it the Committee of Safety had
retreated, but the flames from the burning buildings opposite reached
it, and the committee once more migrated in search of safe quarters.
Fortunately, it escaped with little damage, its walls remaining
intact and much of the interior being left in a state of preservation,
warranting its managers to offer space within it to the committees
whose aim it was to help the homeless or to store supplies. Some
of the woodwork of the building was destroyed by the fire, but the
structure was in such good condition that work on it was quickly
resumed, with the statement that its completion would not be delayed
more than three months beyond the date set, which was November,
1906.

In the district extending northwestwardly from Kearney Street
nnd Montgomery Avenue, untouched during the first day, the fire

5,4 AT FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 187

spread freely on the second. This district embraces the Latin quar-
ter, peopled by various nationalities, the houses being of the flimsiest
construction. Once it had gained a foothold there, the fire swept
onward as though making its way through a forest in the driest
summer season.

An apocryphal incident is told of the fire in this quarter, which
may be repeated as one example of the fables set afloat It is stated
that water to fight the fire here was sadly lacking, the only avail-
able supply being from an old well. At a critical moment the pump
sucked dry, the water in the well being exhausted. The residents
were not yet conquered. Some of them threw open their cellar
doors and, calling for assistance, began to roll out barrels of red
wine. Barrel after barrel appeared, until fully five hundred gallons
were ready for use. Then the barrel heads were smashed in and
the bucket brigade turned from water to wine. Sacks were dipped
in the wine and used for fighting the fire. Beds were stripped of
their blankets and these soaked in the wine and hung over exposed
portions of the cottages, while men on the roofs drenched the
shingles and sides of the houses with wine. The postscript to this
queer story is that the wine won and the fire-fighters saved their
homes. The story is worth retelling, though it may be added that
wine, if it contained much alcohol, would serve as a feeder rather
than as an extinguisher of flame.

Shaken by earthquake, swept by flames, the water supply cut
off by the- breaking of the mains, what could be done to stay the
fierce march of the flames which were sweeping resistlessly over
palace and hovel alike, over stately hall and miserable hut ? Water
was not to be had; what was to take its place? Nothing remained
but to meet ruin with ruin, to make a desert in the path of the fire

i88 SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

and thus seek to stop its march. They had dynamite, gunpowder
and other explosives, and in the frightful exigency there was nothing
else to be used. Only for a brief interval did the authorities yield
to the general feeling of helplessness. Then they aroused them-
selves to the demands of the occasion and prepared to do all in
the power of man in the effort to arrest the conflagration.

A band of fire-fighters was quickly organized by the Mayor and
Chief of Police, and the devoted firemen put themselves in the face
of the flames, determined to do their utmost to stay them in their
course. Cut off from the use of their accustomed engines and
water streams, which might have been effective if brought into
play at the beginning of the struggle, there was nothing to work
with but the dynamite cartridge and the gunpowder mine, and they
set bravely to work to do what they could with these. On every
side the roar of explosions could be heard, and the crash of falling
walls came to the ear, while people were forced to leave buildings
which still stood, but which it was decided must be felled. Fre-
quently a crash of stone and brick, followed by a cloud of dust, gave
warning to pedestrians that destruction was going on in the fore-
front of the flames, and that travel in such localities was unsafe.

FIGHTING THE FLAMES.

All through the night of Wednesday and the morning of
Thursday this work went on, hopelessly but resolutely. During the
following day blasts could be heard in different sections at intervals
of a few minutes, and buildings not destroyed by fire were blown
to atoms, but over the gaps jumped the live flames, and the dis-
heartened fire-fighters were driven back step by step; but they con-
tinued the work with little regard for their own safety and with
unflinching desperation.

5.-1.Y FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 189

The engines almost from the start had proved useless from lack
of water, and were either abandoned or moved to the outlying dis-
tricts, in the vain hope that the water mains might be repaired in
time to permit of a final stand against the whirlwind march of the
flames. The cloud of despair grew darker still as the report spread
that the city's supply of dynamite had given out.

"No more dynamite ! No more dynamite !" screamed a fireman
as he ran up Ellis Street past the doomed Flood building at two
o'clock on Friday morning, tears standing in his smoke-smirched
eyes.

"No more dynamite! O God! no more dynamite! We are
lost !" moaned the throng that heard his despairing words.

A NEW SUPPLY OF EXPLOSIVES.

So, at that hour, the supply of the explosive exhausted, and
not a dozen streams of water being thrown in the entire fire zone,
the stunned firemen and the stupefied people stood helpless with
their eyes fixed in despair upon the swiftly creeping flames.

Had all been like these the entire city would have been doomed,
but there were those at the head of affairs who never for a moment
gave up their resolution. Dynamite and giant powder were to be
had in the Presidio military reservation, and a requisition upon the
army authorities was made. The louder reverberations as the day
advanced and night came on showed that a fresh supply had been
obtained, and that a new and determined campaign against the
conflagration had been entered upon. Hitherto much of the work
had been ignorantly and carelessly done, and by the hasty and
premature use of explosives more harm than good had been
occasioned.

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

As the fire continued to spread in spite of the heroic work of
the fighting corps, the Committee of Safety called a meeting at
noon on Friday and decided to blow up all the residences on the
east side of Van Ness Avenue, between Golden Gate and Pacific
Avenues, a distance of one mile. Van Ness Avenue was one of the
most fashionable streets of the city and has a width of 125 feet, a
fact which led to the idea that a safety line might be made here too
broad for the flames to cross.

The firemen, therefore, although exhausted from over twenty-
four hours' work and lack of food, determined to make a desperate
stand at this point. They declared that should the fire cross Van
Ness Avenue and the wind continue its earlier direction toward
the west, the destruction of San Francisco would be virtually com-
plete. The district west of Van Ness Avenue and north of Mc-
Allister constituted the finest part of the metropolis. Here were
located all of the finer homes of the well-to-do and wealthier classes,
and the resolution to destroy them was the last resort of desperation.

Hundreds of police, regiments of soldiers and scores of volun-
teers were sent into the doomed district to warn the people to flee.
They heroically responded to the demand of law and went bravely
on their way, leaving their loved homes and trudging painfully
over the pavements with the little they could carry away of their
treasured possessions.

The reply of a grizzled fire engineer standing at O'Farrell
Street and Van Ness Avenue, beside a blackened engine, may not
have been as terse as that of Hugo's guardsman at Waterloo, but
the pathos of it must have been as great. In answer to the question
of what they proposed to do, he said :

"We are waiting for it to come. When it gets here we will

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 191

make one more stand. If it crosses Van Ness Avenue the city
is gone."

THE SAVERS OF THE CITY.

Yet the work now to be done was much too important to be
left to hands of untrained volunteers. Skilled engineers were
needed, a man used to the scientific handling of explosives, and it was
men of this kind who finally saved what is left to-day of the city.
Three men saved San Francisco, so far as any San Francisco existed
after the fire had worked its will, these three constituting the dyna-
mite squad who faced and defied the demon at Van Ness Avenue.

When the burning city seemed doomed and the flames lit the
sky farther and farther to the west, Admiral McCalla sent a trio
of his most trusted men from Mare Island with orders to check the
conflagration at any cost of property. With them they brought a
ton and a half of guncotton. The terrific power of the explosive
was equal to the maniac determination of the fire. Captain Mac-
Bride was in charge of the squad, Chief Gunner Adamson placed
the charges and the third gunner set them off.

Stationing themselves on Van Ness Avenue, which the con-
flagration was approaching with leaps and bounds from the burning
business section of the city, they went systematically to work, and
when they had ended a broad open space, occupied only by the
dismantled ruins of buildings, remained of what had been a long
row of handsome and costly residences, which, with all their treas-
ures of furniture and articles of decoration, had been consigned to
hideous ruin.

The thunderous detonations, to which the terrified city listened
all that dreadful Friday night, meant much to those whose ears were

192 SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

deafened by them. A million dollars' worth of property, noble
residences and worthless shacks alike, were blown to drifting dust,
but that destruction broke the fire and sent the raging flames back
over their own charred path. The whole east side of Van Ness
Avenue, from the Golden Gate to Greenwich, a distance of twenty-
two blocks, or a mile and a half, was dynamited a block deep, though
most of the structures as yet had stood untouched by spark or
cinder. Not one charge failed. Not one building stood upon its
foundation.

Unless some second malicious miracle of nature should reverse
the direction of the west wind, by nine o'clock it was felt that the
populous district to the west, blocked with fleeing refugees and
unilluminated except by the disastrous glare on the water front,
was safe. Every pound of guncotton did its work, and though the
ruins burned, it was but feebly. From Golden Gate Avenue north
the fire crossed the wide street in but one place. That was at the
Claus Spreckels place, on the corner of California Street.

There the flames were writhing up the walls before the dyna-
miters could reach the spot. Yet they made their way to the foun-
dations, carrying their explosives, despite the furnace-like heat.
The charge had to be placed so swiftly and the fuse lit in such a
hurry that the explosion was not quite successful from the trained
viewpoint of the gunners. But though the walls still stood, it was
only an empty victory for the fire, as bare brick and smoking ruins
are poor food for flames.

Captain MacBride's dynamiting squad had realized that a
stand was hopeless except on Van Ness Avenue, their decision thus
coinciding with that of the authorities. They could have forced
their explosives farther in the burning section, but not a pound of
guncotton could be or was wasted. The ruined blocks of the wide

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 193

thoroughfare formed a trench through the clustered structures that
the conflagation, wild as it was, could not leap. Engines pumping
brine through Fort Mason from the bay completed the little work
that the guncotton had left, but for three days the haggard-eyed
firemen guarded the flickering ruins.

The desolate waste straight through the heart of the city
remained a mute witness to the most heroic and effective work of
the whole calamity. Three men did this, and when their work was
over and what stood of the city rested quietly for the first time,
they departed as modestly as they had come. They were ordered
to save San Francisco, and they obeyed orders, and Captain Mac-
Bride and his two gunners made history on that dreadful night.

They stayed the march of the conflagration at that critical
point, leaving it no channel to spread except along the wharf region,
in which its final force was spent. One side of Van Ness Avenue
was gone ; the other remained, the fire leaping the broad open space
only feebly in a few places, where it was easily extinguished.

During the height of the struggle and the days of exhaustion
and depression that followed, exaggerated accounts of the losses and
of the area swept by the flames were current, some estimate making
the extent of the fire fifteen square miles out of the total of twenty-
five square miles of the city's area. It was not until Friday, the 27th,
that an official survey of the burned district, made by City Surveyor
Woodward, was completed, and the total area burned over found to
be 2,500 acres, a trifle less than four square miles. This, however,
embraced the heart of the business section and many of the principal
residence streets, much of the saved area being occupied by the
dwellings of the poorer people, so that the money loss was immensely
greater than the percentage of ground burned over would indicate.

194 SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

Fortunately, the loss of life was very small compared with the
extent of the disaster, and with the records of other cities similarly
overthrown. As regards the whole number killed it was impossible
to make a full and accurate statement While about 350 bodies had
been recovered at the end of the second week, no one could estimate
how many lay buried under the ruins, to be discovered only as the
work of excavation went on, and how many more had been utterly
consumed by the flames, leaving no trace of their existence. The
estimates of the probable loss of life ran up to 1,500 and more, while
the injured were very numerous. The great bulk of the people
escaped, fleeing to the open park in the western section of the city
and to the ferries leading to Oakland, which had met with little
damage.

SANTA ROSA AND SAN JOSE.

The San Francisco earthquake was far from being a local catas-
trophe, since the full force of the seismic waves travelled from
Ukiah in the north to Monterey in the south, a distance of about
1 80 miles, and made itself felt for a considerable distance from
the Pacific westward, wrecking the larger buildings of every town
in its path, rending and ruining as it went, and doing millions of
dollars worth of damage.

In Santa Rosa, sixty miles to the north of San Francisco, and
one of the most beautiful towns of California, practically every
building was destroyed or badly damaged. The brick and stone
business blocks, together with the public buildings, were thrown
down. The Court House, Hall of Records, the Occidental and
Santa Rosa Hotels, the Athenaeum Theatre, the new Masonic Tem-
ple, Odd Fellows' Block, all the banks, everything went, and in

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 195

all the city not one brick or stone building was left standing, except
the California Northwestern Depot.

In the residential portion of the city the foundations receded
from under the houses, badly wrecking about twenty of the largest
and damaging every one more or less; and here, as in San Fran-
cisco, flames followed the earthquake, breaking out in a dozen
different places at once and completing the work of devastation.
From the ruins of the fallen houses fifty-eight bodies were taken
out and interred during the first few days, and the total of dead
and injured was close to a hundred. The money loss at this small
city is estimated at $3,000,000.

The destruction of Santa Rosa gave rise to general sorrow
among the residents of the interior of the State. It was one of the
show towns of California, and not only one of the most prosperous
cities in the fine county of Sonoma, but one of the most picturesque
in the State. Surrounding it there were miles of orchards, vineyards
and corn fields. The beautiful drives of the city were adorned with
bowers of roses, which everywhere were seen growing about the
homes of the people. In its vicinity are the famous gardens of
Luther Burbank, the "California wizard," but these fortunately
escaped injury.

At San Jose, another very beautiful city of over 20,000 popu-
lation, not a single brick or stone building of two stories or over
was left standing. Among those wrecked were the Hall of Justice,
just completed at a cost of over $300,000; the new High School, the
Presbyterian Church and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Numbers of
people were caught in the ruins and maimed or killed. The death
list appears to have been small, but the property damage was not
less than $5,000,000. The Agnew State Insane Asylum, in the

tp6 SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

vicinity of San Jose, was entirely destroyed, more than half the
inmates being killed or injured.

THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY.

The Leland Stanford, Jr., University, at Palo Alto (about
thirty miles south of San Francisco), felt the full force of the earth-
quake and was badly wrecked. Only two lives were lost as a result
of the earthquake, one of a student, the other of a fireman, but eight
students were injured more or less seriously. The damage to the
buildings is estimated by President Jordan to amount to about
$4,000,000.

The memorial church, with its twelve marble figures of the
apostles, each weighing two tons, was badly injured by the fall of
its Gothic spire, which crashed through the roof and demolished
much of the interior ; the great entrance archway was split in twain
and wrecked; so, too, were the library, the gymnasium and the
power houes. A number of other buildings in the outer quadrangle
and some of the small workshops were seriously damaged.

Encina Hall and the inner quadrangle were practically un-
injured, and the bulk of the books, collections and apparatus escaped
damage.

Sacramento, together with all the smaller cities and towns
that dot the great Sacramento Valley for a distance of fifty miles
south and 150 miles north of the capital, escaped without injury,
not a single pane of glass being broken or a brick displaced in
Sacramento and no injury done in the other places, they lying east-
ward of the seat of serious earthquake activity.

Los Angeles and Santa Barbara escaped with a slight trem-
bling; Stockton, 103 miles north of San Francisco, felt a severe

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 197

shock and the Santa Fe bridge over the San Joaquin River at this
point settled several inches. The only place in Southern California
that suffered was Brawley, a small town lying 120 miles south of
Los Angeles, about 100 buildings in the town and the surrounding
valley being injured, though none of them were destroyed.

THE EARTHQUAKE AT OTHER CITIES.

At Alameda, on the bay opposite San Francisco, a score of
chimneys were shaken down and other injuries done. Railroad
tracks were twisted, and over 600 feet of track of the Oakland
Transit Company's railway sank four feet The total damage done
amounted to probably $200,000, but no lives were lost. Tomales, a
place of 350 inhabitants, was left a pile of ruins.

At Los Panes several buildings were wrecked, causing damage
to the extent of $75,000, but no lives were lost.

At Loma Prieta the earthquake caused a mine house to slip
down the side of a mountain, ten men being buried in the ruins.

Fort Bragg, one of the principal lumbering towns in Men-
docino County, was practically wiped out by fire following the earth-
quake, but out of a population of 5,000 only one was killed, though
scores were injured.

The town of Berkeley, across the bay from San Francisco,
suffered considerable damage from twisted structures, fallen walls
and broken chimneys, the greatest injury being in the collapse of
the town hall and the ruin of the deaf and dumb asylum. The
University of California, situated here, was fortunate in escaping
injury, it being reported that not a building was harmed in the
slightest degree. Another public edifice of importance and interest,

ig8 SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

in a different section of the State, the famous Lick Astronomical
Observatory, was equally fortunate, no damage being done to the
buildings or the instruments.

THE EFFECTS AT SALINAS.

Salinas, a town down the coast near Monterey, suffered se-
verely, the place being to a large extent destroyed, with an estimated
loss of over $1,000,000. The Spreckles' sugar factory and a score
of other buildings were reported ruined and a number of lives lost.
During the succeeding week several other shocks of some strength
were reported from this town.

Thus the ruinous work of the earthquake stretched over a broad
track of prosperous, peaceful and happy country, embracing one of
the best sections of California, laying waste not only the towns in
its path, but doing much damage to ranch houses and country resi-
dences. Strange manifestations of nature were reported from the
interior, where the ground was opened in many places like a
ploughed field. Great rents in the earth were reported, and for
many miles north from Los Angeles miniature geysers are said to
have spouted volcano-like streams of hot mud.

Railroad tracks in some localities were badly injured, sinking
or lifting, and being put out of service until repaired. In fact, the
ruinous effects of the earthquake immensely exceeded those of any
similar catastrophe ever before known in the United States,
and when the destruction done by the succeeding conflagration in
San Francisco is taken into account the California earthquake
of 1906 takes rank with the most destructive of those recorded in
history.

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 199

AMERICA TO THE RESCUE.

We need not go into the details of the prompt and abundant
measures of relief which followed the disaster. It must suffice to
say here that during the first three days after the news had been
received, the nation had subscribed $5,000,000 for the relief of the»
sufferers, $2,500,000 of this being the contribution of the United
States government, while supplies of every variety were sent to the
scene of disaster with the utmost rapidity. The sum named was
largely increased as the days passed on, and President Roosevelt
was enabled to decline the generous offers of aid from Canada and
Europe, which he did with thanks for their messages of sympathy
and kindly offers.

An extended space has been given here to the description of the
earthquake disaster at San Francisco, on account of the great size
and importance of that city and the interest which it naturally
possesses for the people of this country. But the twentieth century
has been one of numerous earthquake outbreaks in America, some
of them very serious in their results, though in most cases of not suffi-
cient importance to us to warrant more than a brief statement.

The year 1902 was one of remarkable seismic activity, in vari-
ous parts of the world, among which especial interest attaches to
the terrific volcanic explosion of Mount Pelee, in Martinique, with
the destruction of the city of St. Pierre and its entire population.
This disaster has been described in detail in a separate chapter and
needs no further mention here, other than to say that it was attended
with earthquake shocks which made themselves evident at great

200 SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

distances. On May 3Oth there was a severe earthquake, the effects
of which were felt as far north as New Jersey, and on June 8th,
Guatemala, in Central America, was violently shaken, several towns
being destroyed and more than a thousand people killed.

Venezuela was sharply shaken on July 9th, many towns being
| damaged, and later in the month there were severe shocks in Cali-
fornia. On August 3Oth, during an eruption of Mount Pelee, Vene-
zuela was again shaken, the earth shocks being accompanied by a
tremendous noise, heard along the whole shore of the Caribbean Sea,
and on September 23d, during a violent eruption of Mount Souf riere,
earthquake shocks of great severity were felt as far apart as Jamaica
and Ecuador.

Passing to the following year, 1903, we find it to have been
one of great earthquake disturbances in many parts of the globe,
beginning with severe shocks on January 22-27, m tne State of
Chihuahua, Mexico. There were earthquake disturbances in the
central United States on February 8th, and at Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, on the 25th, and on March i8th, at the Arrowhead, in the
Selkirk Range of the Rocky Mountains, Canada, a mountain
collapsed and fell into a lake, dense clouds of smoke accompanying
the disaster. A similar occurrence took place April 29th, at Frank,
Northwest Territory, Canada. Here a mountain of huge size burst
with terrific force, killing more than a hundred persons and damming
with its debris a large river to the depth of a hundred feet. In the
valley around the mountain the earth swayed to and fro and a vast
crevasse, a mile long and of unknown depth, was opened. With the
explosion there fell a huge mass of rock, cinders, and dust, which
buried the houses and their inhabitants to a depth of twenty-five to
fifty feet, millions of tons of rock being thrown out by the eruptive
energies.

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SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES aoi

This was volcanic in character, and the yeaf throughout was
notable for volcanic activity, there being violent eruptions at various
periods by Mount Stromboli and Vesuvius in the Mediterranean
region, Mt. Santa Maria, in Guatemala, and Cotopaxi in South
America, the latter, the highest volcano on the earth, while con-
stantly steaming and smoking, had been comparatively dormant
since 1803, but burst into violent eruption in 1903, a century later.

THE VALPARAISO DISASTER.

After this date the earth's surface remained comparatively quiet
until 1906, when began a series of earthquakes of great severity and
destructiveness, including those of San Francisco and Valparaiso
in this year and that of Kingston, Jamaica, in January, 1907, and
ending with the most destructive to human life of all, that of Messina
in December, 1908. Of these the Valparaiso and Kingston shocks
call here for some description.

The cycle opened with a terrific earth shock on March 17, 1906.
on the island of Formosa, in the China Sea, by which thousands of
the inhabitants were killed and a property loss resulted, estimated
at $45,000,000. This was quickly followed by the San Francisco
disaster, and on August 16-17, by a destructive shock at Valparaiso,
Chile. This, as in the case of San Francisco, was followed by a
destructive fire, the property loss being fully $100,000,000. The
loss of life was also considerable.

This -city and its vicinity have a memorable record in this
direction, it having been at various times violently shaken. In 1705
almost the entire city was laid in ruins, and in 1851, four hundred
houses were destroyed. Santiago, inland from Valparaiso, was
partly destroyed in 1822, a long portion of the coast of Chile being

202 SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES

permanently raised. In 1829 the same city was again shaken, and
the lifted coast was lowered to several feet below its original level.

THE KINGSTON EARTHQUAKE.

The year 1907 opened in this field with a violent earthquake on
| January I4th at Kingston, the capital and chief commercial city of
the island of Jamaica, which practically destroyed it and killed more
than a thousand of its people. Kingston is, in a sense, a child of the
earthquake, owing its existence and importance to the destruction of
Port Royal, the former capital, by an earthquake in 1692. It stands
on the north side of a land-locked harbor, for its size one of the best
in the world, and since 1872 has been the capital of the island. It
has not been free from former disasters. A violent hurricane visited
it in 1880, and in December, 1892, it was well-nigh consumed by fire.
Its third disaster was that of January 14, 1907, above mentioned,
when the city was shaken to its foundations by severe earth tremors
and a thousand or more of its inhabitants buried beneath its ruins,
while many more were injured by the shock. As in all such cases,
the charity of the world was directed to this centre of disaster, and
the United States was as usual prompt in sending aid to the
sufferers.

THE MONTESSUS RECORD.

The remaining American earthquake of which we need to speak
at this point was that of April 15, 1907, which destroyed two cities
of Mexico, those of Chilpancingo and Chialpi, great loss of life
attending their overthrow. It is desirable, however, to speak at
this point of the great catalogue of earthquakes recently completed,
after years of labor, by Major de Montessus de Balore, which sup-

SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER EARTHQUAKES 203

plements that of Mallet, mentioned in another chapter. This em-
braces no fewer than 130,000 shocks, of which trustworthy details
have been procured, and indicates with some scientific accuracy how
these symptoms of seismic activity are distributed over the earth.
The period of observation includes generally the last fifty years,
and the most shaken regions of the earth appear to be Italy, Japan,
Greece, South America (the Pacific Coast), Java, Sicily, and Asia
Minor. The lands most free from such convulsions are Africa,
Australia, Russia, Siberia, Scandinavia and Canada. Italy and
Japan have each experienced more than 27,000 shocks.

As a rule, where earthquakes are most frequent they are most
severe, though there are exceptions to this, the comparatively few
earthquakes in India being often very disastrous. Yet loss of life
in many cases depends more upon density of population than on the
intensity of the earth's vibrations.

•CHAPTER XIX.

The Volcano and the Earthquake, Earth's
Demons of Destruction.

TO most of us, dwellers upon the face of the earth, this terres-
trial sphere is quite a comfortable place of residence. The
forces of Nature everywhere and at all times surround us,
forces capable, if loosened from their bonds, of bringing death and
destruction to man and the work of his hands. But usually they
are mild and beneficent in their action, not agents of destruction
and lords of elemental misrule. The air, without whose presence
we could not survive a minute, is usually a pleasant companion, now
resting about us in soft calm, now passing by in mild breezes. The
alternation of summer and winter is to us generally an agreeable
relief from the monotony of a uniform climate. The variation
from sunlight to cloud, from dry weather to rainfall, is equally
viewed as a pleasant escape from the weariness of too great fixity
of natural conditions. The change from day to night, from hours
of activity to hours of slumber, are other agreeable variations in the
events of our daily life. In short, a great pendulum seems to be
swinging above us, held in Nature's kindly hand, and adapting its
movements to our best good and highest enjoyment.

But has Nature, — if we are justified in personifying the laws
and forces of the universe, — has mother Nature really our pleasure
and benefit in mind, or does she merely suffer us to enjoy life like

so many summer insects, until she is in the mood to sweep us like
204

EARTH'S DEMONS OF DESTRUCTION 205

leaves from her path ? It must seem the latter to many of the
inhabitants of the earth, especially to the dwellers in certain ill-
conditioned regions. For all the beneficent powers above named
may at a moment's notice change to destructive ones.

THE WIND IS A DEMON IN CHAINS

The wind, for instance, is a demon in chains. At times it
breaks its fetters and rushes on in mad fury, rending and destroy-
ing, and sweeping such trifles as cities and those who dwell therein
to common ruin. Sunshine and rain are subject to like wild
caprices. The sun may pour down burning rays for weeks and
months together, scorching the fertile fields, drying up the life-
giving streams, bringing famine and misery to lands of plenty and
comfort, almost making the blood to boil in our veins. Its an-
tithesis, the rainstorm, is at times a still more terrible visitant From
the dense clouds pour frightful floods, rushing down the lofty
hills, sweeping over fertile plains, overflowing broad river valleys,
and, wherever they go, leaving terror and death in their path. We
may say the same of the alternation of the seasons. Summer, while
looked forward to with joyous anticipation, may bring us only suf-
fering by its too ardent grasp ; and winter, often welcomed with like
pleasurable anticipations, may prove a period of terror from cold
and destitution.

Such is the make-up of the world in which we live, such the
vagaries of the forces which surround us. But those enumerated
are not the whole. Can we say, with a stamp of the foot upon the
solid earth, " Here at least I have something I can trust ; let the
winds blow and the rains descend, let the summer scorch and the
winter chill, the good earth still stands firm beneath me, and of it
at least I am sure?"

206 EARTH'S DEMONS VF DESTRUCTION

Who says so speaks hastily and heedlessly, for the earth can
show itself as unstable as the air, and our solid footing become as
insecure as the deck of a ship laboring in a storm at sea. The
powers of the atmosphere, great as they are and mighty for destruction
as they may become, are at times surpassed by those which abide
within the earth, deep laid in the so-called everlasting rocks, slum-
bering often through generations, but at any time likely to awaken
in wrath, to lift the earth into quaking billows like those of the sea,
or pour forth torrents of liquid fire that flow in glowing and burn-
ing rivers over leagues of ruined land. Such is the earth with
which we have to deal, such the ruthless powers of nature that
spread around us and lurk beneath us, such the terrific forces which
only bide their time to break forth and sweep too-confident man
from the earth's smiling face.

The subterranean powers here spoken of, those we had de*
nominated earth's demons of destruction, are the volcano and the
earthquake, the great moulding forces of the earth, tearing down
t£. .rebuild,: rending to reconstitute, and in this elemental work
often bringing ruin to man's boasted fanes and palaces.

No one who has ever seen a volcano or " burning mountain "
casting forth steam, huge red-hot stones, smoke, cinders and lava,
can possibly forget the grandeur of the spectacle. At night it is
doubly terrible, when the darkness shows the red-hot lava rolling
in glowing streams down the mountain's side. At times, indeed,
the volcano is quiet, and only a little smoke curls from its top.
Even this may cease, and the once burning summit may be covered
over with trees and grass, like any other hill. But deep down in the
earth the gases and pent-up steam, are ever preparing to force their

EARTH'S DEMONS OF DESTRUCTION 207

way upward through the mountain, and to carry with them dis-
solved rocks, and the stones which block their passage. Some-
times, while all is calm and beautiful on the mountains, suddenly
deep-sounding noises are heard, the ground shakes, and a vast
torrent tears its way through the bowels of the volcano, and is
flung hundreds of feet high in the air, and, falling again to the
earth, destroys every living thing for miles around.

It is the same with the earthquake as with the volcano. The
surface of the earth is never quite still. Tremors are constantly
passing onward which can be distinguished by delicate instruments,
but only rarely are these of sufficient force to become noticeable,
except by instrumental means. At intervals, however, the power
beneath the surface raises the ground in long, billow-like motions,
before which, when of violent character, no edifice or human habita-
tion can for a moment stand. The earth is frequently rent asunder,
great fissures and cavities being formed. The course of rivers is
changed and the waters are swallowed up by fissures rent in the
surface, while ruin impends in a thousand forms. The cities
become death pits and the cultivated fields are buried beneath
floods of liquid mud. Fortunately these convulsions, alike of the
earthquake and volcano, are comparative rarities and are confined
to limited regions of the earth's surface. What do we know of
those deep-lying powers, those vast buried forces dwelling in uneasy
isolation beneath our feet ? With all our science we are but a step
beyond the ancients, to whom these were the Titans, great rebel
giants whom Jupiter overthrew and bound under the burning
mountains, and whose throes of agony shook the earth in quaking
convulsions. To us the volcanic crater is the mouth from which
comes the fiery breath of demon powers which dwell far down in
the earth's crust The Titans themselves were dwarfs beside these

2o8 EARTH'S DEMONS OF DESTRUCTION

mighty agents of destruction whose domain extends for thousands"
of miles beneath the earth's surface and which in their convulsions
shake whole continents at once. Such was the case in 1812, when
the eruption of Mont Soufriere on St. Vincent, as told in a later
chapter, formed merely the closing event in a series of earthquakes
which had made themselves felt under thousands of miles of land.

ANCIENT AWE OF VOLCANOES

In olden times volcanoes were regarded with superstitious awe,
and it would have been considered highly impious to make any
investigation of their actions. We are told by Virgil that Mt. Etna
marks the spot where the gods in their anger buried Enceladus,
one of the rebellious giants. To our myth-making ancestors one
of the volcanoes of the Mediterranean, set on a small island of the
Lipari group, was the workshop of Vulcan, the god of fire, within
whose depths he forged the thunderbolts of the gods. From below
came sounds as of a mighty hammer on a vast anvil. Through the
mountain vent came the black smoke and lurid glow from the fires
of Vulcan's forge. This old myth is in many respects more con-
sonant with the facts of nature than myths usually are. In agree-
ment with the theory of its internal forces, the mountain in question
was given the name of Volcano. To-day it is scarcely known at
all, but its name clings to all the fire-breathing mountains of the
earth.

As before said, at the present day we are little in advance of
the ancients in actual knowledge of what is going on so far beneath
our feet. We speak of forces where they spoke of fettered giants,
but can only form theories where they formed myths. Is the
earth's centre made up of liquid fire ? Does its rock crust resemble
the thick ice crust on the Arctic Seas, or is the earth, as later

EARTH'S DEMONS OF DESTRUCTION 209

scientists believe, solid to the core ? Is it heated so fiercely, miles
below our feet, that at every release of pressure the solid rock
bursts into molten lava ? Is the steam from the contact of under-
ground rivers and deep-lying fires the origin of the terrible rending
powers of the volcano's depths ? Truly we can answer none of these
^questions with assurance, and can only guess and conjecture from
the few facts open to us what lies concealed far beneath.

RARITY OF ANCIENT ACCOUNTS

In the history of earthquakes nothing is more remarkable than
the extreme fewness of those recorded before the beginning of the
Christian era, in comparison with those that have been registered
since that time. It is to be borne in mind, however, that before the
birth of Christ only a small portion of the globe was inhabited by
those likely to make a record of natural events. The vast apparent
increase in the number of earthquakes in recent times is owing to a
greater knowledge of the earth's surface and to the spread of civil-
ization over lands once inhabited by savages. The same is to be
said of volcanic eruptions, which also have apparently increased
greatly since the beginning of the Christian era. There may possi-
bly have been a natural increase in these phenomena, but this is
hardly probable, the change being more likely due to the increase
in the number of observers.

The structure of a volcano is very different from that of other
mountains, really consisting of layers of lava and volcanic ashes,
alternating with each other and all sloping away from the center.
These elevations, in fact, are formed in a different manner from
ordinary mountains. The latter have been uplifted by the influence of
pressure in the interior of the earth, but the volcano is an immediate

It of the explosive force of which we have spoken, the mountain
14

2io EARTH'S DEMONS OF DESTRUCTION

being gradually built up by the lava and other materials which it
has flung up from below. In this way mountains of immense
height and remarkable regularity have been formed. Mount Orizabo,
near the City of Mexico, for instance, is a remarkably regular cone,
undoubtedly formed in this way, and the same may be said of Mount
Mayon, on the Island of Luzon.

In many cases the irregularity of the volcano is due to subse-
quent action of its forces, which may blow the mountain itself to
pieces. In the case of Krakatoa, in the East Indies, for instance,
the whole mountain was rent into fragments, which were flung as
dust miles high into the air. The main point we wish to indicate
is that volcanoes are never formed by ordinary elevating forces and
that they differ in this way from all other mountains. On the con-
trary, they have been piled up like rubbish heaps, resembling the
small mountains of coal dust near the mouths of anthracite mines.

It is to the burning heat of the earth's crust and the influence
of pressure, and more largely to the influx of water to the molten
rocks which lie miles below the surface, that these convulsions of
nature are due. Water, on reaching these overheated strata, "explodes
into volumes of steam, and if there is no free vent to the surface,
it is apt to rend the very mountain asunder in its efforts to escape.
Such is supposed to have been the case in the eruption of Krakatoa,
and was probably the case also in the recent case of Mt Pelee.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF ERUPTIONS

If we should seek to give a general description of volcanic
eruptions, it would be in some such words as follows : An eruption
is usually preceded by earthquakes which affect the whole sur-
rounding country, and associated with which are underground explo-
sions that seem like the sound of distant artillery. The mountain

EARTH'S DEMONS OF DESTRUCTION 21 1

quivers with internal convulsions, due to the efforts of its confined
forces to find an opening. The drying up of wells and disappear-
ance of springs are apt to take place, the water sinking downward
*hrough cracks newly made in the rocks. Finally the fierce un-
chained energy rends an opening through the crater and an eruption
begins. It comes usually with a terrible burst that shakes the
mountain to its foundation ; explosions following rapidly and with
increasing violence, while steam issues and mounts upward in a lofty
column. The steam and escaping gases in their fierce outbreaks hurl
up into the air great quantities of solid rock torn from the sides of
the opening. The huge blocks, meeting each other in their rise
and fall, are gradually broken and ground into minute fragments,
forming dust or so-called ashes, often of extreme fineness, and in
such quantities as frequently to blot out the light of the sun. There
is another way in which a great deal of volcanic dust is made ; the
lava is full of steam, which in its expansion tears the molten rock
into atoms, often converting it into the finest dust

The eruption of Mt. Skaptar, in Iceland, in 1783, sent up such
volumes of dust that the atmosphere was loaded with it for months,
and it was carried to the northern part of Scotland, 600 miles away,
in such quantities, as to destroy the crops. During the eruption of
Tomboro, in the East Indies, in 1815, so great was the quantity of
dust thrown up that it caused darkness at midday in Java 300 miles
away and covered the ground to a depth of several inches. Float-
ing pumice formed a layer on the ocean surface two and a half feet
in thickness, through which vessels had difficulty in forcing their way.

The steam which rises in large volumes into the air may be-
come suddenly condensed with the chill of the upper atmosphere
and fall as rain, torrents of which often follow an eruption. The
rain, falling through the clouds of volcanic dust, brings it to the

212 EARTH'S DEMONS Of DESTRUCTION

earth as liquid mud, which pours in thick streams down the sides of
the mountain. The torrents of flowing mud are sometimes on such
a great scale that large towns, as in the instance of the great city
of Herculaneum, may be completely buried beneath them. Over
this city the mud accumulated to the depth of over 70 feet In
addition to these phenomena, molten lava often flows from the lip of
the crater, occasionally in vast quantities. In the Icelandic erup-
tion of 1 783 the lava streams were so great in quantity as to fill
river gorges 600 ft. deep and 200 ft. wide, and to extend over an
open plain to a distance of 12 to 15 miles, forming lakes of
lava 100 feet deep. The volcanoes of Hawaii often send forth
streams of lava which cover an area of over 100 square miles to
a great depth.

GREAT OUTFLOWS OF LAVA

In the course of ages lava outflows of this kind have built up
in Hawaii a volcanic mountain estimated to contain enough material
to cover the whole of the United States with a layer of rock 50 feet
deep. These great outflows of lava are not confined to mountains,
but take place now and then from openings in the ground, or from
long cracks in the surface rocks. Occasionally great eruptions
have taken place beneath the ocean's surface, throwing up material
in sufficient quantity to form new islands.

The formation of mud is not confined to the method given, but
great quantities of this plastic material flow at times from volcanic
craters. In the year 1691 Imbaburu, one of the peaks of the Andes,
sent out floods of mud which contained dead fish in such abund-
ance that their decay caused a fever in the vicinity. The volcanoes
of Java have often buried large tracts of fertile country under
volcanic mud.

EARTH'S DEMON*. OF DESTRUCTION 213

An observation of volcanoes shows us that they have three
well marked phases of action. The first of these is the state of
permanent eruption, as in case of the volcano of Stromboli in the
Mediterranean. This state is not a dangerous one, since the steam,
escaping continually, acts as a safety valve. The second stage is
one of milder activity with an occasional somewhat violent erup-
tion ; this is apt to be dangerous, though not often very greatly so.
The safety valve is partly out of order. The third phase is one in
which long periods of repose, sometimes lasting for centuries, are
followed by eruptions of intense energy. These are often of
extreme violence and cause widespread destruction. In this case
the safety valve has failed to work and the boiler bursts.

OFTEN REST FOR LONG TERMS OF YEARS

Such are the general features of action in the vast powers
which dwell deep beneath the surface, harmless in most parts of the
earth, frightfully perilous in others. Yet even here they often rest
for long terms of years in seeming apathy, until men gather above
their lurking places in multitudes, heedless or ignorant of the
sleeping demons that bide their time below. Their time is sure to
come, after years, perhaps after centuries. Suddenly the solid earth
begins to tremble and quake ; roars as of one of the buried giants
of old strike all men with dread ; then, with a fierce convulsion, a
mountain is rent in twain and vast torrents of steam, burning rock,
and blinding dust are hurled far upward into the air, to fall again
and bury cities, perhaps, with all their inhabitants in indiscriminate
ruin and death.

CHAPTER XX.

Theories of Volcanic and Earthquake Action.

THOUGH the first formation of a volcano (Italian, vulcano,
from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire) has seldom been wit-
nessed, it would seem that it is marked by earthquake move-
ments followed by the opening of a rent or fissure ; but with no
such tilting up of the rocks as was once supposed to take place.
From this fissure large volumes of steam issue, accompanied by
hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrochloric acid, and sulphur
dioxide. The hydrogen, apparently derived from the dissociation
of water at a high temperature, flashes. explosively into union with
atmospheric oxygen, and, having exerted its explosive force, the
steam condenses into cloud, heavy masses of which overhang the
volcano, pouring down copious rains. This naturally disturbs the
electrical condition of the atmosphere, so that thunder and lightning
are frequent accompaniments of an eruption. The hydrochloric
acid probably points to the agency of sea-water. Besides the gases
just mentioned, sulphuretted hydrogen, ammonia and common salt
occur ; but mainly as secondary products, formed by the union of
the vapors issuing from the volcano, and commonly found also in
the vapors rising from cooling lava streams or dormant volcanic
districts. It is important to notice that the vapors issue from the
volcano spasmodically, explosions succeeding each other with great
rapidity and noise.

All substances thrown out by the volcano, whether gaseous,

liquid or solid, are conveniently united under the term ejectament*
Cau)

VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION 2I5

(Latin, things thrown out), and all of them are in an intensely
heated, if not an incandescent state. Most of the gases are incom-
bustible, but the hydrogen and those containing sulphur burn with
a true flame, perhaps rendered more visible by the presence of solid
particles. Much of the so-called flame, however, in popular descrip-
tions of eruptions is an error of observation due to the red-hot
solid particles and the reflection of the glowing orifice on the over-
hanging clouds.

ENORMOUS FORCE DISPLAYED

Solid bodies are thrown into the air with enormous force and
to proportionally great heights, those not projected vertically fall-
ing in consequence at considerable distances from the volcano. A
block weighing 200 tons is said to have been thrown nine miles by
Cotopaxi ; masses of rock weighing as much as twenty tons to
have been ejected by Mount Ararat in 1840; and stones to have
been hurled to a distance of thirty-six miles in other cases The
solid matter thrown out by volcanoes consists of lapilli, scoria,
dust and bombs.

Though on the first formation of the volcano, masses of non-
volcanic rock maybe torn from the chimney or pipe of the mountain,
only slightly fused externally owing to the bad conducting power
of most rocks, and hurled to a distance ; and though at the begin-
ning of a subsequent eruption the solid plug of rock which has
cooled -at the bottom of the crater, or, in fact, any part of the
volcano, may be similarly blown up, the bulk of the solid particles
of which the volcano itself is composed is derived from the lake of
lava or molten rock which seethes at the orifice. Solid pieces rent
from this fused mass and cast up by the explosive force of the
steam with which the lava is saturated are known as lapilli. Cooling

2i6 VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTIOTT

rapidly so as to be glassy in texture externally, these often
have time to become perfectly crystalline within.

Gases and steam escaping from other similar masses may leave
them hollow, when they are termed bombs, or may pit their sur-
faces with irregular bubble-cavities, when they are called scoria or
scoriaceous. Such masses whirling through the air in a plastic
state often become more or less oblately spheroidal in form ; but,
as often, the explosive force of their contained vapors shatters
them into fragments, producing quantities of the finest volcanic
dust or sand. This fine dust darkens the clouds overhanging the
mountain, mixes with the condensed steam to fall as a black mud-
rain, or lava di aqua (Italian, water lava), or is carried up to enor-
mous heights, and then slowly diffused by upper currents of the
atmosphere. In the eruption of Vesuvius of A.D. 79, the air was
dark as midnight for twelve or fifteen miles round ; the city of
Pompeii was buried beneath a deposit of dry scoria, or ashes and
dust, and Herculaneum beneath a layer of the mud-like lava di
aqua, which on drying sets into a compact rock. Rocks formed
from these fragmentary volcanic materials are known as tuff.

VOLCANIC CONES HAVE SIMILAR CURVATURES

It is entirely of these cindery fragments heaped up with mar-
vellous rapidity round the orifice that the volcano itself is first
formed. It may, as in the case of Jorullo in Mexico in 1759, f°rm
a cone several hundred feet high in less than a day. Such a cone
may have a slope as steep as 30° or 40°, its incline in all cases
depending simply on the angle of repose of its materials, the
inclination, that is, at which they stop rolling. The great volcanoes
of the Andes, which are formed mainly of ash, are very steep.
Owing to a general similarity in their materials, volcanic cones in

S RAVAGING MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, IN 1906
e principal street of San Francisco's business centre. It was one of the first
quarters to be devastated by the flames. House after house succumbed
the lofty "Call" or Spreckles building remained standing

VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION ai7

all parts of the world have very similar curvatures ; but older
volcanic mountains, in which lava-streams have broken through the
cone, secondary cones have arisen, or portions have been blown
up, are more irregular in outline and more gradual in inclination.

In size, volcanoes vary from mere mounds a few yards in
diameter, such as the sa/ses or mud volcanoes near the Caspian, to
Etna, 10,800 feet high, with a base 30 miles in diameter ; Cotopaxi,
in the Andes, 18,887 ^eet high; or Mauna Loa, in the Sandwich
Isles, 13,700 feet high, with a base 70 miles in diameter, and two
craters, one of which, Kilauea, the largest active crater on our
earth, is seven miles in circuit. Larger extinct craters occur in
Japan ; but all our terrestrial volcanic mountains are dwarfed by
those observed on the surface of the moon, which, owing to its
smaller size, has cooled more rapidly than our earth. It is, of
course, the explosive force from below which keeps the crater
clear, as a cup-shaped hollow, truncating the cone ; and all stones
falling into it would be only thrown out again. It may at the close
of an eruption cool down so completely that a lake can form
within it, such as Lake Averno, near Naples ; or it may long
remain a seething sea of lava, such as Kilauea ; or the lava may
find one or more outlets from it, either by welling over its rim,
which it will then generally break down, as in many of the small
extinct volcanoes ("puys*') of Auvergne, or more usually by burst-
ing through the sides of the cone.

LAVA VARIES VERY MUCH IN LIQUIDITY

It is not generally until the volcano has exhausted its first
explosive force that lava begins to issue. Several streams may
issue in different directions. Their dimensions are sometimes enor-
mous. Lava varies very much in liquidity and in the rate at which

218

VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION »i9

it flows. This much depends, however, upon the slope it has to
traverse. A lava stream at Vesuvius ran three miles in four
minutes, but took three hours to flow the next three miles, while
a stream from Mauna Loa ran eighteen miles in two hours. Glow-
ing at first as a white-hot liquid, the lava soon cools at the surface
to red and then to black ; cinder-like scoriaceous masses form on
its surface and in front of the slowly-advancing mass ; clouds of
steam and other vapor rise from it, and little cones are thrown up
from its surface ; but many years may elapse before the mass is
cooled through. Thus, while the surface is glassy, the interior
becomes crystalline.

As to what are the causes of the great convulsions of nature
known as the volcano and the earthquake we know very little.
Various theories have been advanced, but nothing by any means
sure has been discovered, and considerable difference of opinion
exists. In truth we know so little concerning the conditions exist-
ing in the earth's interior that any views concerning the forces at
work there must necessarily be largely conjectural.

Sir Robert S. Ball says, in this connection : " Let us take, for
instance, that primary question in terrestrial physics, as to whether
the interior of the earth is liquid or solid. If we were to judge
merely from the temperatures reasonably believed to exist at a
depth of some twenty miles, and if we might overlook the question
of pressure, we should certainly say that the earth's interior must
be in a fluid state. It seems at least certain that the temperatures
to be found at depths of two score miles, and still more at greater
depths, must be so high that the most refractory solids, whether
metals or minerals, would at once yield if we could subject them to
such temperatures in our laboratories. But none of our laboratory
experiments can tell us whether, under the pressure of thousands

220 VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION

of tons on the square inch, the application of any heat whatever
would be adequate to transform solids into liquids. It may, indeed,
be reasonably doubted whether the terms solid and liquid are
applicable, in the sense in which we understand them, to the
materials forming the interior of the earth.

" A principle, already well known in the arts, is that many, if
not all, solids may be made to flow like liquids if only adequate
pressure be applied. The making of lead tubes is a well-known
practical illustration of this principle, for these tubes are formed
simply by forcing solid lead by the hydraulic press through a mould
which imparts the desired shape.

" If then a solid can be made to behave like a liquid, even
with such pressures as are within our control, how are we to sup-
pose that the solids would behave with such pressures as those to
which they are subjected in the interior of the earth ? The fact is
that the terms solid and liquid, at least as we understand them,
appear to have no physical meaning with regard to bodies sub-
jected to these stupendous pressures, and this must be carefully
borne in mind when we are discussing the nature of the interior of
the earth."

THE VOLCANOE A SAFETY VALVE

Whatever be the state of affairs in the depths of the earth's
crust, we may look upon the volcano as a sort of safety-valve, open-
ing a passage for the pent-up forces to the surface, and thus reliev-
ing the earth from the terrible effects of the earthquake, through
which these imprisoned powers so often make themselves felt.
Without the volcanic vent there might be no safety for man on the
earth's unquiet face.

Professor J. C. Russell, of Michigan University, presents the
following views concerning the status and action of volcanoes : —

VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACflON 221

" When reduced to its simplest terms, a volcano may be defined
as a tube, or conduit, in the earth's crust, through which the molten
rock is forced to the surface. The conduit penetrates the cool and
rigid rocks forming the superficial portion of the earth, and reaches
its highly heated interior.

44 The length of volcanic conduits can only be conjectured, but,
judging from the approximately known rate of increase of hear
with depth (on an average one degree Fahrenheit for each sixty
feet), and the temperature at which volcanic rocks melt (from 2,30x3
to 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit, when not under pressure), they must
seemingly have a depth of at least twenty miles. There are other
factors to be considered, but in general terms it is safe to assume
that the conduits of volcanoes are irregular openings, many miles
in depth, which furnish passageways for molten rock (lava) from
the highly-heated sub-crust portion of the earth to its surface* . . .

ERUPTIONS OF QUIET TYPE

44 During eruptions of the quiet type, the lava comes to the
surface in a highly liquid condition — that is, it is thoroughly fused,
and flows with almost the freedom of water. It spreads widely,
even on a nearly level plain, and may form a comparatively thin
sheet several hundred square miles in area, as has been observed in
Iceland and Hawaii. On the Snake River plains, in Southern Idaho,
there are sheets of once molten rock which were poured out in the
manner just stated, some four hundred square miles in area and not
over seventy-five feet in average thickness. When an eruption of
highly liquid lava occurs in a mountainous region, the molten rock
may cascade down deep slopes and flow through narrow valleys for
fifty miles or more before becoming chilled sufficiently to arrest its
progress. Instances arc abundant where quiet eruptions have

222 VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION

occurred in the midst of a plain, and built up ' lava cones/ or low
mounds, with immensely expanded bases. Illustrations are fur-
nished in Southern Idaho, in which the cones formed are only three
hundred or four hundred feet high, but have a breadth at the base
of eight or ten miles. In the class of eruption illustrated by these
examples, there is an absence of fragmental material, such as
explosive volcanoes hurl into the air, and a person may stand within
a few yards of a rushing stream of molten rock, or examine closely
the opening from which it is being poured out, without danger or
serious inconvenience.

" The quiet volcanic eruptions are attended by the escape of
steam or gases from the molten rock, but the lava being in a highly
liquid state, the steam and gases dissolved in it escape quietly and
without explosions. If, however, the molten rock is less com-
pletely fluid, or in a viscous condition, the vapors and gases con-
tained in it find difficulty in escaping, and may be retained until,
becoming concentrated in large volume, they break their way to
the surface, producing violent explosions. Volcanoes in which the
lava extruded is viscous, and the escape of steam and gases is
retarded until the pent-up energy bursts all bounds, are of the
explosive type. One characteristic example is Vesuvius.

14 When steam escapes from the summit of a volcanic conduit—
which, in plain terms, is a tall vessel filled with intensely hot and
more or less viscous liquid — masses of the liquid rock are blown
into the air, and on falling build up a rim or crater about the place
of discharge. Commonly the lava in the summit portion of a con-
duit becomes chilled and perhaps hardened, and when a steam
explosion occurs this crust is shattered and the fragments hurled
into the air and contributed to the building of the walls of the
inclosing crater.

VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION 223

" The solid rock blown out by volcanoes consists usually of
highly vesicular material which hardened on the surface of the
column of lava within a conduit and was shattered by explosions
beneath it. These fragments vary in size from dust particles up to
masses several feet in diameter, and during violent eruptions are
hurled miles high. The larger fragments commonly fall near their
place of origin, and usually furnish the principal part of the material
of which craters are built, but the gravel-like kernels, lapilli, may
be carried laterally several miles if a wind is blowing, while the dust
is frequently showered down on thousands of square miles of land
and sea. The solid and usually angular fragments manufactured
in this manner vary in temperature, and may still be red hot on
falling.

" Volcanoes of the explosive type not uncommonly discharge
streams of lava, which may flow many miles. In certain instances
these outwellings of liquid rock occur after severe earthquakes and
violent explosions, and may have all the characteristics of quiet
eruptions. There is thus no fundamental difference between the
two types into which it is convenient to divide volcanoes.

MOUNTAINS BLOW THEIR HEADS OFF

" In extreme examples of explosive volcanoes, the summit por
tion of a crater, perhaps several miles in circumference and several
thousand feet high, is blown away. Such an occurrence is recorded
in the case of the volcano Coseguina, Nicaragua, in 1835. Or, an
entire mountain may disappear, being reduced to lapilli and dust
and blown into the air, as in the case of Krakatoa, in the Straits of
Sunda, in 1883.

" The essential feature of a volcano, as stated above, is a tube
or conduit, leading from the highly heated sub-crust portion of the

224 VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION

earth to the crater and through which molten rock is forced upward
to the surface. The most marked variations in the process depend
on the quantity of molten rock extruded, and on the freedom of
escape of the steam and gases contained in the lava.

" The cause of the rise of the molten rock in a volcano is still
a matter for discussion. Certain geologists contend that steam is
the sole motive power ; while others consider that the lava is forces
to the surface owing to pressure on the reservoir from which it
comes. The view perhaps most favorably entertained at present,
in reference to the general nature of volcanic eruptions, is that the
rigid outer portion of the earth becomes fractured, owing principally
to movements resulting from the shrinking of the cooling inner
mass, and that the intensely hot material reached by the fissures,
previously solid owing to pressure, becomes liquid when pressure
is relieved, and is forced to the surface. As the molten material
rises it invades the water-charged rocks near the surface and acquires
steam, or the gases resulting from the decomposition of water, and
a new force is added which produces the most conspicuous and at
times the most terrible phenomena accompanying eruptions."

The active agency of water is strongly maintained by many
geologists, and certainly gains support from the vast clouds of steam
given off by volcanoes in eruption and the steady and quiet
emission of steam from many in a state of rest. The quantities of
water in the liquid state, to which is due the frequent enormous
outflows of mud, leads to the same conclusion. Many scientists,
indeed, while admitting the agency of water, look upon this as the
aqueous material originally pent up within the rocks. For instance
Professor Shaler, dean of the Lawrence Scientific School, says :

" Volcanic outbreaks are merely the explosion of steam under
high pressure, steam which is bound in rocks buried underneath

VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACFJON 225

the surface of the earth and there subjected to such tremendous
heat that when the conditions are right its pent-up energy breaks
forth and it shatters its stone prison walls into dust. The process
by which the water becomes buried in this manner is a long one.
Some contend that it leaks down from the surface of the earth
through fissures in the outer crust, but this theory is not generally
accepted. The common belief is that water enters the rocks dur-
ing the crystalization period, and that these rocks through the
natural action of rivers and streams become deposited in the bottom
of the ocean. Here they lie for many ages, becoming buried
deeper and deeper under masses of like sediment, which are con-
stantly being washed down upon them from above. This process
is called the blanketing process.

" Each additional layer of sediment, while not raising the level
ot the sea bottom, buries the first layers just so much the deeper
and adds to their temperature just as does the laying of extra
blankets on a bed. When the first layer has reached a depth of a
few thousand feet the rocks which contain the water of crystaliza-
tion are subjected to a terrific heat.. This heat generates steam,
which is held in a state of frightful tension in its rocky prison.
Wrinklings in the outer crust of the earth's surface occur, caused
by the constant shrinking of the earth itself and by the contraction
of the outer surface as it settles on the plastic centers underneath.
Fissures are caused by these foldings, and as these fissures reach
down into the earth the pressure is removed from the rocks and
the compressed steam in them, being released, explodes with tre-
mendous force."

This view is, very probably, applicable to many cases, and the
exceedingly fine dust which so often rises from volcanoes has,
doubtless, for one of its causes the sudden and explosive conversion
IS

VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION

of water into steam in the interior of ejected lava, thus rending
it into innumerable fragments. But that this is the sole mode
of action of water in volcanic eruptions is very questionable. It
certainly does not agree with the immense volumes at times thrown
out, while explosions of such extreme intensity as that of Krakatoa
very strongly lead to the conclusion that a great mass of water has
made its way through newly opened fissures to the level of molten
rock, and exploded into steam with a suddenness which gave it the
rending force of dynamite or the other powerful chemical explosives.
As the earthquake is so intimately associated with the volcano
the causes of the latter are in great measure the causes of the
former, and the forces at work frequently produce a more or less
violent quaking of the earth's surface before they succeed in open-
ing a channel of escape through the mountain's heart. One agency
of great potency, and one whose work never ceases, has doubtless
much to do with earthquake action. In the description of this we
cannot do better than to quote from " The Earth's Beginning " of
Sir Robert S. Ball.

CAUSE OF EARTHQUAKES

"As to the immediate cause of earthquakes there is no doubt
considerable difference of opinion. But I think it will not be
doubted that an earthquake is one of the consequences, though
perhaps a remote one, of the gradual loss of internal heat from
the earth. As this terrestrial heat is gradually declining, it follows
from the law that we have already so often had occasion to use
that the bulk of the earth must be shrinking. No doubt the dimi-
nution in the earth's diameter due to the loss of heat must be
exceedingly small, even in a long period of time. The cause, how-
ever, is continually in operation, and, accordingly, the crust of the
earth has from time to time to be accommodated to the fact that

VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION

227

the whole globe is lessening. The circumference of our earth at
the equator must be gradually declining ; a certain length in that
circumference is lost each year. We may admit that loss to be a
quantity far too small to be measured by any observations as yet
obtainable, but, nevertheless, it is productive of phenomena so im-
portant that it cannot be overlooked.

"It follows from these considerations that the rocks which
form the earth's crust over the surface of the continents and the

EARTHQUAKE AT MESSINA, 1783.

islands, or beneath the bed of the ocean, must have a lessen ing acre-
age year by year. These rocks must therefore submit to compression,
either continuously or from time to time, and the necessary yield-
ing of the rocks will in general take place in those regions where
the materials of the earth's crust happen to have comparatively
•mall powers of resistance. The acts of compression will ofter

228 VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION

and perhaps generally, not proceed with uniformity, but rathei
with small successive shifts, and even though the displacements of
the rocks in these shifts be actually very small, yet the pressures to
which the rocks are subjected are so vast that a very small shift
may correspond to a very great terrestrial disturbance.

"Suppose, for instance, that there is a slight shift in the rocks
on each side of a crack, or fault, at a depth of ten miles. It must
be remembered that the pressure ten miles down would be about
thirty-five tons to the square inch. Even a slight displacement of
one extensive surface over another, the sides being pressed together
with a force of thirty-five tons on the square inch, would be an
operation necessarily accompanied by violence .greatly exceeding
that which we might expect from so small a displacement if the
forces concerned had been of more ordinary magnitude. On
account of this great multiplication of the intensity of the phe-
nomenon, merely a small rearrangement of the rocks in the crust
of the earth, in pursuance of the necessary work of accommodat-
ing its volume to the perpetual shrinkage, might produce an
excessively violent shock, extending far and wide. The effect of
such a shock would be propagated in the form of waves through
the globe, just as a violent blow given at one end of a bar of iron
by a hammer is propagated through the bar in the form of waves.
When the effect of this internal adjustment reaches the earth's
surface it will sometimes be great enough to be perceptible in the
shaking it gives that surface. The shaking may be so violent that
buildings may not be able to withstand it Such is the phenome-
non of an earthquake.

" When the earth is shaken by one of those occasional adjust-
ments of the crust which I have described, the wave that spreads
like a pulsation from the centre of agitation extends all over our

VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION tig

globe and is transmitted right through it. At the surface lying
immediately over the centre of disturbance there will be a violent
shock. In the surrounding country, and often over great distances,
the earthquake may also be powerful enough to produce destruc-
tive effects. The convulsion may also be manifested over a far
larger area of country in a way which makes the shock to be felt,
though the damage wrought may not be appreciable. But beyond
a limited distance from the centre of the agitation the earthquake
will produce no destructive effects upon buildings, and will not
even cause vibrations that would be appreciable to ordinary obser-
vation.

THE RADIUS OF DISTURBANCE.

"In each locality in which earthquakes are chronic it would
seem as if there must be a particularly weak spot in the earth
some miles below the surface. A shrinkage of the earth, in the
course of the incessant adjustment between the interior and the
exterior, will take place by occasional little jumps at this particular
centre. The fact that there is this weak spot at which small adjust-
ments are possible may provide, as it were, a safety-valve for other
places in the same part of the world. Instead of a general shrink-
ing, the materials would be sufficiently elastic and flexible to allow
the shrinking for a very large area to be done at this particular
locality. In this way we may explain the fact that immense tracts
on the earth are practically free from earthquakes of a serious char
acter, while in the less fortunate regions the earthquakes are more
or less perennial

11 Now, suppose an earthquake takes place in Japan, it origi-
nates a series of vibrations through our globe. We must here dis-
tinguish between the rocks — I might almost say the comparatively
pliant rocks — which form the earth's crust, and those which form

23® VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION

the intensely rigid core of the interior of our globe. The vibrations
which carry the tidings of the earthquake spread through the rocks
on the surface, from the centre of the disturbance, in gradually
enlarging circles. We may liken the spread of these vibrations to
the ripples in a pool of water which diverge from the spot where a
raindrop has fallen. The vibrations transmitted by the rocks on
the surface, or on the floor of the ocean, will carry the message all
over the earth. As these rocks are flexible, at all events by com-
parison with the earth's interior, the vibrations will be correspond-
ingly large, and will travel with vigor over land and under sea. In
due time they reach, say the Isle of Wight, where they set the
pencil of the seismometer at work. But there are different ways
round the earth from Japan to the Isle of Wight, the most direct
route being across Asia and Europe ; the other route across the
Pacific, America, and the Atlantic. The vibrations will travel by
both routes, and the former is tne shorter of the two."

TRANSMISSIONS OF VIBRATIONS

Some brief repetition may not here be amiss as to the pro-
ducts of volcanic action,, of which so much has been said in the
preceding pages, especially as many of the terms are to some extent
technical in character. The most abundant of these substances is
steam or water-gas, which, as we have seen, issues in prodigious
Quantities during every eruption. But with the steam a great num-
ber of other volatile materials frequently make their appearance.
Though we have named a number of these at the beginning of
this chapter, it will not be out of order to repeat them here.
The chief among these are the acid gases known as hydrochloric
acid, sulphurous acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, carbonic acid, and
boracic acid ; and with these acid gases there issue hydrogen, nitrogen

VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION aji

ammonia, the volatile metals arsenic, antimony, and mercury,
and some other substances. These volatile substances react upon
one another, and many new compounds are thus formed. By the
action of sulphurous acid and sulphuretted hydrogen on each other,
the sulphur so common in volcanic districts is separated and,
deposited. The hydrochloric acid acts very energetically on the*
rocks around the vents, uniting with the iron in them to form the
yellow ferric-chloride, which often coats the rocks round the vent
and is usually mistaken by casual observers for sulphur.

Some of the substances emitted by volcanic vents, such as
hydrogen and sulphuretted hydrogen, are inflammable, and when
they issue at a high temperature these gases burst into flame the
moment that they come into contact with the air. Hence, when
volcanic fissures are watched at night, faint lambent flames are fre-
quently seen playing over them, and sometimes these flames are
brilliantly colored, through the presence of small quantities of cer-
tain metallic oxides. Such volcanic flames, however, are scarcely
ever strongly luminous, and the red, glowing light which is observed
over volcanic mountains in eruption is due to quite another cause.
What is usually taken for flame during a volcanic eruption is simply,
as we have before stated, the glowing light of the surface of a mass
of red-hot lava reflected from the cloud of vapor and dust in the
air, much as the lights of a city are reflected from the water vapor
of the atmosphere during a night of fog.

Besides the volatile substances which issue from volcanic vents,
mingling with the atmosphere or condensing upon their sides, there
are many solid materials ejected, and these may accumulate around
the orifices till they build up mountains of vast dimensions, like
Etna, Teneriffe, and Chimborazo. Some of these solid materials
are evidently fragments of the rock-masses, through which the

232 VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION

volcanic fissure has been rent ; these fragments have been carried
upwards by the force of the steam-blast and scattered over the
sides of the volcano. But the principal portion of the solid mater-
ials ejected from volcanic orifices consists of matter which has been
extruded from sources far beneath the surface, in highly-heated and
,fluid or semi-fluid condition.

It is to these materials that the name of "lavas" is properly
applied. Lavas present a general resemblance to the slags and
clinkers which are formed in our furnaces and brick-kilns, and con-
sist, like them, of various stony substances which have been more
or less perfectly fused. When we come to study the chemical com-
position and the microscopical structure of lavas, however, we
shall find that there are many respects in which they differ entirely
from these artificial products, they consisting chiefly of felspar, or
of this substance in association with augite or hornblende. In tex-
ture they may be stony, p-1assy, resin-like, vesicular or cellular and
light in weight, as in the jase of pumice or scoria.

FLOATING PUMICE

The steam and other gases rising through liquid lava are apt to
produce bubbles, yielding a surface froth or foam. This froth varies
greatly in character according to the nature of the material from
which it is formed. In the majority of cases the lavas consist of a
mass of crystals floating in a liquid magma, and the distension of
such a mass by the escape of steam from its midst gives rise to the
formation of the rough cindery-looking material to which the name
of " scoria " is applied. But when the lava contains no ready-
formed crystals, but consists entirely of a glassy substance in a
more or less perfect state of fusion, the liberation of steam gives
rise to the formation of the beautiful material known as " pumice."

VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACT/ON 233

Pumice consists of a mass of minute glass bubbles ; these bubbles
do not usually, however, retain their globular form, but are elon-
gated in one direction through the movement of the mass while it
is still in a plastic state. The quantity of this substance ejected is
often enormous. We have seen to what a vast extent it was
thrown out from the crater of Krakatoa. During the year 1878,
masses of floating pumice were reported as existing in the vicinity
of the Solomon Isles, and covering the surface of the sea to such
extent that it took ships three days to force their way through
them. Sometimes this substance accumulates in such quanti-
ties along coasts that it is difficult to determine the position
of the shore within a mile or two, as we may land and walk about
on the great floating raft of pumice. Recent deep-sea soundings,
carried on in the Challenger and other vessels, have shown that
the bottom of the deepest portion of the ocean, far away from the
land, is covered with volcanic materials which have been carried
through the air or have floated on the surface of the ocean.

Fragments of scoria or pumice may be thrown hundreds or
thousands of feet into the atmosphere, those that fall into the crater
and are flung up again being gradually reduced in size by friction.
Thus it is related by Mr. Poulett Scrope, who watched the Vesu-
vian eruption of 1822, which lasted for nearly a month, that during
the earlier stages of the outburst fragments of enormous size were
thrown out of the crater, but by constant re-ejection these were gra-
dually reduced in size, till at last only the most impalpable dust
issued from the vent. This dust filled the atmosphere, producing
in the city of Naples " a darkness that might be felt." So exces-
sively finely divided was it, that it penetrated into all drawers,
boxes, and the most closely fastened receptacles, filling them com-
pletely. The fragmentary materials ejected from volcanoes are

2J4 VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE ACTION

often given the name of cinders or ashes. These, however, are terms
of convenience only, and do not properly describe the volcanic mate-
rial

Sometimes the passages of steam through a mass of molten glass
produces large quantities of a material resembling spun glass,
Small particles of this glass are carried into the air and leave
behind them thin, glassy filaments like a tail. At the volcano of
Kilauea in Hawaii, this substance, as previously stated, is abundantly
produced, and is known as 'Pele's Hair' — Pele being the name of
the goddess of the mountain, Birds' nests are sometimes found
composed of this beautiful material. In recent years an artificial
substance similar to this Pele's hair has been extensively manufac-
tured by passing jets of steam through the molten slag of iron-
furnaces ; it resembles cotton-wool, but is made up of fine threads
of glass, and is employed for the packing of boilers and other
purposes.

The lava itself, as left in huge deposits upon the surface,
assumes various forms, some crystalline, others glassy. The latter
is usually found in the condition known as obsidian, ordinarily black
in color, and containing few or no crystals. It is brittle, and splits
into sharp-edged or pointed fragments, which were used by primi-
tive peoples for arrow-heads, knives and other cutting implements.
The ancient Mexicans used bits of it for shaving purposes, it having
an edge of razor-like sharpness. They also used it as the cutting
part of their weapons of war.

CHAPTER XXI.

The Active Volcanoes of the Earth.

IT is not by any means an easy task to frame an estimate of the
number of volcanoes in the world. Volcanoes vary greatly in
their dimensions, from vast mountain masses, rising to a height
of nearly 25,000 feet above sea-level, to mere molehills. They
likewise exhibit every possible stage of development and decay:
while some are in a state of chronic active eruption, others are
reduced to the condition of solfataras, or vents emitting acid vapors,
and others again have fallen into a more or less complete state of
ruin through the action of denuding forces.

NUMBER OF ACTIVE VOLCANOES

Even if we confine our attention to the larger volcanoes, which
merit the name of mountains, and such of these as we have reason
to believe to be in a still active condition, our difficulties will be
diminished, but not by any means removed. Volcanoes may sink
into a dormant condition that at times endures for hundreds or
even thousands of years, and then burst forth into a state of re-
newed activity ; and it is quite impossible, in many cases, to distin-
guish between the conditions of dormancy and extinction.

We. shall, however, probably be within the limits of truth in
stating that the number of great habitual volcanic vents upon the
globe which we have reason to believe are still in active condition,
is somewhere between 300 and 350. Most of these are marked by
more or less considerable mountains, composed of the materials

(335)

236 ACTIVE VOLCANOES OF THE EARTH

ejected from them. But if we include mountains which exhibit the
external conical form, crater-like hollows, and other features of
volcanoes, yet concerning the activity of which we have no record
or tradition, the number will fall little, if anything, short of 1,000.

The mountains composed of volcanic materials, but which have
lost through denudation the external form of volcanoes, are still
more numerous, and the smaller temporary openings which are
usually subordinate to the habitual vents that have been active dur-
ing the periods covered by history and tradition, must be numbered
by thousands. There are still feebler manifestations of the volcanic
forces — such as steam-jets, geysers, thermal and mineral waters,
spouting saline and muddy springs, and mud volcanoes — that may
be reckoned by millions. It is not improbable that these less pow-
erful manifestations of the volcanic forces to a great extent make
up in number what they want in individual energy ; and the relief
which they afford to the imprisoned activities within the earth's
crust may be almost equal to that which results from the occasional
outbursts at the great habitual volcanic vents.

In taking a general survey of the volcanic phenomena of the
globe, no facts come out more strikingly than that of the very un-
equal distribution, both of the great volcanoes, and of the minor
exhibitions of subterranean energy.

Thus, on the whole of the continent of Europe, there is but
one habitual volcanic vent — that of Vesuvius — and this is situated
upon the shores of the Mediterranean. In the islands of that sea,
however there are no less than six volcanoes: namely, Stromboli,
and Vulcano, in the Lipari Islands; Etna, in Sicily; Graham's Isle,
a submarine volcano, off the Sicilian coast ; and Santorin and Ni-
urns, in the ^Egean Sea.

ACTIVE VOLCANOES OF THE EARTH 237

The African continent is at present known to contain about
ten active volcanoes — four on the west coast, and six on the east
coast, while about ten other active volcanoes occur on islands close
to the African coasts. On the continent of Asia, more than twenty
active volcanoes are known or believed to exist, but no less than
twelve of these are situated in the peninsula of Kamchatka. No
volcanoes are known to exist in the Australian continent.

The American continent contains a greater number of vol-
canoes than the continents of the Old World. There are twenty
in North America, twenty-five in Central America, and thirty-seven
in South America. Thus, taken altogether, there are about one
hundred and seventeen volcanoes situated on the great continental
lands of the globe, while nearly twice as many occur upon the
islands scattered over the various oceans.

ASIATIC INLAND VOLCANOES

Upon examining further into the distribution of the conti-
nental volcanoes, another very interesting fact presents itself. The
volcanoes are in almost every instance situated either close to the
coasts of the continent, or at no great distance from them. There
are, indeed, only two exceptions to this rule. In the great and
almost wholly unexplored table-land lying between Siberia and
Tibet four volcanoes are said to exist, and in the Chinese province
of Manchuria several others. More reliable information is, how-
ever, needed concerning these volcanoes.

It is a remarkable circumstance that all the oceanic islands
which are not coral-reefs are composed of volcanic rocks ; and
many of these oceanic islands, as well as others lying near the
shores of the continents, contain active volcanoes.

Through the midst of the Atlantic Ocean runs a ridge, which,
by the soundings of the various exploring vessels sent out in recent

233 ACTIVE VOLCANOES OF THE EARTH

years, has been shown to divide the ocean longitudinally into two
basins. Upon this great ridge, and the spurs proceeding frcm it,
rise numerous mountainous masses, which constitute the well-
known Atlantic islands and groups of islands. All of these are of
volcanic origin, and among them are numerous active volcanoes.
The Island of Jan Mayen contains an active volcano, and Iceland
contains thirteen, and not improbably more ; the Azores have six
active volcanoes, the Canaries three ; while about eight volcanoes
lie off the west coast of Africa. In the West Indies there are six
active volcanoes; and three submarine volcanoes have been
recorded within the limits of the Atlantic Ocean. Altogether, no
less than forty active volcanoes are situated upon the great subma-
rine ridges which traverse the Atlantic longitudinally.

But along the same line the number of extinct volcanoes is far
greater, and there are not wanting proofs that the volcanoes which
are still active are approaching the condition of extinction.

VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC

. If the great .medial chain of the Atlantic presents us with an
example of a chain of . volcanic mountains verging on extinction,
we have in the line of islands separating the Pacific and Indian
Oceans an example of a similar range of volcanic vents which are
in a condition of the greatest activity. In the peninsula of Kam-
chatka there are twelve active volcanoes, in the Aleutian Islands
thirty-one, and in the peninsula of Alaska three. The chain of the
Kuriles contains at least ten active volcanoes ; the Japanese Islands
and the islands to the south of Japan twenty-five. The great group
of islands lying to the south-east of the Asiatic continent is at the
present time the grandest focus of volcanic activity upon the globe.
No less than fifty active volcanoes occur here.

ACTIVE VOLCANOES OF THE EARTH

239

Farther south, the 'same chain is probably continued by the
four active volcanoes of New Guinea, one or more submarine vol-
canoes, and several vents in New Britain, the Solomon Isles, and
the New Hebrides, the three active volcanoes of New Zealand, and
possibly by Mount Erebus and Mount Terror in the Antarctic
region. Altogether, no less than 1 50 active volcanoes exist in the

MOUNT EREBU3.

Two rolcanoe* exist In the frozen teas of the Antarctic zone, Mount Erebut tad Mount Terror, whoM stnokinf
summit! indicate * strange conjunction of the force* of fire and frost.

chain of islands which stretch from Behring's Straits down to the
Antarctic circle ; and if we include the volcanoes on Indian and
Pacific Islands which appear to be situated on lines branching from
this particular band, we shall not be wrong in the assertion that
this great system of volcanic mountains includes at least one half
of the habitually active vents of the globe. In addition to th«
active vents, there are here several hundred very perfect volcanic

240 AC1IVE VOLCANOES OF THE EARTH

cones, many of which appear to have recently become extinct,
though some of them m«iy be merely dormant, biding their time.

A third series of volcanoes starts from the neighborhood
of Behring's Straits, and stretches along the whole western coast
of the American continent. This is much less continuous, but
nevertheless very important, and contains, with its branches, nearly
a hundred active volcanoes. On the north this great band is
almost united with the one we have already described by the chain
of the Aleutian and Alaska volcanoes. In British Columbia
about the parallel of 60° N. there exist a number of volcanic
mountains, one of which, Mount St. Elias, is believed to be 18,000
feet in height. Farther south, in the territory of the United
States, a number of grand volcanic mountains exist, some of which
are probably still active, for geysers and other manifestations of
volcanic activity abound. From the southern extremity of the
peninsula of California an almost continuous chain of volcanoes
stretches through Mexico and Gautemala, and from this part of
the volcanic band a branch is given off which passes through the
West Indies, and contains the volcanoes which have so recently
given evidence of their vital activity.

In South America the line is continued by the active volca
noes of Ecuador, Bolivia and Chili, but at many intermediate
points in the chain of the Andes extinct volcanoes occur, which to
a great extent fill up the gaps in the series. A small offshoot to
the westward passes through the Galapagos Islands. The great
band of volcanoes which stretches through the American continent
is second only in importance, and in the activity of its vents, to
the band which divides the Pacific from the Indian Ocean.

The third volcanic band of the globe is that, already spoken
of, which traverses the Atlantic Ocean from north to south. This

ACTIVE VOLCANOES OF THE EARTH

241

series of volcanic mountains is much more broken and interrupted
than the other two, and a greater proportion of its vents are ex-
tinct. It attained its condition of maximum activity during the
distant period of the Miocene, and now appears to be passing into
a state of gradual extinction.

Beginning in the north with the volcanic rocks of Greenland
and Bear Island, we pass southwards, by way of Jan Maycn, Ice

MOUNT HECLA— ICELAND.
One of tbt two moit famous of the great Icelandic voles noea.

land and the Faroe Islands, to the Hebrides and the north of Ire-
land. Thence, by way of the Azores, the Canaries and the Cape
de Verde Islands, with some active vents, we pass to the ruined
volcanoes of St. Paul, Fernando de Noronha, Ascension, St. He-
lena, Trinidad and Tristan da Cunha. From this great Atlantic
band two branches proceed to the eastward, one through Central

Europe, where all the vents are now extinct, and the other through
16

242

the Mediterranean to Asia Minor, the great majority of the volca-
noes along the latter line being now extinct, though a few are still
active. The volcanoes on the eastern coast of Africa may be
regarded as situated on another branch from this Atlantic volcanic
band. The number of active volcanoes on this Atlantic band and
its branches, exclusive of those in the West Indies, does not exceed
fifty.

THIAN SHAN AND HAWAIIAN VOLCANOES

From what has been said, it will be seen that the volcanoes of
the globe not only usually assume a linear arrangement, but nearly
the whole of them can be shown to be thrown up along three well-
marked bands and the branches proceeding from them. The first
and most important of these bands is nearly 10,000 miles in length,
and with its branches cci-cains more than 150 active volcanoes ; the
second is 8,000 miles in length, and includes about 100 active vol.
canoes ; the third is much more broken and interrupted, extends to
a length of nearly 1,000 miles, and contains about 50 active vents.
The volcanoes of the eastern coast of Africa, with Mauritius,
Bourbon, Rodriguez, and the vents along the line of the Red Sea,
may be regarded as forming a fourth and subordinate band.

Thus we see that the surface of the globe is covered by a net-
work of volcanic bands, all of which traverse it in sinuous lines
with a general north-and-south direction, giving off branches which
often run for hundreds of miles, and sometimes appear to form a
connection between the great bands.

To this rule of the linear arrangement of the volcanic vents
of the globe, and their accumulation along certain well-marked
bands, there are two very striking exceptions, which we must now
proceed to notice.

ACTIVE VOLCANOES OF THE EARTH 243

In the very centre of the continent formed by Europe and
Asia, the largest unbroken land-mass of the globe, there rises from
the great central plateau the remarkable volcanoes of the Thian
Shan Range. The existence of these volcanoes, of which only
obscure traditional accounts had reached Europe before the year
1858, appears to be completely established by the researches of
recent Russian and Swedish travelers. Three volcanic vents appear
to exist in this region, and other volcanic phenomena have been
stated to occur in the great plateau of Central Asia, but the exist-
ence of the latter appears to rest on very doubtful evidence. The
only accounts which we have of the eruptions of these Thian Shan
volcanoes are contained in Chinese histories and treatises on geog-
raphy.

The second exceptionally situated volcanic group is that of
the Hawaiian Islands. While the Thian Shan volcanoes rise in
the centre of the largest unbroken land-mass, and stand on the edge
of the loftiest and greatest plateau in the world, the volcanoes of
the Hawaiian Islands rise in the northern centre of the largest ocean
and from almost the greatest depths in that ocean. All round the
Hawaiian Islands the sea has a depth of from 2,000 to 3,000 fath-
oms, and the island-group culminates in several volcanic cones,
which rise to the height of nearly 14,000 feet above the sea-level.
The volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands are unsurpassed in height
and bulk by those of any other part of the globe.

With the exception of the two isolated groups of the Thian
Shan and the Hawaiian Islands, nearly all the active volcanoes of
the globe are situated near the limits which separate the great land-
and-water-masses of the globe — that is to say, they occur either on
the parts of continents not far removed from their coast-lines, or
on islands in the ocean not very far distant from the shores. The

244 ACTIVE VOLCANOES OF THE EARTH

fact of the general proximity of volcanoes to the sea is one which
has frequently been pointed out by geographers, and may now be
regarded as being thoroughly established.

VOLCANOES PARALLEL TO MOUNTAIN CHAINS

Many of the grandest mountain-chains have bands of vol-
canoes lying parallel to them. This is strikingly exhibited by the
great mountain-masses which lie on the western side of the Ameri-
can continent. The Rocky Mountains and the Andes consist of
folded and crumpled masses of altered strata which, by the action
of denuding forces, have been carved into series of ridges and sum-
mits. At many points, however, along the sides of these great
chains we find that fissures have been opened and lines of vol-
canoes formed, from which enormous quantities of lava have
flowed and covered great tracts of cougitry.

This is especially marked in the Snake River plain of Idaho,
in the western United States. In this, and the adjoining regions
of Oregon and Washington, an enormous tract of country has been
overflowed by lava in a late geological period, the surface covered
being estimated to have a larger area than France and Great Britain
combined. The Snake River cuts through it in a series of pictur-
esque gorges and rapids, enabling us to estimate its thickness,
which is considered to average 4000 feet. Looked at from any
point on its surface, one of these lava-plains appears as a vast level
surface, like that of a lake bottom. This uniformity has been pro-
duced either by the lava rolling over a plain or lake bottom, or by
the complete effacement of an original, undulating contour of the
ground under hundreds or thousands of feet of lava in successive
sheets. The lava, rolling up to the base of the mountains, has
followed the sinuosities of their margin, as the waters of a lake

ACTIVE VOLCANOES OF THE EARTH 245

follow its promontories and bays. Similar conditions exist along
the Sierra Nevada range of California, and to some extent placer
mining has gone on under immense beds of lava, by a process of
tunneling beneath the volcanic rock.

In some localities the volcanoes are of such height and dimen-
sions as to overlook and dwarf the mountain-ranges by the side of
which they lie. Some of the volcanoes lying parallel to the great
American axis appear to be quite extinct, while others are in full
activity. In the Eastern continent we find still more striking exam-
ples of parallelism between great mountain-chains and the lands
along which volcanic activity is exhibited — volcanoes, active or
extinct, following the line of the great east and west chains which
extend through southern Europe and Asia. There are some other
volcanic bands which exhibit a similar parallelism with mountain
chains ; but, on the other hand, there are volcanoes between which
and the nearest mountain-axis no such connection can be traced.

AREAS OF UPHEAVAL AND SUBSIDENCE

There is one other fact concerning the mode of distribution of
volcanoes upon the surface of the globe, to which we must allude.
By a study of the evidences presented by coral-reefs, raised
beaches, submerged forests, and other phenomena of a similar kind,
it can be shown that certain wide areas of the land and of the
ocean-floor are at the present time in a state of subsidence, while
other equally large areas are being upheaved. And the observa-
tions of the geologist prove that similar upward and downward
movements of portions of the earth's crust have been going on
through all geological times.

Now, as Mr. Darwin has so well shown in his work on "Coral-
Reefs," if we trace upon a map the areas of the earth's surface

246 ACTIVE VOLCANOES OF THE EARTH

which are undergoing upheaval and subsidence respectively, we
shall find that nearly all the active volcanoes of the globe are sit-
uated upon rising areas, and that volcanic phenomena ar^ con-
spicuously absent from those parts of the earth's crust which can be
proved at the present day to be undergoing depression.

The remarkable linear arrangement of volcanic vents has a
significance that is well worthy of fuller consideration. There are
facts known which point to the cause of this state of affairs. It is
not uncommon for small cones of scorise to be seen following lines
on the flanks or at the base of a great volcanic mountain. These
are undoubtedly lines of fissure, caused by the subterranean forces.
In fact, such fissures have been seen opening on the sides of Mount
Etna, in whose bottom could be seen the glowing lava. Along
these fissures, in a few days, scoriae cones appeared ; on one occa-
sion no less than thirty-six in number.

It is believed by geologists that the linear systems of volcanoes
are ranged along similar lines of fissure in the earth's crust — enor-
mous breaks, extending for thousands of miles, and the result of in-
ternal energies acting through vast periods of time. Along these
immense fissures in the earth's rock-crust there appear, in place of
small scoriae cones, great volcanoes, built up through the ages by a
series of powerful eruptions, and only ceasing to spout fire them-
selves when the portion of the great crack upon which they lie is
closed. The greatest of these fissures is that along the vast sin-
uous band of volcanoes extending from near the Arctic circle at
Behring's Straits to the Antarctic circle at South Victoria Land,
not far from half round the earth. It doubtless marks the line of
mighty forces which have been active for millions of years.

CHAPTER XXII.

The Famous Vesuvius and the Destruction of
Pompeii and Herculaneum.

THE famous volcano of southern Italy named Vesuvius, which
is now so constantly in eruption, was described by the an-
cients as a cone-shaped mountain with a flat top, on which
was a deep circular valley filled with vines and grass, and sur-
rounded by high precipices. A large population lived on the 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 A. D. 72,
Spartacus, a rebellious Roman gladiator, encamped there with some
thousands of fighting men, and the Roman soldiers were let down
the precipices in order to surprise and capture them.

There had been earthquakes around the mountain, and one of
the cities had been nearly destroyed : but no one was prepared for
what occured seven years after the defeat of Spartacus. Suddenly,
in the year 79 A. D., a terrific rush of smoke, steam, and fire
belched from the mountain's summit ; one side of the valley in
which Spartacus had encamped was blown off, and its rocks, with
vast quantities of ashes, burning stones, and sand, were ejected far
into the sky. They then spread out like a vast pall, and fell far
and wide. For eight days and nights this went on, and the enorm-
ous quantity of steam sent up. together with the deluge of rain
that fell, produced torrents on the mountain-side, which, carrying

(247)

248

onward the fallen ashes, overwhelmed everything in their way.
Sulphurous vapors filled the air and violent tremblings of the earth
were constant.

A city six miles off was speedily rendered uninhabitable, and
was destroyed by the falling stones ; but two others— Herculaneum
and Pompeii — which already had suffered from tlw2 down-pour of
ashes, were gradually filled with a flood of water, sand, and ashes,
which came down the side of the volcano, and covering them entirely.

BURIED CITIES EXCAVATED.

The difference in ease of excavation is due to the following
circumstance. Herculaneum being several miles nearer the crater,
was buried in a far more consistent substance, seemingly composed
of volcanic ashes cemented by mud ; Pompeii, on the contrary, was
buried only in ashes and loose stones. The casts of statues found
in Herculaneum show the plastic character of the material that fell
there, which time has hardened to rock-like consistency.

These statues represented Hercules and Cleopatra, and the
theatre proved to be that of the long-lost city of Herculaneum.
The site of Pompeii was not discovered until forty years after-
ward, but work there proved far easier than at Herculaneum, and
more progress was made in bringing it back to the light of day.

The less solid covering of Pompeii has greatly facilitated the
work of excavation, and a great part of the city has been laid bare.
Many of its public buildings and private residences are now visible,
and some whole streets have been cleared, while a multitude of
interesting relics have been found. Among those are casts of many
of the inhabitants, obtained by pouring liquid plaster into the ash
moulds that remained of them. We see them to-day in the attitude
and with the expression of agony and horror with which death met
them more than eighteen centuries ago.

THE: FAMOUF VESUVIUS 249

In succeeding eruptions much lava was poured out; and in
A. D. 472, ashes were cast over a great part of Europe, so that much
fear was caused at Constantinople. The buried cities were more
and more covered up, and it was not until about A. D. 1700 that, as
above stated, the city of Herculaneum was discovered, the peasants
of the vicinity being in the habit of extracting marble from its
ruins. They had also, in the course of years, found many statues.
In consequence, an excavation was ordered by Charles III, the
earliest result being the discovery of the theatre, with the statues
above named. The work of excavation, however, has not pro-
gressed far in this city, on account of its extreme difficulty, though
various excellent specimens of art-work have been discovered, in-
cluding the finest examples of mural painting extant from antiq-
uity. The library was also discovered, 1803 papyri being found.
Though these had been charred to cinder, and were very difficult
to unroll and decipher, over 300 of them have been read.

PLINY'S CELEBRATED DESCRIPTION

Pliny the Younger, to whom we are indebted for the only con-
temporary account of the great eruption under consideration, was
at the time of its occurrence resident with his mother at Misenum,
where the Roman fleet lay, under the command of his uncle, the
great author of the " Historia Naturalis". His account, contained
in two letters to Tacitus (lib. vi. 16, 20), is not so much a narrative
of the eruption, as a record of his uncle's singular death, yet it is
of great interest as yielding the impressions of an observer. The
translation which follows is adopted from the very free version of
Melmoth, except in one or two places, where it differs much from
the ordinary text The letters are given entire, though some parts
are rather specimens of style tha*i good examples of description.

250

THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS

"Your request that I should send an account of my uncle's
death, in order to transmit a more exact relation of it to posterity,
deserves my acknowledgments ; for if this accident shall be cele-
brated by your pen, the glory of it, I am assured, will be rendered
forever illustrious. And, notwithstanding he perished by a misfor-
tune which, as it involved at the same time a most beautiful country
in ruins, and destroyed so many populous cities, seems to promise

MOUNT VESUVIUS BEFORE ERUPTION OF A. D. 7*

him an everlasting remembrance; notwithstanding he has himself
composed many and lasting works ; yet I am persuaded the men-
tion of him in your immortal works will greatly contribute to eter-
nize his name. Happy I esteem those to be, whom Providence
has distinguished with the abilities either of doing such actions as
are worthy of being related, or of relating them in a manner wor-
thy of being read ; but doubly happy are they who are blessed with

THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS 251

both these talents; in the number of which my uncle, as his own
writings and your history will prove, may justly be ranked. It is
with extreme willingness, therefore, that I execute your commands;
and should, indeed, have claimed the task if you had not enjoined it.

" He was at that time with the fleet under his command at
Misenum. On the 24th of August, about one in the afternoon, my'
mother desired him to observe a cloud which appeared of a very
unusual size and shape. He had just returned from taking the
benefit of the sun, and, after bathing himself in cold water, and tak-
ing a slight repast, had retired to his study. He immediately
arose, and went out upon an eminence, from whence he might more
distinctly view this very uncommon appearance. It was not at
that distance discernible from what mountain the cloud issued, but
it was found afterward to ascend from Mount Vesuvius. I cannot
give a more exact description of its figure than by comparing it to
that of a pine tree, for it shot up to a great height in the form of a
trunk, which extended itself at the top into a sort of branches; occa-
sioned, I imagine, either by a sudden gust of air that impelled it, the
force of which decreased as it advanced upwards, or the cloud itself
being pressed back again by its own weight, and expanding in this
manner: it appeared sometimes bright, and sometimes dark and
spotted, as it was more or less impregnated with earth and cinders.

" This extraordinary phenomenon excited my uncle's philoso-
phical curiosity to take a nearer view of it. He ordered a light
vessel to be got ready, and gave me the liberty, if I thought proper,
to attend him. I rather chose to continue my studies, for, as it
happened, he had given me an employment of that kind. As he
was passing out of the house he received dispatches : the marines
at Retina, terrified at the imminent peril (for the place lay beneath
the mountain, and there was no retreat but by ships), entreated his

252 THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS

aid in this extremity. He accordingly changed his first design, and
what he began with a philosophical he pursued with an heroical
turn of mind.

THE VOYAGE TO STABILE

" He ordered the galleys to put to sea, and went himself on
board with an intention of assisting not only Retina but many
other places, for the population is thick on that beautiful coast.
When hastening to the place from whence others fled with the ut-
most terror, he steered a direct course to the point of danger,
and with so much calmness and presence of mind, as to be able to
make and dictate his observations upon the motion and figure of
that dreadful scene. He was now so nigh the mountain that the
cinders, which grew thicker and hotter the nearer he approached,
fell into the ships, together with pumice-stones, and black pieces of
burning rock ; they were in danger of not only being left aground
by the sudden retreat of the sea, but also from the vast fragments
which rolled down from the mountain, and obstructed all the shore.

" Here he stopped to consider whether he should return back
again ; to which the pilot advised him. 'Fortune,' said he, 'favors
the brave ; carry me to Pomponianus.' Pomponianus was then at
Stabise, separated by a gulf, which the sea, after several insensible
windings, forms upon the shore. He (Pomponianus) had already
sent his baggage on board ; for though he was not at that time in
actual danger, yet being within view of it, and indeed extremely
near, if it should in the least increase, he was determined to put to
sea as soon as the wind should change. It was favorable, however,
for carrying my uncle to Pomponianus, whom he found in the
greatest consternation. He embraced him with tenderness, en-
couraging and exhorting him to keep up his spirits ; and the more
to dissipate his fears he ordered, w'th an air of unconcern, the

THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS 253

baths to be got ready; when, after having bathed, he sat down to
supper with great cheerfulness, or at least (what is equally heroic)
with all the appearance of it.

"In the meantime, the eruption from Mount Vesuvius flamed
out in several places with much violence, which the darkness of the
night contributed to render still more visible and dreadful. But
my uncle, in order to soothe the apprehensions of his friend,
assured him it was only the burning of the villages, which the
country people had abandoned to the flames ; after this he retired to
rest, and it was most certain he was so little discomposed as to fall
into a deep sleep ; for, being pretty fat, and breathing hard, those
who attended without actually heard him snore. The court which
led to his apartment being now almost filled with stones and ashes,
if he had continued there any longer it would have been impossible
for him to have made his way out ; it was thought proper, therefore,
to awaken him. He got up and went to Pomponianus and the rest
of his company, who were not unconcered enough to think of
going to bed. They consulted together whether it would be most
prudent to trust to the houses, which now shook from side to side
with frequent and violent concussions ; or to fly to the open fields,
where the calcined stone and cinders, though light indeed, yet fell
in large showers and threatened destruction. In this distress they
resolved for the fields as the less dangerous situation of the two —
a resolution which, while the rest of the company were hurried into
it by their fears, my uncle embraced upon cool and deliberate con-
sideration.

DEATH OF PLINY THE ELDER

"They went out, then, having pillows tied upon their heads
with napkins ; and this was their whole defence against the storm
of stones that fell around them. It was now day everywhere else,

$54 THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS

but there a deeper darkness prevailed than in the most obscure
night ; which, however, was in some degree dissipated by torches
and other lights of various kinds. They thought proper to go
down further upon the shore, to observe if they might safely put
out to sea; but they found that the waves still ran extremely high
and boisterous. There my uncle, having drunk a draught or two of
cold water, threw himself down upon a cloth which was spread for
him, when immediately the flames, and a strong smell of sulphur
which was the forerunner of them, dispersed the rest of the com-
pany, and obliged him to rise. He raised himself up with the
assistance of two of his servants, and instantly fell down dead, suf-
focated, as I conjecture, by some gross and noxious vapor, having
always had weak lungs, and being frequently subject to a difficulty
of breathing.

" As soon as it was light again, which was not till the third day
after this melancholy accident, his body was found entire, and with-
out any marks of violence upon it, exactly in the same posture as that
in which he fell, and looking more like a man asleep than dead.
During all this time my mother and I were at Misenum. But this
has no connection with your history, as your inquiry went no farther
than concerning my uncle's death ; with that, therefore, I will put an
end to my letter. Suffer me only to add, that I have faithfully related
to you what I was either an eye-witness of myself, or received imme-
diately after the accident happened, and before there was any time
to vary the truth. You will choose out of this narrative such cir-
cumstances as shall be most suitable to your purpose ; for there is a
great difference between what is proper for a letter and a history;
between writing to a friend and writing to the public. Farewell."
In this account, which was drawn up some years after the event,
from the recollections of a student eighteen years old, we recognize

THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS »55

the continual earthquakes ; the agitated sea with its uplifted
bed ; the flames and vapors of an ordinary eruption, probably
attended by lava as well as ashes. But it seems likely that the
author's memory, or rather the information communicated to him
regarding the closing scene of Pliny's life, was defective. Flames
and sulphurous vapors could hardly be actually present at Stabiae.
ten miles from the centre of the eruption.

That lava flowed at all from Vesuvius on this occasion has
been usually denied ; chiefly because at Pompeii and Herculaneum
the causes of destruction were different — ashes overwhelmed the
former, mud concreted over the latter. We observe, indeed, phe-
nomena on the shore near Torre del Greco which seem to require
the belief that currents of lava had been solidified there at some
period before the construction of certain walls and floors, and other
works of Roman date. In the Oxford Museum, among the speci-
mens of lava to which the dates are assigned, is o"e referred to
A. D. 79, but there is no mode of proving it to have belonged to
the eruption of that date.

PLINY'S SECOND LETTER

A second letter from Pliny to Tacitus {Epist. 20) was required
to satisfy the curiosity of that historian ; especially as regards the
events which happened under the eyes of his friend. Here it is
according to Melmoth :

" The letter which, in compliance with your request, I wrote
to you concerning the death of my uncle, has raised, it seems, your
curiosity to know what terrors and danger attended me while I
continued at Misenum : for there, I think, the account in my former
letter broke off.

* Though my shocked soul recoils, my tongue shall tell.'

256 THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS

" My uncle having left us, 1 pursued the studies which pre-
vented my going with him till it was time to bathe. After which I
went to supper, and from thence to bed, where my sleep was greatly
broken and disturbed. There had been, for many days before,
some shocks of an earthquake, which the less surprised us as they
are extremely frequent in Campania ; but they were so particularly
violent that night, that they not only shook everything about us,
but seemed, indeed, to threaten total destruction. My mother flew
to my chamber, where she found me rising in order to awaken her.
We went out into a small court belonging to the house, which sepa-
rated the sea from the buildings. As I was at that time but eigh
teen years of age, I know not whether I should call my behavior,
in this dangerous juncture, courage or rashness ; but I took up
Livy, and amused myself with turning over that author, and even
making extracts from him, as if all about me had been in full
•security. While we were in this posture, a friend of my uncle's, who
was just come from Spain to pay him a visit, joined us ; and observ-
ing me sitting with my mother with a book in my hand, gready
condemned her calmness at the same time that he reproved me for
my careless security. Nevertheless, I still went on with my author.

" Though it was now morning, the light was exceedingly faint
and languid ; the buildings all around us tottered ; and, though we
stood upon open ground, yet as the place was narrow and confined,
there was no remaining there without certain and great danger :
we therefore resolved to quit the town. The people followed us
in the utmost consternation, and, as to a mind distracted with terror
every suggestion seems more prudent than its own, pressed in great
crowds about us in our way out

'* Being got to a convenient distance from the houses, we stood
still, in the midst of a most dangerous and dreadful scene. The

THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS a$7

chariots which we had ordered to be drawn out were so agitated
backwards and forwards, though upon the most level ground, that
we could not keep them steady, even by supporting them with
large stones. The sea seemed to roll back upon itself, and to be
driven from its banks by the convulsive motion of the earth ; it is
certain at least that the shore was considerably enlarged, and many
sea animals were left upon it On the other side a black and
dreadful cloud, bursting with an igneous serpentine vapor, darted
out a long train of fire, resembling flashes of lightning, but much
larger.

FEAR VERSUS COMPOSURE

4 Upon this the Spanish friend whom I have mentioned,
addressed himself to my mother and me with great warmth and
earnestness ; ' If your brother and your uncle,' said he, 4 is safe, he
certainly wishes you to be so too : but if he has perished, it was his
desire, no doubt, that you might both survive him : why therefore
do you delay your escape a moment ?' We could never think of
our own safety, we said, while we were uncertain of his. Hereupon
our friend left us. and withdrew with the utmost precipitation.
Soon afterward, the cloud seemed to descend, and cover the whole
ocean ; as it certainly did the island of Capreae, and the promontory
of Misenum. My mother strongly conjured me to make my escape
at any rate, which, as I v~s young, I might easily do ; as for her-
self, she said, her age and corpulency rendered all attempts of that
sort impossible. However, she would willingly meet death, if she
could have the satisfaction of seeing that she was not the occasion
of mine. But I absolutely refused to leave her, and taking her by
the hand, I led her on ; she complied with great reluctance, and
not without many reproaches to herself for retarding my flight

'The ashes now began to fall upon us though in no great
17

258 THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS

quantity. I turned my head and observed behind us a thick smoke,
which came rolling after us like a torrent. I proposed, while we
yet had any light, to turn out of the high road lest she should be
pressed to death in the dark by the crowd that followed us. We
had scarce stepped out of the path when darkness overspread us,
not like that of a cloudy night, or when there is no moon, but of a
room when it is all shut up and all the lights are extinct. Nothing
then was to be heard but the shrieks of women, the screams of
children and the cries of men ; some calling for their children,
others for their parents, others for their husbands, and only distin-
guishing each other by their voices ; one lamenting his own fate,
another that of his family ; some wishing to die from the very fear
of dying; some lifting their hands to the gods ; but the greater part
imagining that the last and eternal night was come, which was to
destroy the gods and the world together. Among them were some
who augmented the real terrors by imaginary ones, and made the
frighted multitude believe that Misenum was actually in flames.

" At length a glimmering light appeared, which we imagined
to be rather the forerunner of an approaching burst of flames, as
in truth it was, than the return of day. However, the fire fell at <
distance from us ; then again we were immersed in thick darkness,
and a heavy shower of ashes rained upon us, which we were obliged
every now and then to shake off, otherwise we should have been
crushed and buried in the heap.

" I might boast that, during all this scene of horror, not a
sigh or expression of fear escaped me, had not my support been
founded in that miserable, though strong, consolation that all man-
kind were involved in the same calamity, and that I imagined I was
perishing with the world itself ! At last this dreadful darkness was
dissipated by degrees, like a cloud of smoke ; the real day returned.

THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS 259

and soon the sun appeared, though very faintly, and as when an
eclipse is coming on. Every object that presented itself to our
eyes (which were extremely weakened) seemed changed, being cov-
ered over with white ashes, as with a deep snow. We returned to
Misenum, where we refreshed ourselves as well as we could, and
passed an anxious night between hope and fear, for the earthquake
still continued, while several greatly excited people ran up and down,
heightening their own and their friends' calamities by terrible pre-
dictions. However, my mother and I, notwithstanding the danger
we Jiad passed and that which still threatened us, had no thoughts
of leaving the place till we should receive some account from my
uncle.

" And now you will read this narrative without an) view of
inserting it in your history, of which it is by no means worthy;
and, indeed, you must impute it to your own request if it shall not
even deserve the trouble of a letter. Farewell ! "

DION CASSIUS ON THE ERUPTION

The story told by Pliny is the only one upon which we can
rely. Dion Cassius, the historian, who wrote more than a century
later, does not hesitate to use his imagination, telling us that Pom-
peii was buried under showers of ashes " while all the people were
sitting in the theatre." This statement has been effectively made
use of by Bulwer, in his " Last Days of Pompeii." In this he pic-
tures for us a gladiatorial combat in the arena, with thousands of
deeply interested spectators occupying the surrounding seats. The
novelist works his story up to a thrilling climax in which the volcano
clays a leading part.

This is all very well as a vivid piece of fiction, but it does not
accord with fact, since Dion Cassius was undoubtedly incorrect in

a6o THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS

his statement. We now know from the evidence furnished by the
excavations that none of the people were destroyed in the theatres,
and, indeed, that there were very few who did not escape from both
cities. It is very likely that many of them returned and dug down
for the most valued treasures in their buried habitations. Dion
Cassius may have obtained the material for his accounts from the
traditions of the descendants of survivors, and if so he shows
how terrible must have been the impression made upon their
minds. He assures us that during the eruption a multitude of men
of superhuman nature appeared, sometimes on the mountain and
sometimes in the environs, that stones and smoke were thrown out,
the sun was hidden, and then the giants seemed to rise again, while
the sounds of trumpets were heard.

LAKE AVERNUS

Not far from Vesuvius lay the famous Lake Avernus, whose
name was long a popular synonym for the infernal regions. The
lake is harmless to-day, but its reputation indicates that it was not
always so. There is every reason to believe that it hides the out-
let of an extinct volcano, and that long after the volcano ceased to
be active it emitted gases as fatal to animal life as those suffocat-
ing vapors which annihilated all the cattle on the Island of Lance-
rote, in the Canaries, in the year 1730. Its name signifies "bird-
less," indicating that its ascending vapors were fatal to all birds
that attempted to fly above its surface.

In the superstition of the Middle Ages Vesuvius assumed the
character which had before been given to Avernus, and was
regarded as the mouth of hell Cardinal Damiano, in a letter to
Pope Nicholas II., written about the year 1060. tells the story of
how a priest, who had left his mother ill at Beneventum, went on

THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS

261

his homeward way to Naples past the crater of Vesuvius, and heard
issuing therefrom the voice of his mother in great agony. He after
ward found that her death coincided exactly with the time at which
he had heard her voice.

A trip to the summit of Vesuvius is one of the principal attrac-
tions for strangers who are visiting Naples. There is a fascina-
tion about that awful slayer of cities which few can resist, and no

A LATER VIEW OF MOUNT VESUVIUS

less attractive is the city of Pompeii, now largely laid bare after
being buried for eighteen centuries. We are indebted to Henry
Haynie for the following interesting description : "Once seen, it will
never be forgotten. It is full of suggestions. It kindles emotions
that are worth the kindling, and brings on dreams that are worth
the dreaming. Of the three places overwhelmed, Herculaneum.
Pompeii and Stabiae, the last scarcely repays excavation in one

262 THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS

sense, and the first in another ; but to watch the diggers at Pom-
peii is fascinating, even when there is no reasonable expectation of
a find. Herculaneum was buried with lava, or rather with tufa, and
it is so very hard that the expense of uncovering of only a small
part of that city has been very great.

.HOW POMPEII IMPRESSES ITS VISITORS

" Pompeii was smothered in ashes, however, and most of it is
uncovered now. But while there is much that is fascinating, and
all of it is instructive, there is nothing grand or awe-inspiring in
the ruins of Pompeii. No visitor stands breathless as in the great
hall of Karnak or in the once dreadful Coliseum at Rome, or
dreams with sensuous delight as before the Jasmine Court at Agra.
" The weirdness of the scene possesses us as a haunted cham-
ber might. We have before us the narrow lanes, paved with tufa,
in which Roman wagon wheels have worn deep ruts. We cross
streets on stepping-stones which sandaled feet ages ago polished.
We see the wine shops with empty jars, counters stained with
liquor, stone mills where the wheat was ground, and the very ovens
in which bread was baked more than eighteen centuries ago. ' Wel-
come' is offered us at one silent, broken doorway; at another we
are warned to ' Beware of the dog ! ' The painted figures, — some
of them so artistic and rich in colors that pictures of them are dis-
believed,— the mosaic pavements, the empty fountains, the altars
and household gods, the marble pillars and the small gardens are
there just as the owners left them. Some of the walls are scribbled
over by the small boys of Pompeii in strange characters which
mock modern erudition. In places we read the advertisements of
gladiatorial shows, never to come off, the names of candidates for
legislative office who were never to sit There is nothing like this
elsewhere.

THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS 263

"The value of Pompeii to those classic students who would
understand, not the speech only, but the life and the every-day
habits, of the ancient world, is too high for reckoning. Its inesti-
mable evidence may be seen in the fact that any high-school boy
can draw the plan of a Roman house, while ripest scholars hesitate/
on the very threshhold of a Greek dwelling. This is because no
Hellenic Pompeii has yet been discovered, but thanks to the silent
city close to the beautiful Bay of Naples, the Latin house is known
from ostium to porticus, from the front door to the back garden
wall.

STREETS AND HOUSES OF POMPEII

'* The streets of Pompeii must have had a charm unapproached
by those of any city now in existence. The stores, indeed, were
wretched little dens. Two or three of them commonly occupied
the front of a house on either side of the entrance, the ostium ;
but when the door lay open, as was usually the case, a passerby
could look into the atrium, prettily decorated and hung with rich
stuffs. The sunshine entered through an aperture in the roof, and
shone on the waters of the impluvium, the mosaic floor, the altar of
the household gods and the flowers around the fountain.

"As the life of the Pompeiians was all outdoors, their pretty
homes stood open always. There was indeed a curtain betwixt
the atrium and the peristyle, but it was drawn only when the mas-
ter gave a banquet. Thus a wayfarer in the street could see, be-
yond the hall described and its busy servants, the white columns of
the peristyle, with creepers trained about them, flowers all around,
and jets of water playing through pipes which are still in place. In
many cases the garden itself could be observed between the pillars
of the further gallery, and rich paintings on the wall beyond that

264 THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS

" But how far removed those little palaces of Pompeii were
from our notion of well-being is scarcely to be understood by one
who has not seen thenio It is a question strange in all points of
view where the family slept in the houses, nearly all of which had
no second story. In the most graceful villas the three to five sleep-
ing chambers round the atrium and four round the peristyle were
rather ornamental cupboards than aught else. One did not differ
from another, and if these were devoted to the household the
slaves, male and female, must have slept on the floor outside. The
master, his family and his guest used these small, dark rooms, which
were apparently without such common luxuries as we expect in the
humblest home. All their furniture could hardly have been more
than a bed and a footstool ; but it should be remembered that the
public bath was a daily amusement The kitchen of each villa cer-
tainly was not furnished with such ingenuity, expense or thought
as the stories of Roman gormandising would have led us to expect
In the house of the ^Edile — so called from the fact that ' Pansam
^d.' is inscribed in red characters by the doorway — the cook seems
to have been employed in frying eggs at the moment when increas-
ing danger put him to flight His range, four partitions of brick,
was very small ; a knife, a strainer, a pan lay by the fire just as
they fell from the slave's hand."

VALUE OF THE DISCOVERY OF POMPEII

This description strongly presents to us the principal value of
the discovery of Pompeii. Interesting as are the numerous works
of art found in its habitations, and important as is their bearing
upon some branches of the art of the ancient world, this cannot
compare in interest with the flood of light which is here thrown on
ancient life in all its details, enabling us to picture to ourselves the

REFUGEES LEAVING THE FERRY HOUSE, SAN FRANCISCO.

Twisted and toppling in the consuming heat, the tall tower of the Ferry

House stood like a silhoutte against the lurid background of flame.

A STREET IN CHINATOWN.

The largest Chinese colony in America occupied the northeastern section of
San Francisco. Its flimsy buildings made it an easy prey to the flames.

THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS 265

manners and habits of life of a cultivated and flourishing popula
tion at the beginning of the Christian era, to an extent which no
amount of study of ancient history could yield.

Looking upon the work of the volcano as essentially destnic
tive, as we naturally do, we have here a valuable example of its
power as a preservative agent ; and it is certainly singular that it is
to a volcano we owe much of what we know concerning the cities,
dwellings and domestic life of the people of the Roman Empire,

It would be very fortunate for students of antiquity if similar
disasters had happened to cities in other ancient civilized lands,
however unfortunate it might have been to their inhabitants. But
doubtless we are better off without knowledge gained from ruins
thus produced.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Eruptions of Vesuvius, Etna and Stromboli.

OUNT VESUVIUS is of especial interest as being the only
active volcano on the continent of Europe — all others of
that region being on the islands of the Mediterranean — and
for the famous ancient eruption described in the last chapter.
Before this it had borne the reputation of being extinct, but since
then it has frequently shown that its fires have not burned out, and
has on several occasions given a vigorous display of its powers.

During the fifteen hundred years succeeding the destructive
event described eruptions were of occasional occurrence, though of
no great magnitude. But throughout the long intervals when
Vesuvius was at rest it was noted that Etna and Ischia were more
or less disturbed.

THE BIRTH OF MONTE NUOVO

In 1538 a startling evidence was given that there was no de-
cline of energy in the volcanic system of Southern Italy. This was
the sudden birth of the mountain still known as Monte Nuovo, or
New Mountain, which was thrown up in the Campania near Aver-
nus, on the spot formerly occupied by the Lucrine Lake.

For about two years prior to this event the district had been
disturbed by earthquakes, which on September 27 and 28, 1538,'
became almost continuous. The low shore was slightly elevated,
so that the sea retreated, leaving bare a strip about two hundred
feet in width. The surface cracked, steam escaped, and at last.

VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI 267

early on the morning of th^ 29th, a greater rent was made, from
which were vomited furiously "smoke, fire, stones and mud com-
posed of ashes, making at the time of its opening a noise like the
loudest thunder."

The ejected material in less than twelve hours built the hill
which has lasted substantially in the same form to our day. It is
a noteworthy fact that since the formation of Monte Nuovo there
has been no volcanic disturbance in any part of the Neapolitan
district except in Vesuvius, which for five centuries previous had
remained largely at rest.

LAVA FROM VESUVIUS

The first recognised appearance of lava in the eruptions of
Vesuvius was in the violent eruption of 1036. This was succeeded
at intervals by five other outbreaks, none of them of great energy.
After 1500 the crater became completely quiet, the whole mountain
in time being grown over with luxuriant vegetation, while by the
next century the interior of the crater became green with shrub-
bery, indicating that no injurious gases were escaping.

This was sleep, not death. In 1631 the awakening came in an
eruption of terrible violence. Almost in a moment the green
mantle of woodland and shrubbery was torn away and death and
destruction left where peace and safety had seemed assured.

Seven streams of lava poured from the crater and swept rap*
idly down the mountain side, leaving ruin along their paths. Re-
sina, Grahasello and Torre del Greco, three villages that had grown
up during the period of quiescence, were more or less overwhelmed
by the molten lava. Great torrents of hot water also poured out,
adding to the work of desolation. It was estimated that eighteen
thousand of the inhabitants were killed

268 VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI

What made the horror all the greater was a frightful error of
judgment, similar to that of the Governor of Martinique at St.
Pierre. The Governor of Torre del Greco had refused to be
warned in time, and prevented the people from making their escape
antil it was too late. Not until the lava had actually reached the
walls was the order for departure given. Before the order could
be acted upon the molten streams burst through the walls into
the crowded streets and overwhelmed the vast majority of the in-
habitants.

In this violent paroxysm the whole top of the mountain is said
to have been swept away, the new crater which took the place of
the old one being greatly lowered. From that date Vesuvius has
never been at rest for any long interval, and eruptions of some
degree of violence have been rarely more than a few years apart.
Of its various later manifestations of energy we select for description
that of 1767, of which an interesting account by a careful observer
is extant.

GREAT ERUPTION OF 1767

From the loth of December, 1766, to March, 1767, Vesuvius
was quiet ; then it began to throw up stones from time to time.
In April the throws were more frequent, and at night the red glare
grew stronger on the cloudy columns which hung over the crater.
These repeated throws of cinders, ashes and pumice-stones so much
increased the small cone of eruption which had been left in the
centre of the flat crateral space that its top became visible at a dis«
tance.

On the 7th of August there issued a small stream of lava from
a breach in the side of a small cone ; the lava gradually filled the
space between the cone and the crateral edge ; on the I2th of Sep-
tember it overflowed the crater, and ran down the mountain

VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI 269

Stones were ejected which took ten seconds in their fall, from which
it may be computed that the height which the stones reached was
i 600 feet. Padre Torre, a great observer of Vesuvius, says they
went up above a thousand feet. The lava ceased on the i8th of
October, but at 8 A. M. on the igth it rushed out at a different
place, after volleys of stones had been thrown to an immense
height, and the huge traditional pine-tree of smoke reappeared.
On this occasion that vast phantom extended its menacing shadow
over Capri, at a distance of twenty-eight miles from Vesuvius.

The lava at first came out of a mouth about one hundred yards
below the crater, on the side toward Monte Somma. While occu-
pied in viewing this current, the observer heard a violent noise
within the mountain ; saw it split open at the distance of a quarter
of a mile, and saw from the new mouth a mountain of liquid fire shoot
up many feet, and then, like a torrent, roll on toward him. The earth
shook ; stones fell thick around him ; dense clouds of ashes dark-
ened the air ; loud thunders came from the mountain top, and he
took to precipitate flight. The Padre's account is too lively and
instructive for his own words to be omitted.

PADRE TORRE'S NARRATIVE

" I was making my observations upon the l«va, which had
already, from the spot where it first broke out, reached the valley,
when, on a sudden, about noon, I heard a violent noise within the
mountain, and at a spot about a quarter of a mile off the place
where I stood the mountain split ; and with much noise, from this
new mouth, a fountain of liquid fire shot up many feet high, and
then like a torrent rolled on directly towards us. The earth shook
at the same time that a volley of stones fell thick upon us ; in an
instant clouds of black smoke and ashes caused almost a total

a7o VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOL1

darkness ; the explosions from the top of the mountain were much
louder than any thunder I ever heard, and the smell of the sulphur
was very offensive. My guide, alarmed, took to his heels ; and I
must confess that I was not at my ease. I followed close, and we
ran near three miles without stopping ; as the earth continued to
shake under our feet, I was apprehensive of the opening of a fresh
mouth which might have cut off our retreat.

44 1 also feared that the violent explosions would detach some
of the rocks off the mountain of Somma, under which we were
obliged to pass ; besides, the pumice-stones, falling upon us like
hail, were of such a size as to cause a disagreeable sensation in the
part upon which they fell. After having taken breath, as the earth
trembled greatly I thought it most prudent to leave the mountain
and return to my villa, where I found my family in great alarm at
the continual and violent explosions of the volcano, which shook
our house to its very foundation, the doors and windows swinging
upon their hinges.

'* About two of the clock in the afternoon (iQth) another lava
stream forced its way out of the same place from whence came the
lava of last year, so that the conflagration was soon as great on this
side of the mountain as on the other which I had just left I
observed on my way to Naples, which was in less than two hours
after I had left the mountain, that the lava had actually covered
three miles of the very road through which we had retreated.
This river of lava in the Atrio del Cavallo was sixty or seventy
feet deep, and in some places nearly two miles broad. Besides the
explosions, which were frequent, there was a continued subter-
ranean and violent rumbling noise, which lasted five hours in the
night, — supposed to arise from contact of the lava with rain-water
lodged in cavities within. The whole neighborhood was shaken

VESUVIUS, bJMA AND STROMBOLt 271

violently ; Portici and Naples were in the extremity of alarm ; the
churches were filled ; the streets were thronged with processions of
saints, and various ceremonies were performed to quell the fury
of the mountain.

"In the night of the 2oth, the occasion being critical, the pris-
oners in the public jail attempted to escape, and the mob set fire
to the gates of the residence of the Cardinal Archbishop because
he refused to bring out the relics of St. Januarius. The 2ist was
a quieter day, but the whole violence of the eruption returned on
the 22d, at 10 A. M., with the same thundering noise, but more vio-
lent and alarming. Ashes fell in abundance in the streets of Naples,
covering the housetops and balconies an inch deep. Ships at sea,
twenty leagues from Naples, were covered with them.

44 In the midst of these horrors, the mob, growing tumultuous
and impatient, obliged the Cardinal to bring out the head of St.
Januarius, at the extremity of Naples, toward Vesuvius ; and it is
well attested here that the eruption ceased the moment the saint
came in sight of the mountain. It is true the noise ceased about
that time after having lasted five hours, as it had done the preced-
ing days.

44 On the 23d the lava still ran, but on the 24th it ceased ; but
smoke continued. On the 25th there rose a vast column of black
smoke, giving out much forked lightning with thunder, in a sky
quite clear except for the smoke of the volcano. On the 26th
smoke continued, but on the 27th the eruption came to an end.**

This eruption was also described by Sir William Hamilton,
who continued to keep a close watch on the movements of the vol-
cano for many years. The next outbreak of especial violence took
place in 1779, when what seemed to the eye a column of fire
ascended two miles high, while cinder fragments fell far and wide,

272 VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROM&OLI

destroying the hopes of harvest throughout a wide district. They
fell in abundance thirty miles distant, and the dust of the explo-
sion was carried a hundred miles away.

In 1793 the crater became active again, and in 1794, after a
period of short tranquillity or comparative inaction, the mountain
again became agitated, and one of the most formidable eruptions
known in the history of Vesuvius began. It was in some respects
unlike many others, being somewhat peculiar as to the place of its
outburst, the temperature of the lava, and the course of the current.
Breislak, an Italian geologist, observed the characteristic phenomena
with the eye of science, and his account supplies many interesting
facts.

BREISLAK ON THE ERUPTION OF 1794

Breislak remarked certain changes in the character of the earth'
motions during this six hours' eruption, which led him to some par-
ticular conjecture of the cause. At the beginning the trembling
was continual, and accompanied by a hollow noise, similar to that
occasioned by a river falling into a subterranean cavern. The lava,
at the time of its being disgorged, from the impetuous and uninter-
rupted manner in which it was ejected, causing it to strike violently
against the walls of the vent, occasioned a continual oscillation of
the mountain. Toward the middle of the night this vibratory
motion ceased, and was succeeded by distant shocks. The fluid
mass, diminished in quantity, now pressed less violently against the
walls of the aperture,, and no longer issued in a continual and
gushing stream, but only at intervals, when the interior fermenta-
tion elevated the boiling matter above the mouth. About 4 A. M.
the shocks began to be less numerous, and the intervals between
them rendered their force and duration more perceptible.

VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI 273

During this tremendous eruption at the base of the Vesuvian
cone, and the fearful earthquakes which accompanied it, the summit
was tranquil. The sky was serene, the stars were brilliant, and only
over Vesuvius hung a thick, dark smoke-cloud, lighted up into an
auroral arch by the glare of a stream of fire more than twc miles
long, and more than a quarter of a mile broad. The sea was calm,
and reflected the red glare ; while from the source of the lava came
continual jets of uprushing incandescent stones. Nearer to
view, Torre del Greco in flames, and clouds of black smoke, with
falling houses, presented a dark and tragical foreground, heightened
by the subterranean thunder of the mountain, and the groans and
lamentations of fifteen thousand ruined men, women and children.

The heavy clouds of ashes which were thrown out on this
occasion gathered in the early morning into a mighty shadow over
Naples and the neighborhood ; the sun rose pale and obscure, and
a long, dim twilight reigned afterward.

Such were the phenomena on the western side of Vesuvius.
They were matched by others on the eastern aspect, not visible at
Naples, except by reflection of their light in the atmosphere. The
lava on this side flowed eastward, along a route often traversed by
lava, by the broken crest of the Cognolo and the valley of
Sorienta. The extreme length to which this current reached was
not less than an Italian mile. The cubic content was estimated to
be half that already assigned to the western currents. Taken
together they amounted to 20,744,445 cubic metres, or 2,804,440
tubic fathoms ; the constitution of the lava being the same in each,
both springing from one deep-seated reservoir of fluid rock.

The eruption of lava ceased on the i6th, and then followed
heavy discharges of ashes, violent shocks of earthquakes, thunder

and lightning in the columns of vapors and ashes, and finally heavy
18

274 VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI

rains, lasting till the 3d of July. The barometer during all the
eruption was steady.

Breislak made an approximate calculation of the quantity of
ashes which fell on Vesuvius during this great eruption, and states
the result as equal to what would cover a circular area 6 kilometres
(about 3^ English miles) in radius, and 39 centimetres (about 15
inches) in depth.

STRANGE EFFECTS

Among the notable things which attended this eruption, it is
recorded that in Torre del Greco metallic and other substances
exposed to the current were variously affected. Silver was melted,
glass became porcelain, iron swelled to four times its volume and
lost its texture. Brass was decomposed, and its constituent copper
crystallized in cubic and octahedral forms aggregated in beautiful
branches. Zinc was sometimes turned to blende. During the
eruption, the lip of the crater toward Bosco Tre Case on the south-
east, fell in, or was thrown off, and the height of that part was
reduced 426 feet.

On the 1 7th, the sea was found in a boiling state 100 yards off
the new promontory made by the lava of Torre del Greco, and no
boat could remain near it on account of the melting of the pitch in
her bottom. For nearly a month after the eruption vast quantities
of fine white ashes, mixed with volumes of steam, were thrown out
from the crater ; the clouds thus generated were condensed into
heavy rain, and large tracts of the Vesuvian slopes were deluged
with volcanic mud. It filled ravines, such as Fosso Grande, and
concreted and hardened there into pumiceous tufa — a very instruc-
tive phenomenon.

Immense injury was done to the rich territory of Somma, Otta-
jano and Bosco by heavy rains, which swept along cinders, broke

VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOL* 275

up the road and bridges, and overturned trees and houses for the
space of fifteen days.

There were few years during the nineteenth century in which
Vesuvius did not show symptoms of its internal fires, and at inter-
vals it manifested much activity, though not equaling the terrible
eruptions of its past history. The severest eruptions in that cen-
tury were those of 1871 and 1876. In the first a sudden emission
of lava killed twenty spectators at the mouth of the crater, and only
spent its fury after San Sebastian and Massa had been well nigh
annihilated. Fragments of rock were thrown up to the height of
4,000 feet, and the explosions were so violent that the whole
countryside fled panic stricken to Naples. The activity of the vol-
cano, accompanied by distinct shocks of earthquake, lasted for a
week.

In 1876, for three weeks together, lava streamed down the side
of Vesuvius, sweeping away the village of Cercolo and running
nearly to the sea at Ponte Maddaloni. There were then formed
ten small craters within the greater one. But these were united
by a later eruption in 1888, and pressure from beneath formed a
vast cone where they had been.

HARDIHOOD OF THE PEOPLE

It may seem strange that so dangerous a neighborhood should
be inhabited. But so it is. Though Pompeii, Herculaneum and
Stabiae lie buried beneath the mud and ashes belched out of the
mouth of Vesuvius, the villages of Portici and Revina, Torre del
Greco and Torre del Annunziata have taken their place, and a large
population, cheerful and prosperous, flourishes around the dis«
turbed mountain and over the district of which it is the somewhat
untrustworthy safety-valve.

276 VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI

It is thus that man, in his eagerness to cultivate all available
parts of the earth, dares the most frightful perils and ventures into
the most threatening situations, seeking to snatch the means of
life from the very jaws of death. The danger is soon forgotten,
the need of cultivation of the. ground is ever pressing, and no
threats of peril seem capable of restraining the activity of man for
many years. Though the proposition of abandoning the Island of
Martinique has been seriously considered, the chances are that, before
many years have passed, a cheerful and busy population will be at
work again on the flanks of Mont Pelee.

MOUNT ETNA

On the eastern coast of the Island of Sicily, and not far from
the sea, rises in solitary grandeur Mount Etna, the largest and
highest of European volcanoes. Its height above the level of the
sea is a little over 10,870 feet, considerably above the limit of per-
petual snow. It accordingly presents the striking phenomenon of
volcanic vapors ascending from a snow-clad summit. The base of
the mountain is eighty-seven miles in circumference, and nearly
circular; but there is a wide additional extent all around over-
spread by its lava. The lower portions of the mountain are
exceedingly fertile, and richly adorned with corn-fields, vineyards,
olive-groves and orchards. Above this region are extensive forests,
chiefly of oak, chesnut, and pine, with here and there clumps of
cork-trees and beech. In this forest region are grassy glades, which
afford rich pasture to numerous flocks. Above the forest lies a
volcanic desert, covered with black lava and slag. Out of this
region, which is comparatively flat, rises the principal cone, about
1,100 feet in height, having on its summit the crater, whence sul-
phurous vapors are continually evolved

VESUVIUS, ETNA AtoD STROMBOU a77

The great height of Etna has exerted a remarkable influence
on its general conformation : for the volcanic forces have rarely
been of sufficient energy to throw the lava quite up to the crater
at the summit. The consequence has been, that numerous subsi-
diary craters and cones have been formed all around the flanks of
the mountain, so that it has become rather a cluster of volcanoes
than a single volcanic cone.

The eruptions of this mountain have been numerous, records
of them extending back to several centuries before the Christian
era, while unrecorded ones doubtless took place much further back.
After the beginning of the Christian era, and more especially after
the breaking forth of Vesuvius in 79 A. D., Etna enjoyed longer
intervals of repose. Its eruptions since that time have neverthe-
less been numerous — more especially during the intervals when
Vesuvius was inactive — there being a sort of alternation between
the periods of great activity of the two mountains ; although
there are not a few instances of their having been both in action
at the same time.

SIMILARITY IN ETNA*S ERUPTIONS

There is a great similarity in the character of the eruptions of
Etna. Earthquakes presage the outburst, loud explosions follow,
rifts and bocche delfuoco open in the sides of the mountain ; smoke,
sand, ashes and scoriae are discharged, the action localizes itself in
one or more craters, cinders are thrown up and accumulate around
the crater and cone, ultimately lava rises and frequently breaks
down one side of the cone where the resistance is least ; then the
eruption is at an end.

Smyth says : " The symptoms which precede an eruption are
generally irregular clouds of smoVi^ferilli or volcanic lightnings,

278

VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOU

hollow intonations and local earthquakes that often alarm the sur-
rounding country as far as Messina, and have given the whole pro.
vince the name of Val Demone, as being the abode of infernal
spirits. These agitations increase until the vast cauldron becomes
surcharged with the fused minerals, when, if the convulsion is not
sufficiently powerful to force them from the great crater (which,
from its great altitude and the weight of the candent matter,

MOUNT ETNA

requires an uncommon effort), they explode through that part of
the side which offers the least resistance with a grand and terrific
effect, throwing red-hot stones and flakes of fire to an incredible
height, and spreading ignited cinders and ashes in every direction."
After the eruption of ashes, lava frequently follows, sometimes
rising to the top of the cone of cinders, at others disrupting it on
the least resisting side. When the lava has reached the base of

VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI *79

the cone it begins to flow down the mountain, and, being then in a
very fluid state, it moves with great velocity. As it cools, the sides
and surface begin to harden, its velocity decreases, and after
several days it moves only a few yards an hour. The internal
portions, however, part slowly with their heat, and months after
the eruption clouds of steam arise from the black and exter-
nally cold lava-beds after rain ; which, having penetrated through
the cracks, has found its way to the heated mass within.

THE ERUPTION OF 1669

The most memorable of the eruptions of Etna was that which
elevated the double cone of Monte Rossi and destroyed a large
part of the city of Catania. It happened in the year 1669, and
was preceded by an earthquake, which overthrew the town of Nico-
losi, situated ten miles inland from Catania, and about twenty miles
from the top of Etna. The eruption began with the sudden open-
ing of an enormous fissure, extending from a little way above
Nicolosi to within about a mile of the top of the principal cone,
its length being twelve miles, its average breadth six feet, its depth
unknown.

We have a more detailed account of this eruption than of any
preceding one, as it was observed by men of science from various
countries. The account from which we select is that of Alfonso
Borelli, Professor of Mathematics in Catania.

From the fissure above mentioned, he says, there came a
bright light. Six mouths opened in a line with it and emitted vast
columns of smoke, accompanied by loud bellowings which could be
heard forty miles off. Towards the close of the day a crater
opened about a mile below the others, which ejected red-hot stones
to a considerable distance, and afterward sand and ashes which

28o VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOU

covered the country for a distance of sixty miles. The new crater
soon vomited forth a torrent of lava which presented a front of two
miles ; it encircled Monpilieri, and afterward flowed towards Bel-
passo, a town of 8,000 inhabitants, which was speedily destroyed.
Seven mouths of fire opened around the new crater, and in three
days united with it, forming one large crater 800 feet in diameter.
All this time the torrent of lava continued to descend, it destroying
the town of Mascalucia on the 23d of March. On the same day
the crater cast up great quantities of sand, ashes and scoriae, and
formed above itself the great double-coned hill now called Monte
Rossi, from the red color of the ashes of which it is mainly com-
posed.

VILLAGES AND CITIES BURIED

On the 25th very violent earthquakes occurred, and the cone
above the great central crater was shaken down into the crater for
the fifth time since the first century A. D. The original current of
lava divided into three streams, one of which destroyed San Pietro,
the second Camporotondo, and the third the lands about Masca-
lucia and afterward the village of Misterbianco. Fourteen villages
were altogether destroyed, and the lava flowed toward Catania.
At Albanelli, two miles from the city, it undermined a hill covered
with cornfields and carried it forward a considerable distance. A
vineyard was also seen to be floating on its fiery surface. When
the lava reached the walls of Catania, it accumulated without pro-
gression until it rose to the top of the wall, 60 feet in height, and
it then fell over in a fiery cascade and overwhelmed a part of the
city. Another portion of the same stream threw down 1 20 feet of
the wall and flowed into the city.

On the 2$d of April the lava reached the sea, which it entered
as a stream 600 yards broad and 40 feet deep. The stream had

EXCAVATED RUINS OF POMPEII.
Vesuvius in the background.

A STREET IN POMPEII.
Showing walls and pavement in the streets as found after excavations were made.

r
w

S
5
o

H
5- K

s. n

JQ 0

3 m

I 0

INTERIOR OF A STEAMSHIP AT ST. PIERRE, AFTER THE

WHIRLWIND OF FIRE.

This remarkable photograph shows the scathing power of volcanic fire when
belched forth on the works of man.

VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLi 281

moved at the rate of thirteen miles in twenty days, but as it cooled
it moved less quickly, and during the last twenty-three days of its
course, it advanced only two miles. On reaching the sea the water, of
course, began to boil violently, and clouds of steam arose, carrying
with them particles of scoriae. Towards the end of April the
stream on the west side of Catania, which had appeared to be con-
solidated, again burst forth, and flowed into the garden of the
Benedictine Monastery of San Niccola, and then branched off into
the city. Attempts were made to build walls to arrest its progress.
An attempt of another kind was made by a gentleman of
Catania, named Pappalardo, who took fifty men with him, having
previously provided them with skins for protection from the intense
heat and with crowbars to effect an opening in the lava. They
pierced the solid outer crust of solidified lava, and a rivulet of the
molten interior immediately gushed out and flowed in the direction
of Paterno, whereupon 500 men of that town, alarmed for its
safety, took up arms and caused Pappalardo and his men to desist.
The lava did not altogether stop for four months, and two years
after it had ceased to flow it was found to be red hot beneath the
surface. Even eight years after the eruption quantities of steam
escaped from the lava after a shower of rain.

THE STONES EJECTED

The stones which were ejected from the crater during this
eruption were often of considerable magnitude, and Borelli calcu-
lated that the diameter of one which he saw was 50 feet ; it was
thrown to a distance of a mile, and as it fell it penetrated the
earth to a depth of 23 feet. The volume of lava emitted during
the eruption amounted to many millions of cubic feet Ferara
considers that the length of the stream was at least fifteen miles,

*82 VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI

while its average width was between two and three miles, so that it
covered at least forty square miles of surface.

Among the towns overflowed by this great eruption was Mom-
pilieri. Thirty-five years afterward, in 1704, an excavation was
made on the site of the principal church of this place, and at the
depth of thirty-five feet the workmen came upon the gate, which
was adorned with three statues. From under an arch which had
been formed by the lava, one of these statues, with a bell and some
coins, were extracted in good preservation. This fact is remark-
able; for in a subsequent eruption, which happened in 1766, a hill
about fifty feet in height, being surrounded on either side by two
streams of lava, was in a quarter of an hour swept along by the
current. The latter event may be explained by supposing that the
hill in question was cavernous in its structure, and that the lava,
penetrating into the cavities, forced asunder their walls, and so
detached the superincumbent mass from its supports.

It is not by its streams of fire alone that Etna ravages the val-
leys and plains at its base. It sometimes also deluges them with
great floods of water. On the 2d of March, 1755, two streams of
lava, issuing from the highest crater, were at once precipitated on
an enormous mass of very deep snow, which then clothed the sum-
mit. These fiery currents ran through the snow to a distance of
three miles, melting it as they flowed. The consequence was, that a
tremendous torrent pf water rushed down the sides of the mountain,
carrying with it vast quantities of sand, volcanic cinders and blocks
of lava, with which it overspread the flanks of the mountain and
the plains beneath, which it devastated in its course.

The volume of water was estimated at 16,000,000 cubic feet,
it forming a channel two miles broad and in some places thirty-four
feet deep, and flowing at the rate of two-thirds of a mile in a minute.

VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROtotiOLI 283

All the winter's snow on the mountain could not have yielded such a
flood, and Lyell considered that it melted older layers of ice which
had been preserved under a covering of volcanic dust.

ETNA IN 1819

Another great eruption took place in 1819, which presented
some peculiarities. Near the point whence the highest stream of
lava issued in 1811, there were opened three large mouths, which,
with loud explosions, threw up hot cinders and sand, illuminated
by a strong glare from beneath. Shortly afterwards there was
opened, a little lower down, another mouth, from which a similar
eruption took place ; and still farther down there soon appeared
a fifth, whence there flowed a torrent of lava which rapidly spread
itself over the Val del Bove. During the first forty-eight hours it
flowed nearly four miles, when it received a great accession. The
three original mouths became united into one large crater, from
which, as well as from the other two mouths below, there poured
forth a vastly augmented torrent of lava, which rushed with great
impetuosity down the same valley.

During its progress over this gentle slope, it acquired the usual
crust of hardened slag. It directed its course towards that point at
which Val del Bove opens into the narrow ravine beneath it — there
being between the two a deep and almost perpendicular precipice.
Arrived at this point, the lava-torrent leaped over the precipice in
a vast cascade, and with a thundering noise, arising chiefly from
the crashing and breaking up of the solid crust, which was in a great
measure pounded to atoms by the fall ; it throwing up such vast
clouds of dust as to awaken an alarm that a fresh eruption had
begun at this place, which is within the wooded region.

284 VESUVIUS. ETNA AND STROMBOU

A very violent eruption, which lasted more than nine months,
commenced on the 2ist of August, 1852. It was first witnessed by
a party of English tourists, who were ascending the mountain from
Nicolosi in order to see the sunrise from the summit. As they
approached Lie Casa Inglesi the crater commenced to give forth
ashes and flames of fire. In a narrow defile they were met by a
violent hurricane, which overthrew both the mules and their riders,
and urged them toward the precipices of the Val del Bove. They
sheltered themselves beneath some masses of lava, when suddenly
an earthquake shook the mountain, and their mules in terror fled
away. As day approached they returned on foot to Nicolosi, for-
tunately without having sustained injury. In the course of the
night many bocche del fuoco (small lava vents) opened in that part
of the Val del Bove called the Bazo di Trifoglietto, a great fissure
opened at the base of the Giannicola Grande, and a crater was
thrown up from which for seventeen days showers of sand and
scoriae were ejected.

EFFECT OF THE ERUPTION

During the next day a quantity of lava flowed down the Val
del Bove, branching off so that one stream advanced to the foot 01
Monte Finocchio, and the other to Monte Calanna. Aftenvards it
flowed towards Zaffarana, and devastated a large tract of wooded
region. Four days later a second crater was formed near the first,
from which lava was emitted, together with sand and scoriae, which
caused cones to arise around the craters. The lava moved but
slowly, and towards the end of August it came to a stand, only a
quarter of a mile from Zaffarana.

On the second of September, Gemellaro ascended Monte
Finocchio in the Val del Bove in order to witness the outburst.
He states that the hill was violently agitated, like a ship at sea,

VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI

The surface of the Val del Bove appeared like a molten lake;
scoriae were thrown up from the craters to a great height, and loud
explosions were heard at frequent intervals. The eruption con-
tinued to increase in violence. On October 6 two new mouths
opened in the Val del Bove, emitting lava which fl >wed towards
the valley of Calanna, and fell over the Salto della Giumenta, a
precipice nearly 200 feet deep. The noise which it produced was*
like that of a clash of metallic masses. The eruption continued
with abated violence during the early months of 1853, and it did
not finally cease till May 27. The entire mass of lava ejected is
estimated to have been equal to an area six miles long by two miles
broad, with an average depth of about twelve feet.

This eruption was one of the grandest of all the known erup-
tions of Etna. During its outflow more than 2,000,000,000 cubic
feet of molten lava was spread out over a space of three square
miles. There have been several eruptions since its date, but none
of marked prominence, though the mountain is rarely quiescent for
any lengthened period.

THE LIPARI VOLCANOES

South-eastward of Ischia, between Calabria and Sicily, the
Lipari Islands arrest attention for the volcanic phenomena they
present. On one of these is Mount Vulcano, or Volcano, from
which all this class of mountains is named. At present the best
known of the Lipari volcanoes is Stromboli, which consists of a
single mountain, having a very obtuse conical form. It has on one
side of it several small craters, of which only one is at present in
a state of activity.

The total height of the mountain is about 2000 feet, and the
principal crater is situated at about two-thirds of the height
Stromboli is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. It is

286 VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI

mentioned as being in a state of activity by several writers before
the Christian era, and the commencement of its operations extends
into the past beyond the limits of tradition. Since history began
its action has never wholly ceased, although it may have varied
in intensity from time to time.

It has been observed that the violence of its eruptive force
has a certain dependence on the weather — being always most
intense when the barometer is lowest. From the position of the
crater, it is possible to ascend the mountain and look down upon
it from above, Even when viewed in this manner, it presents
a very striking appearance. While there is an uninterrupted con-
tinuance of small explosions, there is a frequent succession of more
violent eruptions, at intervals varying in length from seven to fif-
teen minutes.

HOFFMAN AT STROMBOLI

Several eminent observers have approached quite close to the
crater, and examined it narrowly. One of these was M. Hoffman,
who visited it in 1828.

This eminent geologist, while having his legs held by his com-
panions, stretched his head over the precipice, and, looking right
down into the mouth of one of the vents of the crater immedi-
ately under him, watched the play of liquid lava within it. Its
surface resembled molten silver, and was constantly rising and fall-
ing at regular intervals. A bubble of white vapor rose and
escaped, with a decrepitating noise, at each ascent of the lava-
tossing up red-hot fragments of scoria, which continued dancing up
and down with a sort of rhythmic play upon the surface. At inter-
vals of fifteen minutes or so, there was a pause in these movements.
Then followed a loud report, while the ground trembled, and there
rose to the surface of the lava an immense bubble of vapor. This,

VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI 287

bursting with a crackling noise, threw out to the height of about
1 200 feet large quantities of red-hot stones and scoriae, which, des-
cribing parabolic curves, fell in a fiery shower all around. After
another brief repose, the more moderate action was resumed as
before.

Lipari, a neighboring volcano, was formerly more active than
Stromboli, though for centuries past it has been in a state of com-
plete quiescence. The Island of Volcano lies south of Lipari. Its
crater was active before the Christian era, and still emits sulphurous
and other vapors. At present its main office is to serve as a sul-
phur mine. Thus the peak which gives title to all fire-breathing
mountains has become a servant to man. So are the mighty fallen !

CHAPTER XXIV.

Vesuvius Devastates the Region of Naples.

WE have in other chapters described the terrible work of
Mount Vesuvius in the past, from the far-off era of the
destruction of Pompeii down to the end of the last century.
There comes before us now another frightful eruption, one of the
greatest in its history, that of 1906. For thirty years before this
outbreak the mighty volcano had been comparatively quiet, rarely
ceasing, indeed, to smoke and fume, but giving little indication of
the vast forces buried in its heart. It showed some sympathy with
Mont Pelee in 1902, and continued restless after that time, but it
was not until about the middle of February, 1906, that it became
threatening, lava beginning to overflow from the crater and make
its lurid way down the mountain's side.

It was in the middle of the first week of April that these indi- .
cations rose to the danger point, the flow of lava suddenly swelling
from a rivulet to a river, pouring in a gleaming flood over the
crater's rim, and meeting the other streams that came streaming
down the volcano's rugged flank. While this went on the mountain
remained comparatively quiet, there being no explosions, though
a huge cloud of volcanic ash and cinders rose high in the air until
it hung over the crater in the shape of an enormous pine tree, while
from it a shower of dust and sand, soon to become terrible, began
to descend upon the surrounding fields and towns.

VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES 289

Dangerous as is Vesuvius at any time, the people of the vicinity
dare its perils for the allurement of its fertile soil. A ring of
populous villages encircles it, flourishing vineyards and olive groves
extend on all sides, and the hand of industry does not hesitate to
attack its threatening flanks. The intervals between its death-
dealing throes are so long that the peasants are always ready to dare
destruction for the hope of winning the means of life from its soil.

THE RIVERS OF LAVA.

All this locality was now a field of terror and death. Down
on the vineyards and villages poured the smothering ashes in an
ever increasing rain; toward them slowly and threateningly
crawled the fiery serpents of the lava streams; and from their
homes fled thousands of the terror-stricken people, frantic with
horror and dismay. A number of populous villages were threat-
ened by the lurid lava streams, the most endangered being Bosco
Trecase, with its 10,000 inhabitants. TOW/M d this devoted town
poured steadily the irresistible flood of molten rock. The soldiers
who had been hurried to the front sought to divert its flow by
digging a wide ditch across its course and throwing up a high bank
of earth, but they worked in vain. The demon of destruction was
not to be robbed of its prey. The liquid stream advanced like a
colossal serpent of fire, turning its head like a crawling snake to
the right and left, but keeping steadily on toward the fated town.
The ditch was filled; the bank gave way; the first house was
reached and burst into flames; the creeping stream of fire pushed
on to the next houses in its way; only then did the despairing

VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES

people desert their homes and flee for their lives, carrying with
them the little they could snatch of their treasured possessions.

F. Marion Crawford, the novelist, who was present at this
scene, thus describes the flight of the terrified people:

"I saw men, women and children and infants, whose mothers
carried them at the breast or in their aprons, fleeing in an endless
procession. Dogs, too, and cats were on the carts, and sometimes
even chickens, tied together by the legs, and piles of mattresses and
pillows and shapeless bundles of clothes. All were white with dust.
Under the lurid glare I saw one old woman lying on her back across
a cart, ghastly white and, if not dead already of fear and heat and
suffocation, certainly almost gone. We ourselves could hardly
breathe."

It was on Saturday, the 7th, that Bosco Trecase became the
prey of the river of molten rock. During that night and the fol-
lowing day the crisis of the eruption came. The observatory on the
mountain side was occupied by Professor Matteucci, his assistant,
Professor Perret, of New York, and two domestics, all others having
been sent away. Their description of the scene in which they found
themselves is vividly picturesque. At midnight the situation in
the observatory was terrible. The forces of the earthquake were
let loose and the ground rocked so that it was almost impossible
to stand. The roaring of the main crater was deafening, while the
volcano poured forth its contents like a fountain, and the electric
display was terrifying, constant claps of thunder following the
lurid flashes of lightning, which gave the sky a blood-red hue.

Shortly after three o'clock in the morning the explosive energy
of the mighty mass culminated. The whole cone burst open with

VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES 291

a tremendous earthquake shock, from the heart of the recently
silent mountain came a deafening roar, and red-hot rocks, like
the balls from nature's mighty artillery, were hurled a half mile
into the air, while a dense mass of ashes and sand was flung to
three or four times this height. All the next day the terrible
detonation kept up, and a hail of bullet-like stones poured downward
from the skies. Rarely has a more terrible Sunday been seen. It
was as if the demons of earth and air were let loose and were
seeking to destroy man and his puny works.

THE CRISIS OF THE ERUPTION.

This frightful explosion of the 8th of April was the worst of
the dreadful display of volcanic forces, but the work kept up with
diminishing intensity much of the following week. The ashes and
cinders continued to pour down in suffocating showers, covering
the ground to a depth of four or five feet in the vicinity of the
volcano and to a considerable depth at Naples, ten miles away. The
sun disappeared behind the thick cloud that filled the air, and the
scene resembled that described by Pliny more than eighteen hun-
dred years before.

Of Bosco Trecase nothing was left but the large stone church
and a few houses. Another river of lava reached the outskirts of
Torre del Greco, and a third stopped at the cemetery of Torre
Annunziata. Those towns escaped, but thousands of acres of
fertile cultivated land, with farm houses and stock, were destroyed.
The peninsular railway up the mountain was ruined and the large
hotel burned. One writer tells the following tale of what he saw
on that fatal Saturday and Sunday:

*9* VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES

"On the road I met hundreds of families in flight, carrying
their few miserable possessions. The spectacle of collapsing carts
and fainting women was frequently seen. When one reached the
lava stream a stupefying spectacle presented itself. From a point-
on the mountain between the towns I saw four rivers of molten
fire, one of which, 200 feet wide and over 40 deep, was moving
slowly and majestically onward, devouring vineyards and olive
groves. I witnessed the destruction of a farm house enveloped on
three sides by lava. Immediately overhead the great crater was
belching incandescent rock and scoria for an incredible distance.
The whole scene was wreathed with flames, and a perpetual roar
was heard. Ever and anon the cone of the volcano was encircled
with vivid electric phenomena, amid which a downpour of liquid
fire on all sides of the crater was revealed in magnificent awfulness.
In the evening there was a frightful shock of earthquake, which
was repeated at two o'clock on Sunday morning. Simultaneously
the lava streams redoubled their onrush, and men, women and
children fled precipitately toward the sea. The lava had invaded
the road behind them."

A REIGN OF TERROR.

The great loss of life was due to the vast fa.1 of ashes, which
crushed in hundreds of roofs and buried the occupants within the
ruins of their homes. In all the neighboring towns buildings were
destroyed in great numbers, an early estimate being that fully 5,000
houses had been partly crushed or utterly destroyed. On the
Ottajano side of the mountain, where the ashes fell in greatest pro-

VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES *93

fusion, all the houses of the villages were damaged, and Ottajano
itself was left a wreck, several hundred dead bodies being taken
from its ruins. In Naples the ash fall was so incessant that those
who could afford it wore automobile coats, caps and goggles, while
the people generally sought to save their eyes and faces by the aid
of paper masks and umbrellas. The drivers of trolley cars were
obliged to wear masks of some transparent material under the
vigors of their caps.

DISASTERS AT SAN GIUSEPPE AND NAPLES.

There were two special disasters attended by serious loss of
life. On the 9th, while a congregation of two hundred or more
were attending mass in the church at San Giuseppe, the roof crushed
in from the weight of ashes upon it and fell upon the worshippers
below, few or none of whom escaped unhurt. Fifty-four dead bodies
were taken from the ruins and a large number were severely injured.
The Mayor of the town was dismissed from his office for leaving
his post of duty in the face of danger.

The second disaster, one of the same character, took place at
Naples. This was on Tuesday, April loth. Just previous to it
the people had been marching in religious processions through the
streets, to render thanks for the apparent cessation of the activity
of Vesuvius. Motley but picturesque processions were these, headed
by boys carrying candles, which burned simply in the full sunshine
and bearing aloft images of the Madonna or saints, clad in gorgeous
robes of cheap blue or yellow satin. Their joy was suddenly changed
to grief by tidings of a frightful disaster. The roof of the Monte

»94 VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES

Oliveto market, fronting on the Toledo, the main thoroughfare, had
suddenly crushed in, burying more than 203 people beneath its
heavy fall.

The market had been crowded with buyers and their children,
and it was the busiest hours of the day in the great roofed court-
yard, covering a space '600 feet square, when, with scarcely a
tremor of warning, there came a frightful crash and a dense cloud
of dust covered the scene, from out of which came heartrending
screams of agony. The volcanic ash which, unnoticed, had gathered
thickly on the roof, had broken it in by its weight.

The news set the people frantic with grief and indignation.
They insisted that the authorities knew that the roof was unsafe
and had neglected their duty. Cursing and screaming in their
intense excitement, they surrounded the market, endeavoring with
frantic haste to remove the heavy beams from beneath which came
the appealing calls for help, many of the rescuers sobbing aloud as
they worked. It required a large force of police and soldiers to
keep them back and permit the firemen and other trained workers to
carry on more systematically the work of relief. Twelve persons
proved to have been killed, two fatally injured, twenty-four seriously
hurt and over a hundred badly bruised and cut. Among these were
many children, whose parents had sent them to do the marketing
without a dream of danger, and the grief of the parents was intense.
The Duke of Aosta, Prefect of Naples, directed the work of rescue,
while his wife assisted in the care of the injured. As the Duchess
bent in the hospital to give a cooling drink to a badly bruised little
girl she felt a kiss upon her hand. Looking d?wn, she saw a woman

VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES 395

kneeling at her feet, who gratefully said: "Your Excellency, she
is all I have. I am a widow. May God reward you."

While this scene of horror was taking place in Naples the
fate of the town and villages grouped around the foot of the
volcano seemed as hopeless as ever. Early on the loth the showers
of ashes and streams of lava diminished and almost ceased, but
later the same day they began again, and the terrified inhabitants
feared that a catastrophe like that, which buried Pompeii and Hercu-
laneum was about to visit them. The lava which reached the
cemetery of Torre Annunziata turned in the direction of Pompeii
as if to freshly entomb that exhumed city of the past. A violent
storm of sulphurous rain fell at San Giuseppe, Vesuviana and
Sariano, and on all sides the fall of sand and ashes came on again
in full strength. Even with the sun shining high in the heavens
the light was a dim yellow, in the midst of which the few persons
who still haunted the stricken towns moved about in the awful
stillness of desolation like gray ghosts, their clothing, hair and
beards covered with ashes.

THE ERUPTION RESUMED.

A typical case was that of Torre del Greco. Though for thirty
hours the place had been deserted, a few ghostly figures could be
seen at intervals when the vivid flashes of lightning illuminated
the gloom-covered scene, wandering desolutely about, hungry and
thirsty, their throats parched by smoke and dust, yet unable to tear
themselves away from the ruins of their late comfortable homes.

So deep was the ash fall that railway or tramway travel to
the inner circle of towns was impossible, and the great depth of

296 VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES

fallen dust choked the roads so as to render travel by carriage or on
foot very difficult. A party of officials made a tour of inspection by
automobile, visiting a number of the town, but were prevented by
the state of the roads from reaching others. Ottajano was thus
cut off from travel, and a heavy fall of ashes followed the officials
in their retreat. At Bosco Trecase the lava had gathered into a
lake, already growing solid on top, but a mass of liquid rock
beneath.

The lava carried vast masses of burnt stone and sulphur on
its surface, like dross on melted lead, and nothing was visible
toward Bosco Trecase but endless acres of dark scoriae, broken
here and there by the greenish, curling smoke of sulphur. At one
point a great cone pine tree, torn up hy its roots and turned to
black charcoal, stuck out of the mass at a sharp angle. The air
was almost unbearable, the heat intense, and few could long bear
the dangers and discomfort of the situation.

SCENES OF HORROR.

The greatest depth of ashes encountered was in the vicinity
of Ottajano. Here large areas were buried to a depth of several
feet. Soldiers had been sent there with military carts, carrying
provisions and surgical appliances, with orders to lend their aid .
in the work of relief. They found it almost impossible to make
their way through the deep fine dust, and the tales of horror and
heroism they had to tell resembled those that must of old have
been borne to Rome by the fleeing inhabitants of Pompeii.

Efforts were made to remove the children and old persons in
the carts, but when these had gone a few hundred feet it was found
that, although there were four horses harnessed to each vehicle.

VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES 29?

they could not pull their loads through the ashes. This caused a
panic among the children, who expected to be buried in the incessant
fall from the volcano, and they fled in all directions in the darkness
and blinding rain. Searching parties went after them, but in spite
of continuous shouting and calling no trace was found of the little
ones, jmd numbers of the children were undoubtedly smothered by
the ashes and sand.

Many of the inhabitants had been buried in the ruins of their
houses, and the scenes when the victims were unearthed were often
piteous and terrible. The positions of the bodies showed that the
victims had died while in a state of great terror, the faces being
convulsed with fear. Three bodies were found in a confessional
of one of the fallen churches. One body was that of an old woman
who was sitting with her right arm raised as though to ward off
the advancing danger. The second was that of a child about eight
years old. It was found dead in a position which would indicate
that the child had fallen with a little dog close to it and had died
with one arm raised across its face, to protect itself and pet from
the crumbling ruins. The third body, that of a woman, was reduced
to an unrecognizable mass. These three victims were reverently
laid side by side while a procession of friends and relatives offered
up prayers beside them.

One soldier rode his horse through the ashes reaching up to
its flanks, calling out, "Who wants help?" He was rewarded by
hearing a woman's voice reply in weak tones and, springing from
his horse, he floundered through the ashes to the ruined walls of a
house from which the voice seemed to come. As he made his way
through the soft, treacherous layer of scoriae which surrounded
the destroyed habitation, and with difficulty worked his way

298 VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES

toward the building the soldier shouted words of encouragement
and, climbing over a heap of ruins and braving a toppling wall,
entered the building. In the cellar he found the bodies of three
children. Near them was a woman, barely alive, who by almost
superhuman efforts for hours had succeeded in freeing herself from
a mass of debris which had fallen upon her. The soldier picked
the woman up in his arms and carried her to a place of safety. It
was found that both legs were broken and that she had been badly
crushed about the body.

Some extraordinary escapes from death took place. A man and
his four children were rescued after having been lost in the ash-
covered wilderness for fifty-six hours. They were terribly ex-
hausted, and were reduced almost to skeletons.

Robert Underwood Johnson, one of the editors of the "Century
Magazine, who happened to be in Rome at the time of the eruption,
made one of a party who ventured as near the scene of destruction
as they could safely approach. From his graphic story of his
experiences we copy some of the most interesting details.

AN AMERICAN OBSERVER.

"We caught a train for Torre Annunziata, three miles this
side of Pompeii and two miles from the southern end of the wedge
of lava which destroyed Bosco Trecase. We had a magnificent
view of the eruption, eight miles away. Rising at an angle of fifty
degrees, the vast mass of tumult roundness was beautifully accen-
tuated by the full moon, shifting momentarily into new forms and
drifting south in low, black clouds of ashes and cinders reaching t<?
Capri. At Torre del Greco we ran under this terrifying pall,
apparently a hundred feet above, the solidity of which was soon

.'lo DEVASTATES NAPLbS 299

revealed 4r .h- moonlight. The torches of the railway guards
added to the effect, but greatly ~ciieved the sulphurous darkness.

"We reached Torre Annunziata at three in the morning. There
was little suggestion of a disaster as we trudged through the sleep-
ing town to the iava, two miles away. The brilliant .noon gave us
a superb view of the volcano, a gray-brown mass rising, expanding
and curling in with a profile like a monstrous cyclopean face. But
nothing in mythology gives a suggestion of the fascination of this
awful force, presenting the sublime beauty above, but in its descent
filled with the mysterious malignance of God's underworld.

"We reached the lava at a picturesque cypress-planted ceme-
tery on the northern boundary of Torre Annunziata. It was as if
the dead had effectually cried out to arrest the crushing river of
flames which pitilessly engulfed the statue of St. Anne with which
the people of Bosco Reale tried to stay it, as at Catania the veil of
St. Agathe is said to have stayed a similar stream from Mount Etna.

"We climbed on the lava. It was cool above but still alive with
fire below. We could see dimly the extent of the destruction beyond
the barrier of brown which had enclosed the streets, torn down the
houses, invaded the vineyards and broken Cook's railways. A
better idea of the surroundings was obtained at dawn from the
railway. We saw north what was left of Bosco Trecase — a great,
square stone church and a few houses inland in a sea of dull, brown
lava. North and east rose a thousand patches of blue smoke like
swamp miasma. All was dull and desolate slag, with nowhere the
familiar serpentine forms of the old lava streams. In terrible
contrast with the volcanic evidences were strong cypresses and
blooming camelias in a neighboring cemetery.

"We ate a hasty luncheon before sunrise, when the great beauty

300 VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES

of the scene was revealed. The column now seemed higher and
more massive, rising to three times the height of Vesuvius. Each
portion had a concentric motion and new aspects. The south edges
floating toward the sea showed exquisite curved surfaces, due to the
upper moving current. It was like the decoration of the side of a
great sarcophagus. As a yellow dust hangs over Naples and hides
the volcano, I count myself fortunate to have seen all day from
leeward this spectacle of changing, undiminishing beauty.

"The wedge of cultivated land ruined east of the volcano
extended at least ten miles, with a width of twenty or thirty miles.
Fancy a rich and thickly populated country of vineyards lying under
three to six inches of ashes and cinders of the color of chocolate
with milk, while above, to the west, the volcano in full activity is
distributing to the outer edges of the circle the same fate, and you
will get an idea of the desolate impression of the scene, a tragedy
colossal and heartrending. Like that of Calabria, it enlists the
sympathy of the civilized world. It takes time for such a calamity
to be realized.

"Two miles below San Giuseppe we struck cinders which the
soldiers were shoveling, making a narrow road for the refugees.
Our wagon driver begged off from completing his contract to take
us to San Giuseppe. We had not the heart to insist, so the rest
of the journey to the railway at Palma, eight miles, was made
laboriously on foot for three hours through sliding cinders.

"In many places temporary shelters had been built by the
roadside, like children's playhouses. Here women were huddled
with their bedding, awaiting the coming of supplies which the army
had begun to distribute. The men were largely occupied with
shoveling1 cinders from the stronger roofs and floors into heans

VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES 301

three to six feet deep along the roadside. Many two-wheeled carts
loaded with salvage, drawn by donkeys or pushed by peasants, were
making their way along, the women with bundles on their heads
or carrying poultry.

"In the square of San Giuseppe was an encampment of soldiers,
with low tents. Near a destroyed church, in coarse yellow linen
shrouds, were the bodies of thirty-three of the persons who there
lost their lives. The peasants were sad, but uncomplaining; in
fact, for so excitable a people they were wonderfully calm. As
evidence of the thrift and self-respect of these, we were not once
asked for alms during the afternoon."

THE KING AT THE FRONT.

The Italian Government did all it could at the moment to
alleviate the horrors of the situation, sending money to be expended
in relief work and dispatching high officials of the government to
give aid and encouragement by their presence. The King, Victor
Emmanuel, and Queen Helene reached the scene of destruction as
early as possible and lent their personal assistance to the work of
rescue.

Obliged to leave his automobile, which could not move over
the cinder-choked road, the King went forward with difficulty on
horseback, the animal floundering through four feet of ashes,
stumbling into holes, and half blinded by the fall of dust and cinders.

"How did you esape?" he asked a priest whom he met in his
journey.

"I put myself in safety," was the reply.

"What do you mean?" asked the King.

"Realizing the danger, I left Nola."

;

3°2 VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES

"What!" cried the King, with a flush of anger. "You, a
minister of God, were not here to share the danger of your people
and administer the last sacraments? You did very wrong and
forgot your duty."

Reaching Ottajano, the King did what he could to expedite
the work of rescue at that central point of disaster, more than a
hundred dead bodies being taken from the ruins in his presence.
He stood with set pale face watching the removal of the victims
and directing the movement of the workers. During his visit at
the front he inspected the temporary camp hospitals, in which the
soldiers were caring for the injured and suffering, speaking to the
poor victims, giving them what comfort he could, and asking what
he could do to relieve their distress. Every request or desire was
received with sympathy and orders given to have it fulfilled.

A pitiful scene took place when the King bent over a poor
man, whose right leg had been amputated, and asked what he could
do to comfort and aid him in his affliction.

"Send me my son, who is serving as a soldier," said the maimed
peasant.

The King, visibly affected, clasped the old man's hand and
exclaimed :

"My poor fellow! I can do much, but to grant your request
would mean breaking the laws, which I must be the first to respect.
I would give anything I have were it possible by so doing to send
your son to you, but I cannot do so."

While the King was thus engaged at the scenes of desolation,
Queen Helene visited the charitable institutions at Naples and
inspected the places where the refugees were housed, doing what
she could to improve conditions and add to the comfort of the

VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES 303

sufferers. The Princess of Schleswig-Holstein, who was in Naples,
made an automobile visit to the afflicted towns, but the motor broke
down, and she was forced to return on foot, walking a distance of
twelve miles through the ashes and displaying a power of endur-
ance that surprised the natives.

THE CANOPY OF DUST.

By Friday, April I3th, the eruption was practically at an end.
Vesuvius had spent itself in the enormous convulsion of the 7th
and 8th and the subsequent minor explosions and had returned to
its normal state, ceasing to give any signs of life, except the cloud
of smoke which still rose from its crater and spread like a thick
curtain over and around the mountain. Looked at from Naples,
there was none of the familiar aspects of the volcano, with its
output of smoke and ashes by day and fiery gleam by night. Now
it lay buried in darkness and obscurity, clothed in a dense pall of
smoke. At Rome there was sunshine, but twenty miles south hung
a misty veil, and twenty-five miles above Naples a zone of semi-
obscurity began, blotting out the sun, whose light trickled through
with a sickly glare. Everything was whitened with powdery dust ;
pretty white villas were daubed and dripping with mud, and people
were busy shoveling the ashes from their roofs.

The crowds at the stations resembled millers, their clothes flour
covered; the Campania presented the appearance of a Dakota
prairie after a blizzard of snow, though everything was gray instead
of white. The ashes lay in drifts knee deep. As the volcano was
approached semi-night replaced the day, the gloom being so deep
that telegraph poles twenty feet away could not be seen. Breathing
was difficult, and the smoke made the eyes water. At Naples,

304 VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES

however, a favorable wind had cleared the air of smoke, the sun
shone brightly, and the versatile people were happy once more. The
goggles and eye-screens had disappeared, but the streets were any-
thing but comfortable, for some six thousand men were at work
clearing the ashes from the roofs and main streets and piling them
in the middle of the narrow streets, making the passage of vehicles
very difficult and the sidewalks far from comfortable for foot
passengers.

But while brightness and joy reigned at Naples, there were
gruesome scenes within the volcanic zone. At Bosco Trecase
soldiers carried on the work of exhumation, being able to work
only an hour at a time on account of the advanced stage of decompo-
sition of the bodies. Many of these were shapeless, unrecognizable
masses of flesh and bones, while others were little disfigured. To
lessen the danger of an epidemic the bodies were buried as quickly
as possible in quicklime.

On Sunday, the I5th, the searchers at Ottajano were surprised
at finding two aged women still alive, after six days' entombment
in the ruins. They were among those who had been buried by the
falling walls a week before. • The rafters of the house had protected
them, and a few morsels of food in their pockets aided to keep them
alive. At some points there the ashes were ten feet deep. At San
Giuseppe bodies of women were found in whose hands were coins
and jewels, and one woman held a jewelled rosary. This recalls
the results of exploration at Herculaneum and Pompeii, where were
similar instances of death overtaking the victims of the volcano
while fleeing with their jewels in their hands.

It is interesting to learn that two men stood heroically to their
post of duty during the whole scene of the explosion, Professor

VES17W17S DEVASTATES NAPLES 305

Matteucci, Director of the Royal Observatory, and his American
assistant, Professor Frank A. Ferret, of New York. Though the
building occupied by them was exposed to the full force of the rain
of stones from the burning mountain, they remained undauntedly
at their post through that week of terror. On the I4th some of that
venturesome fraternity, the newspaper correspondents, reached
their eyrie on the highest habitable point on Vesuvius and heard
the story of their experiences.

THE HEROES OF THE OBSERVATORY.

For several days Professors Matteucci and Perret and their
two servants had been cut off from the outside world and bombarded
by the volcano, their rations consisting of bread, cheese and dried
onions, until on Friday a hardy guide was induced to push through
to them with some provisions. During the eruption the Professor
had kept at his instruments, taking observations day and night and
making calculations in the midst of the inferno. Roughly dressed,
he looked like a Western cowboy after a hard ride in a dust storm.
The portico where he stood was knee deep in ashes, and from the
observatory terrace narrow paths had been cut through the ashes,
but as far as the eye could reach an ocean of ashes and twisted
rivers were alone visible, with Vesuvius rising grimly in the midst.
The great monster was enveloped in a cloak of white, as if buried
under a snowstorm, its surface being here and there slit with
gulches in which lava ran. At the bottom of one of those gulches
lay the wrecked remnants of the peninsular railway, a portion of
its twisted cable protruding through the ashes. As the corre-
spondents ascended the mountain they were surprised by the appa-
rition of natives, men wrinkled with age, who emerged from dug-

306 VESUVIUS DEVASTATES NAPLES

outs just below the observatory and offered them milk and eggs,
just as if they were ordinary visitors to the volcano. As they
descended they heard the sound of a mandolin from one of these
dugouts. Evidently Vesuvius had no terrors for these case-hard-
ened veterans.

We have already told the story gleaned by the correspondents
from the daring scientists. Matteucci completed his record of
boldness on Friday, the I3th, by climbing to a point far above the
observatory, at the imminent risk of his life, to observe the condi-
tions then existing. From what he say he believed the end of the
disturbance near, though he did not venture to predict. As for
the ashes, which a light wind was then blowing in a direction away
from Naples, he said : "The ill wind is now blowing good to other
places, for ashes are the best fertilizer it is possible to use. It is
merely a question just now of having too much of a good thing."

This is a fact so far as the volcanic ash is concerned. An
examination of the ashes a few days ago shows that they will prove
an active and valuable fertilizer. The fertile slopes of Vesuvius
have ever been an allurement to the vine-grower, four crops a year
being a temptation no possible danger could drive him from, and as
soon as the mountain grows surely peaceful after this eruption, we
shall find its farmers risking again the chance of its uncertain
temper. But this is not the case with the land covered with lava
and cinders. Time for their disintegration is necessary before they
can be brought under cultivation, and this is a matter of years.
After the great eruption of 1871-72 the land covered with cinders
did not bear crops for seven years, and there is no reason that they
will do so sooner on the present occasion. So for years to come much
of the volcanic soil must remain a barren and desert void.

CHAPTER XXV.

Skaptar Jokull and Hecla, the Great Icelandic

Volcanoes.

THE far-northern island of Iceland, on the verge of the frozen
Arctic realm, is one of the most volcanic countries in the
world, whether we regard the number of volcanoes concen-
trated in so small a space, or the extraordinary violence of their
eruptions. Of volcanic mountains there are no less than twenty
which have been active during historical times. Skaptar in the
north, and Hecla in the south, being much the best known. In
all, twenty-three eruptions are on record.

Iceland's volcanoes rival Mount JEtna. in height and magnitude,
their action has been more continuous and intense, and the range of
volcanic products is far greater than in Sicily. The latter island,
indeed, is not one-tenth of volcanic origin, while the whole of Ice-
land is due to the work of subterranean forces. It is entirely made
up of volcanic rocks, and has seemingly been built up during the
ages from the depths of the seas. It is reported, indeed, that a
new island, the work of volcanic forces, appeared opposite Mount
Hecla in 1563 ; but this statement is open to doubt.

VOLCANOES IN ICELAND

The eruptions of the volcanoes in Iceland have been amongst
the most terrible of those carefully recorded. The cold climate of
the island and the height of the mountains produce vast quantities
of snow and ice, which cover the volcanoes and fill up the cracks

* ' 3°7

3o8 GREAT ICELANDIC VOLCANOES

and valleys in their sides. When, therefore, an eruption commences*
the intense heat of the boiling lava, and of the steam which rushes
forth from the crater, makes the whole mountain hot, and vast
masses of ice, great fields of snow, and deluges of water roll down
the hill-sides into the plains. The lava pours from the top and
from cracks in the side of the mountain, or is ejected hundreds of
feet, to fall amongst the ice and snow ; and the great masses of
red-hot stone cast forth, accompanied by cinders and fine ashes,
splash into the roaring torrent, which tears up rocks in its course
and devastates the surrounding country for miles.

DREADFUL FLOODS

An eruption of Kotlugja, in 1860, was accompanied by dread-
ful floods. It began with a number of earthquakes, which shook
the surrounding country. Then a dark columnar cloud of vapor
was seen to rise by day from the mountain, and by night balls of
fire (volcanic bombs) and red-hot cinders to the height of 24,000
feet (nearly five miles), which were seen at a distance of 180 miles.
Deluges of water rushed from the heights, bearing along whole
fields of ice and rocky fragments of every size, some vomited from
the volcano, but in great part torn from the flanks of the mountain
itself and carried to the sea, there to add considerably to the coast-
line after devastating the intervening country. The fountain of
volcanic bombs consisted of masses of lava, containing gases which
exploded and produced a loud sound, which was said to have been
heard at a distance of 100 miles. The size of the bombs, and the
height to which they must have reached, were very great. But the
most remarkable of the historical eruptions in Iceland were those of
Skaptar Jokull in 1783, and of Hecla in 1845 Of these an ex-
tended description is worthy of being given.

GREAT ICELANDIC VOLCANOES 309

Of these two memorable eruptions, that of Skaptar-Jokull
began on the i ith of June, 1783. It was preceded by a long series
of earthquakes, which had become exceedingly violent immediately
before the eruption. On the 8th, volcanic vapors were emitted
from the summit of the mountain, and on the nth immense tor-
rents of lava began to be poured forth from numerous mouths.
These torrents united to form a large stream, which, flowing down
into the river Skapta, not only dried it up, but completely filled the
vast gorge through which the river had held its course. This
gorge, 200 feet in breadth, and from 400 to 600 feet in depth, the
lava filled so entirely as to overflow to a considerable extent the
fields on either side. On issuing from this ravine, the lava flowed
into a deep lake which lay in the course of the river. Here it was
arrested for a while ; but it ultimately filled the bed of the lake
altogether — either drying up its waters, or chasing them before it
into the lower part of the river's course. Still forced onward by the
accumulation of molten lava from behind, the stream resumed its
advance, till it reached some ancient volcanic rocks which were full
of caverns. Into these it entered, and where it could not eat its way
by melting the old rock, it forced a passage by shivering the solid
mass and throwing its broken fragments into the air to a height of
1 50 feet.

A TORRENT OF LAVA

On the 1 8th of June there opened above the first mouth a
second of large dimensions, whence poured another immense
torrent of lava, which flowed with great rapidity over the solidified
surface of the first stream, and ultimately combined with it to form
a more formidable main current. When this fresh stream reached
the fiery lake, which had filled the lower portion of the valley of
the Skapta, a portion of it was forced up the channel of that river,

3io GREAT ICELANDIC VOLCANOES

towards the foot of the hill whence it takes its rise. After pursuing
its course for several days, the main body of this stream reached
the edge of a great waterfall called Stapafoss, which plunged into
a deep abyss. Displacing the water, the lava here leaped over the
precipice, and formed a great cataract of fire. After this, it filled
the channel of the river, though extending itself in breadth far
beyond it, and followed it until it reached the sea.

ENORMOUS QUANTITY OF LAVA

The 3rd of August brought fresh accessions to the flood of
lava still pouring from the mountain. There being no room in the
channel, now filled by the former lurid stream, which had pursued a
northwesterly course, the fresh lava was forced to take a new direc-
tion towards the southeast, where it entered the bed of another
river with a barbaric name. Here it pursued a course similar to
that which flowed through the channel of the Skapta, filling up the
deep gorges, and then spreading itself out into great fiery lakes
over the plains.

The eruptions of lava from the mountain continued, with
some short intervals, for two years, and so enormous was the
quantity poured forth during this period that, according to a care-
ful estimate which has been made, the whole together would form
a mass equal to that of Mont Blanc. Of the two streams, the
greater was fifty, the less forty, miles in length. The Skapta
branch attained on the plains a breadth varying from twelve to
fifteen miles — that of the other was only about half as much. Each
of the currents had an average depth of 100 feet, but in the deep
gorges it was no less than 600 feet. Even as late as 1 794 vapors
continued to rise from these great streams, and the water contained
in the numerous fissures formed in their crust was hot

GREAT ICELANDIC VOLCANOES 3"

The devastation directly wrought by the lava currents them-
selves was not the whole of the evils they brought upon unfortunate
Iceland and its inhabitants. Partly owing to the sudden melting
of the snows and glaciers of the mountain, partly owing to the
stoppage of the river courses, immense floods of water deluged the
country in the neighborhood, destroying many villages and a large
amount of agricultural and other property. Twenty villages were
overwhelmed by the lava currents, while the ashes thrown out
during the eruption covered the whole island and the surface of
the sea for miles around its shores. On several occasions the ashes
were drifted by the winds over considerable parts of the European
continent, obscuring the sun and giving the sky a gray and gloomy
aspect. In certain respects they reproduced the phenomena of the
explosion of Mount Krakatoa, which, singularly, occurred just a
century later, in 1883. The strange red sunset phenomena of the
latter were reproduced by this Icelandic event of the eighteenth
century.

Out of the 50,000 persons who then inhabited Iceland, 9,336
perished, together with 11,460 head of cattle, 190,480 sheep and
28,000 horses. This dreadful destruction of life was caused partly
by the direct action of the lava currents, partly by the noxious
vapors they emitted, partly by the floods of water, partly by
the destruction of the herbage by the falling ashes, and lastly in
consequence of the desertion of the coasts by the fish, which formed
a large portion of the food of the people.

ERUPTION OF MOUNT HECLA

After this frightful eruption, no serious volcanic disturbance
took place in Iceland untill 1845, when Mount Hecla again became
disastrously active. Mount Hecla has been the most frequent in its

3i2 GREAT ICELANDIC VOLCANOES

eruptions of any of the Icelandic volcanoes. Previous to 1845
there had been twenty-two recorded eruptions of this mountain,
since the discovery of Iceland in the ninth century ; while from all
the other volcanoes in the island there had been only twenty dur-
ing the same period. Hecla has more than once remained in
activity for six years at a time — a circumstance that has rendered
it the best known of the volcanoes of this region.

LATER OUTBREAKS

After enjoying a long rest of seventy-nine years, this volcano
burst again into violent activity in the beginning of September,
1845. The first inkling of this eruption was conveyed to the Brit-
ish Islands by a fall of volcanic ashes in the Orkneys, which oc-
curred on the night of September 2nd during a violent storm.
This palpable hint was soon confirmed by direct intelligence from
Copenhagea On the ist of September a severe earthquake, fol-
lowed the same night by fearful subterranean noises, alarmed the
inhabitants and gave warning of what was to come. About noon
the next day, with a dreadful crash, there opened in the sides of the
volcano two new mouths, whence two great streams of glowing
lava poured forth. They fortunately flowed down the north-
ern and northwestern sides of the mountain, where the low grounds
are mere barren heaths, affording a scanty pasture for a few sheep.
These were driven before the fiery stream, but several of them
were burnt before they could escape. The whole mountain was
enveloped in clouds of volcanic ashes and vapors. The rivers near
the lava currents became so hot as to kill the fish, and to be im-
passable even on horseback.

About a fortnight later there was a fresh eruption, of greater
violence, which lasted twenty-two hours, and was accompanied by

GREAT ICELANDIC VOLCANOES 313

detonations so loud as to be heard over the whole island. Two
new craters were formed, one on the southern, the other on the
eastern slope of the cone. The lava issuing from these craters
flowed to a distance of more than twenty-two miles. At about two
miles from its source the fiery stream was a mile wide, and from
40 to 50 feet deep. It destroyed a large extent of fine pasture and
many cattle. Nearly a month later, on the I5th of October, a fresh
flood of lava burst from the southern crater, and soon heaped up a
mass at the foot of the mountain from 40 to 60 feet in height, three
great columns of vapor, dust and ashes rising at the same time
from the three new craters of the volcano. The mountain contin-
ued in a state of greater or less activity during most of the next
year; and even as late as the month of October, 1846, after a brief
pause, it began again with renewed vehemence. The volumes of
dust, ashes and vapor, thrown up from the craters, and brightly il-
luminated by the glowing lava beneath, assumed the appearance of
flames, and ascended to an immense height.

ELECTRIC PHENOMENA

Among the stones tossed out of the craters was one large mass
of pumice weighing nearly half a ton, which was carried to a dis-
tance of between four and five miles. The rivers were flooded by
the melting of ice and snow which had accumulated on the moun-
tain. The greatest mischief wrought by these successive eruptions
was the destruction of the pasturages, which were for the most part
covered with volcanic ashes. Even where left exposed, the herbage
acquired a poisonous taint which proved fatal to the cattle,
inducing among them a peculiar murrain. Fortunately, owing to
the nature of the district through which the lava passed, there was
on this occasion no loss of human life.

3H GREAT ICELANDIC VOLCANOES

The Icelandic volcanoes are remarkable for the electric
phenomena which they produce in the atmosphere. Violent
thunder-storms, with showers of rain and hail, are frequent accom-
paniments of volcanic eruptions everywhere ; but owing to the
coldness and dryness of the air into which the vapors from the Ice-
landic volcanoes ascend, their condensation is so sudden and violent
that great quantities of electricity are developed. Thunder-storms
accompanied by the most vivid lightnings are the result. Humboldt
mentions in his " Cosmos " that, during an eruption of Kotlugja,
one of the southern Icelandic volcanoes, the lightning from the
cloud of volcanic vapor killed eleven horses and two men (Cosmos
i. 223). Great displays of the aurora borealis usually accompany
the volcanic eruptions of this island — doubtless resulting from the
quantity of electricity imparted to the higher atmosphere by the
condensation of the ascending vapors. On the i8th of August,
1783, while the great eruption of Skaptar Jokull was in progress,
an immense fire-ball passed over England and the European con-
tinent as far as Rome. This ball which was estimated to have had
a diameter exceeding half a mile, is supposed to have been of
electrical origin, and due to the high state of electric tension in the
atmosphere over Iceland at that time,

CHAPTER XXVI.

Volcanoes of the Philippines and Other Pacific

Islands.

WE cannot do better than open this chapter with an account
of the work of volcanoes in the mountain-girdled East
Indiaji island of Java. This large and fertile tropical
island has a large native population, and many European settlers
are employed in cultivating spices, coffee and woods. The island
is rather more than 600 miles long, and it is not 150 miles broad in
any part ; and this narrow shape is produced by a chain of volca-
noes which runs along it. There is scarcely any other region in
the world where volcanoes are so numerous, even in the East, where
the volcano is a very common product of nature. Some of the vol-
canoes of Java are constantly in eruption, while others are inactive.
One of their number, Galung Gung, was previous to 1822 cov-
ered from top to bottom with a dense forest; around it were populous
villages. The mountain was high ; there was a slight hollow on its
top — a basin-like valley, carpeted with the softest sward ; brooks
rippled down the hillside through the forests, and, joining their
silvery streams, flowed on through beautiful valleys into the distant
sea. In the month of July, 1822, there were signs of an approach-
ing disturbance ; this tranquil peacefulness was at an end ; one of
the rivers became muddy, and its waters grew hot.

In October, without any warning, a most terrific eruption
occurred. A loud explosion was heard; the earth shook, and

3I6 VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

immense columns of hot water, boiling mud mixed with burning
brimstone, ashes and stones, were hurled upwards from the moun-
tain top like a waterspout, and with such wonderful force that
large quantities fell at a distance of forty miles. Every valley
near the mountain became filled with burning torrents ; the rivers,
swollen with hot water and mud, overflowed their banks, and
swept away the escaping villagers ; and the bodies of cattle, wild
beasts, and birds were carried down the flooded stream.

ERUPTION OF GALUNG GUNG

A space of twenty-four miles between the mountain and a
river forty miles distant was covered to such a depth with blue mud,
that people were buried in their houses, and not a trace of the
numerous villages and plantations was visible. The boiling mud
and cinders were cast forth with such violence from the crater, that
while many distant villages were utterly destroyed and buried,
others much nearer the volcano were scarcely injured ; and all this
was done in five short hours.

Four days afterwards a second eruption occurred more violent
than the first, and hot water and mud were cast forth with masses
of slag like the rock called basalt some of which fell seven miles
off. A violent earthquake shook the whole district, and the top of
the mountain fell in, and so did one of its sides, leaving a gaping
chasm. Hills appeared where there had been level land before,
and the rivers changed their courses, drowning in one night 2,000
people. At some distance from the mountain a river runs through
a large town, and the first intimation the inhabitants had of all this
horrible destruction was the news that the bodies of men and the
carcases of stags, rhinoceroses, tigers, and other animals, were rush-
ing along to the sea. No less than 114 villages were destroyed,
and above 4,000 persons were killed by this terrible catastrophe.

VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS 317

Fifty years before this eruption, Mount Papandayang, one of
the highest burning mountains of Java, was constantly throwing
out steam and smoke, but as no harm was done, the natives con-
tinued to live on its sides. Suddenly this enormous mountain fell
in, and left a gap fifteen miles long and six broad. Forty vil-
lages were destroyed, some being carried down and others over-
whelmed by mud and burning lava. No less than 2,957 people
perished, with vast numbers of cattle ; moreover, most of the coffee
plantations in the neighboring districts were destroyed.

Even more terrible was the eruption of Mount Salek, another
of the volcanoes of Java. The burning of the mountain was seen
100 miles away, while the thunders of its convulsions and the
tremblings of the earth reached the same distance. Seven hills, at
whose base ran a river — crowded with dead buffaloes, deer, apes,
tigers, and crocodiles — slipped down and became a level plain.
River-courses were changed, forests were burnt up, and the whole
face of the country was completely altered.

Later volcanic eruptions in Java include that of 1843, when
Mount Guntur flung out sand and ashes estimated at the vast total
of thirty million tons, and those of 1849 anc^ J^72 when Mount
Merapi, a very active volcano, covered a great extent of country
with stones and ashes, and ruined the coffee plantations of the
neighboring districts.

We have said nothing concerning the most terrible explosion
of all, that of the volcanic island of Krakatoa, off the Javan coast.
This event was so phenomenal as to deserve a chapter of its own,
for which we reserve it.

The United States, as one result of its recent acquisition of is-
land dominions, has added largely to its wealth in volcanic moun-
tains. The famous Hawaiian craters, far the greatest in the world,

3i8 VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDL

now belong to our national estate, and the Philippine Islands con-
tain various others, of less importance, yet some of which have
proved very destructive. A description of those of the Island of
Luzon, which are the most active in the archipelago, is here sub-
joined :

THE LUZON VOLCANOES.

Volcanoes have played an important part in the formation of
the Philippine Islands and have left traces of their former activity
in all directions. Most of them, however, have long been dead and
silent, only a few of the once numerous group being now active.
Of these there are three of importance in the southern region of
Luzon — Taal, Bulusan and Mayon or Albay.

The last named of these is the largest and most active of the
existing volcanoes. In form it if of marvellous grace and beauty,
forming a perfect cone, about fifty miles in circuit at base and ris-
ing to a height of 8,900 feet. It is one of the most prominent
landmarks to navigators in the island. From its crater streams
upward a constant smoke, accompanied at times by flame, while
from its depths issue subterranean sounds, often heard at a distance
of many leagues. The whole surrounding country is marked by
evidences of old eruptions.

This mountain, in 1767, sent up a cone of flame of forty feet in
diameter at base, for ten days, and for two months a wide stream of
lava poured from its crater. A month later there gushed forth
great floods of water, which filled the rivers to overflow, doing
widespread damage to the neighboring plantations. But its great-
est and most destructive eruption took place in 1812, the year of the
great eruption of the St. Vincent volcano. On this fatal occasion
several towns were destroyed and no less than 12,000 people lost
their lives. The debris flung forth from the crater were so abundant

VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS 319

that deposits deep enough to bury the tallest trees were formed
near the mountain. In 1867 another disastrous explosion took
place, and still another in 1888. A disaster different in kind and
cause occurred in 1876, when a terrible tropical storm burst upon
the mountain. The floods of rain swept from its sides the loose
volcanic material, and brought destruction to the neighboring coun-
try, more than six thousand houses being ruined by the rushing
flood.

BULUSAN AND TAAL

Bulusan, a volcano on the southern extremity of the island, re-
sembles Vesuvius in shape. For many years it remained dormant,
but in 1852 smoke began to issue from its crater. In some respects
the most interesting of these three volcanoes is that of Taal, which
lies almost due south of Manila and about forty-five miles distant, on
a small island in the middle of a large lake, known as Bombom or
Bongbong. A remarkable feature of this volcanic mountain is that
it is probably the lowest in the world, its height being only 850 feet
above sea level. There are doubtful traditions that Lake Bombom,
a hundred square miles in extent, was formed by a terrible eruption
in 1700, by which a lofty mountain 8000 or 9000 feet high, was
destroyed. The vast deposits of porous tufa in the surrounding
country are certainly evidences of former great eruptions from
Mount Taal.

The crater of this volcano is an immense, cup-shaped depres-
jsion, a mile or more in diameter and about 800 feet deep. When
recently -visited by Professor Worcester, during his travels in these
islands, he found it to contain three boiling lakelets of strangely-
colored water, one being of a dirty brown hue, a second intensely
yellow in tint, and the third of a brilliant emerald green. The
mountain still steams and fumes, as if too actively at work below

320 VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLAND*

to be at rest above. In past times it has shown the forces at
play in its depths by breaking at times into frightful activity. Of
the various explosions on record, the three most violent were those
of 1716, 1749, and X754- 1° tne last-named year the earth for
miles round quaked with the convulsive throes of the deeply dis-
turbed mountain, and vast quantities of volcanic dust were hurled
high into the air, sufficient to make it dark at midday for many
leagues around. The roofs of distant Manila were covered with
volcanic dust and ashes. Molten lava also poured from the crater
and flowed into the lake, which boiled with the intense heat, while
great showers of stones and ashes fell into its waters.

VOLCANOES IN THE SOUTHERN ISLANDS

Extinct volcanoes are numerous in Luzon, and there are
smoking cones in the north, and also in the Babuyanes Islands still
farther north. Volcanoes also exist in several of the other islands.
On Negros is the active peak of Malaspina, and on Camiguin, an
island about ninety miles to the southeast, a new volcano broke out
in 1876. The large island of Mindanao has three volcanoes, of
which Cottabato was in eruption in 1856 and is still active at inter-
vals. Apo, the largest of the three, estimated to be 10,312 feet
high, has three summits, within which lies the great crater, now
extinct and filled with water.

In evidence of former volcanic activity are the abundant
deposits of sulphur on the island of Leyte, the hot springs in various
localities, and the earthquakes which occasionally bring death and
destruction. Of the many of these on record, the most destructive
was in 1863, when 400 people were killed and 2,000 injured, while
many buildings were wrecked. Another in 1880 wrought great
destruction in Manila and elsewhere, though without loss of life.

VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC t&LANDS 32l

An earthquake in Mindanao in 1675 opened a passage to the sea,
and a vast plain emerged. These convulsions of the earth affect
the form and elevation of buildings, which are rarely more than two
stories high and lightly built, while translucent sea-shells replace
glass in their windows.

While Java is the most prolific in volcanoes of the islands of
the Malayan Archipelago, other islands of the group possess ac-
tive cones, including Sumatra, Bali, Amboyna, Banda. and others. In
Sanguir, an island north of Celebes, is a volcanic mountain from
which there was a destructive eruption in 1856. The country was
devastated with lava, stones and volcanic ashes, ruining a wide dis-
trict and killing nearly 3,000 of the inhabitants. Mount Madrian, in
one of the Spice Islands, was rent in twain by a fierce eruption in
1646, and since then has remained two distinct mountains. It
became active again in 1862, after two centuries of repose, and
caused great loss of life and property. Sorea, a small island of the
same group, forming but a single volcanic mountain, had an erup-
tion in 1693, the cone crumbling gradually till a vast crater was
formed, filled with liquid lava and occupying nearly half the island.
This lake of fire increased in size by the same process till in the
end it took possession of the island and forced all the inhabitants
to flee to more hospitable shores.

THE GREAT ERUPTION OF TOMBORO

But of the East Indian Islands, Sumbawa, lying east of Java,
contains the most formidable volcano — one, indeed, scarcely with-
out a rival in the world. This is named Tomboro. Of its various
eruptions the most furious on record was that of 1815. This, as
we aie told by Sir Stamford Raffles, far exceeded in force and dur-
ation any of the known outbreaks of Etna or Vesuvius. The

322 VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

ground trembled and the echoes of its roar were heard through an
area of 1,000 miles around the volcano, and to a distance of 30x5
miles its effects were astounding.

In Java, 300 miles away, ashes filled the air so thickly that the
solar rays could not penetrate them, and fell to the depth of several
inches. The detonations were so similar to the reports of artillery
as to be mistaken for them. The Rajah of Sang'ir, who was an
eye-witness of the eruption, thus described it to Sir Stamford :

" About 7 P. M. on the loth of April, three distinct columns of
flame burst forth near the top of the Tomboro mountain (all of
them apparently within the verge of the crater), and, after ascend-
ing separately to a very great height, their tops united in the air in
a troubled, confused manner. In i short time the whole mountain
next Sang'ir appeared like a body 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 them, at about 8 P. M. Stones at this time fell
very thick at Sang'ir — some of them as large as two fists, but
generally not larger than walnuts. Between 9 and 10 P. M. ashes
began to fall, and soon after a violent whirlwind ensued, which
blew down nearly every house in the village of Sang'ir — carrying the
roofs and light parts away with it. In the port of Sang'ir, adjoin-
ing Tomboro, its effects were much more violent — tearing up
by the roots the largest trees, and carrying them into the air,
together with men, horses, cattle, and whatever else came within
its influence. This will account for the immense number of float-
ing trees seen at sea. The sea rose nearly twelve feet higher than
it had ever been known to do before, and completely spoiled the
only spots of rice-land in Sang'ir — sweeping away houses and
everything within its reach. The whirlwind lasted about an hour

VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS 3*3

No explosions were heard till the whirlwind had ceased, at about
n P.M. From midnight till the evening of the iith, they con-
tinued without intermission. After that time their violence
moderated, and they were heard only at intervals ; but the ex-
plosions did not cease entirely until the I5th of July. Of all the
villages of Tomboro, Tempo, containing about forty inhabitants, is
the only one remaining. In Pekate no vestige of a house is
left ; twenty-six of the people, who were at Sumbawa at the time,
are the whole of the population who have escaped. From the
most particular inquiries I have been able to make, there were cer-
tainly no fewer than 12,000 individuals in Tomboro and Pekate at
the time of the eruption, of whom only five or six survive. The
trees and herbage of every description, along the whole of the
north and west sides of the peninsula, have been completely
Jestroyed, with the exception of those on a high point of land, near
the spot where the village of Tomboro stood."

Tomboro village was not only invaded by the sea on this
occasion, but its site permanently subsided ; so that there is now
eighteen feet of water where there was formerly dry land.

THE VOLCANOES OF JAPAN

The Japanese archipelago, as stated in an, earlier chapter, is
abundantly supplied with volcanoes, a number of them being active.
'Of these the best known to travelers is Asamayama, a mountain
8,500 feet high, of which there are several recorded eruptions. The
first of these was in 1650; after which the volcano remained feebly
active till 1783, when it broke out in a very severe eruption. In
1870 there was another of some severity, accompanied by violent
shocks of earthquake felt at Yokohama. The crater is very deep,
with irregular rocky walls of a sulphurous character.

324 VOLCANOES OF '1HE PACIFIC ISLANDS

Far the most famous of all the Japanese mountains, however,
is that named Fuji-san, but commonly termed in English Fujiyama
or Fusiyama. It is in the vicinity of the capital, and is the most
prominent object in the landscape for many miles around. The
apex is shaped somewhat like an eight-petaled lotus flower, and
offers to view from different directions from three to five peaks.

Though now apparently extinct, it was formerly an active vol«
cano, and is credited in history with several very disastrous erup-
tions. The last of these was in 1 707, at which time the whole summit
burst into flames. Rocks were split and shattered by the heat, and
stones fell to the depth of several inches in Yeddo (now Tokyo), sixty
miles away. At present there are in its crater, which has a depth
of 700 or 800 feet, neither sulphurous exhalations nor steam. Accord-
ing to Japanese tradition this great peak was upheaved in a single
night from the bottom of the sea, more than twenty-one hundred
years ago.

Nothing can be more majestic than this volcano, extinct
though it be, rising in an immense cone from the plain to the height
of over twelve thousand feet, truncated at the top, and with its
peak almost always snow-covered. Its ascent is not difficult to an
expert climber, and has frequently been made. From its summit
is unfolded a panorama beyond the power of words to describe, and
probably the most remarkable on the globe. Mountains, valleys,
lakes, forests and the villages of thirteen counties may be seen.
As we gaze upon its beautifully shaped and lofty mass, visible even
from Yokohama and a hundred miles at sea, one does not wonder
that it should be regarded as a holy mountain, and that it should
form a conspicuous object in every Japanese work of art It is to
the natives of Japan as Mont Blanc is to Europeans, the " monarch
of mountains"

VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS 395

In summer pilgrimages are made around the base of the summit
elevation, and there are on the upward path a number of Buddhist
temples and shrines, made of blocks of stone, for devotion, shelter
and the storage of food for pilgrims. Hakone Lake is three thou-
sand feet above the sea, and probably lies in the crater of an extinct
volcano. Its waters are very deep; it is several miles long and
wide, and is surrounded by high hills which abound in fine scenery,
solfataras and mineral springs.

HOT SPRINGS NEAR HAKONE LAKE

At this place the mountain seems to be smouldering, as sul-
phur fumes and steam issue at many points, and the ground is
covered with a friable white alkaline substance. In many a hollow
the water bubbles with clouds of vapor and sulphuretted hydrogen ;
here the soil is hot and evidently underlaid by active fires. It is
not safe to go very near, as the crust is thin and crumbling. The
water running down the hills has a refreshing sound and a tempt-
ing clearness, but the thirsty tongue at once detects it to be a very
strong solution of alum. The whole aspect of the place is infernal,
and naturally suggests the name given its principal geyser, O-gigoko
(Big Hell).

Fujiyama is almost a perfect cone, with, as above said, a truncated
top, in which is the crater. It is, however, less steep than Mayon. Its
upper part is comparatively steep, even to thirty-five degrees, but
below this portion the inclination gradually lessens, till its elegant
outlines are lost in the plain from which it rises. The curves of
the sides depend partly on the nature, size and shape of the ejected
material, the fine uniform pieces remaining on comparatively steer
slopes, while the larger and rounder ones roll farther down, resting
on the inclination that afterward becomes curved from the subsidence
of the central mass.

326 VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

The most recent and one of the most destructive of volcanic
eruptions recorded in Japan was that of Bandaisan or Baldaisan.
For ages this mountain had been peaceful, and there was scarcely
an indication of its volcanic character or of the terrific forces which
lay dormant deep within its heart. On its flanks lay some small
deposits of scoriae, indications of far-past eruptions, and there were
some hot springs at its base, while steam arose from a fissure. Yet
there was nothing to warn the people of the vicinity that deadly
peril lay under their feet.

BANDAISAN'S WORK OF TERROR

This sense of security was fatally dissipated on a day in July,
1888, when the mountain suddenly broke into eruption and flung
i, 600 million cubic yards of its summit material so high into the
air that many of the falling fragments, in their fall, struck the
ground with such velocity as to be buried far out of sight. The
steam and dust were driven to a height of 13,000 feet, where they
spread into a canopy of much greater elevation, causing pitchy dark-
ness beneath. There were from fifteen to twenty violent explosions,
and a great landslide devastated about thirty square miles and
Buried many villages in the Nagase Valley.

Mr. Norman, a traveler who visited the spot shortly after-
ward, thus describes the scene of ruin. After a journey through
the forests which clothed the slopes of the volcanic mountain and
prevented any distant view, the travelers at last found themselves
'Standing upon the ragged edge of what was left of the mountain
of Bandaisan, after two-thirds of it, including, of course, the summit,
had been literally blown away and spread over the face of the
country.

VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS 327

" The original cone of the mountain," he continues, " had been
truncated at an acute angle to its axis. From our very feet a pre-
cipitous mud slope falls away for half a mile or more till it reaches
the level. At our right, still below us, rises a mud wall a mile long,
also sloping down to the level, and behind it is evidently the crater;,
but before us, for five miles in a straight line, and on each side
nearly as far, is a sea of congealed mud, broken up into ripples and
waves and great billows, and bearing upon its bosom a thousand
huge boulders, weighing hundreds of tons apiece."

On reaching the crater he found it to resemble a gigantic
cauldron, fully a mile in width, and enclosed with precipitous walls
of indurated mud. From several orifices volumes of steam rose
into the air, and when the vapor cleared away fora moment glimpses
of a mass of boiling mud were obtained. Before the eruption the
mountain top had terminated in three peaks. Of these the highest
had an elevation of about 5,800 feet. The peak destroyed was the
middle one, which was rather smaller than the other two.

" The explosion was caused by steam ; there was neither fire
nor lava of any kind. It was, in fact, nothing more nor less than
a gigantic boiler explosion. The whole top and one side of Sho-
Bandai-san had been blown into the air in a lateral direction, and
the earth of the mountain was converted by the escaping steam, at
the moment of the explosion, into boiling mud, part of which was
projected into the air to fall at a long distance, and then take the
form of an overflowing river, which rushed with vast rapidity and
covered the country to a depth of from 20 to 150 feet. Thirty
square miles of country were thus devastated."

In the devastated lowlands and buried villages below and
on the slopes of the mountain many lives were lost. From the
survivors Mr. Norman gathered some information, enabling mm

328 VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

to describe the main features of the catastrophe. We append a
brief outline of his narrative :

MR. NORMAN'S NARRATIVE

" At a few minutes past 8 o'clock in the morning a frightful
noise was heard by the inhabitants of a village ten miles distant
from the crater. Some of them instinctively took to flight, but
before they could run much more than a hundred yards the light
of day was suddenly changed into a darkness more intense than
that of midnight ; a shower of blinding hot ashes and sand poured
down upon them ; the ground was shaken with earthquakes, and
explosion followed explosion, the last being the most violent of all.
Many fugitives, as well as people in the houses, were overwhelmed
by the deluge of mud, none of the fugitives, when overtaken by
death, being more than two hundred yards from the village. From
the statements made by those fortunate enough to escape with
their lives, and from a personal examination of the ground, Mr. Nor-
man inferred that the mud must have been flung fully six miles
through the air and then have poured in a torrent along the ground
for four miles further. All this was done in less than five minutes, so
that "millions of tons of boiling mud were hurled over the country
'at the rate of two miles a minute."

The velocity of the mud torrent may perhaps be overestimated,
but in its awful suddenness this catastrophe was evidently one with
few equals. The cone destroyed may have been largely composed
of rather fine ashes and scoriae, which was almost instantaneously
converted into mud by the condensing steam and the boiling water
ejected. The quantity of water thus discharged must have been
enormous.

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VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS 329

Of the remaining volcanic regions of the Pacific, the New Zea-
land islands present some of the most striking examples of activity.
All the central parts, indeed, of the northern island of the group
are of a highly volcanic character. There is here a mountain
named Tongariro, on whose snow-clad summit is a deep crater,
from which volcanic vapors are seen to issue, and which exhib-
its other indications of having been in a state of greater activity
at a not very remote period of time. There is also, at no great
distance from this mountain, a region containing numerous funnel-
shaped chasms, emitting hot water, or steam, or sulphurous vapors,
or boiling mud. The earthquakes in New Zealand had probably
their origin in this volcanic focus.

THE NEW ZEALAND VOLCANOES

Tongariro has a height of about 6,500 feet, while Egmont,
8,270 feet in height, is a perfect cone with a perpetual cap of snow-
There are many other volcanic mountains, and also great numbers
of mud volcanoes, hot springs and geysers. It is for the latter
that the island is best known to geologists. Their waters are at or
near the boiling point and contain silica in abundance.

At a place called Rotomahana, in the vicinity of Mount Tara-
wera, there was formerly a lake of about one hundred and twenty
acres in area, which was in its way one of the most remarkable
bodies of water upon the earth. Formerly, we say, for this lake no
longer exists, it having been destroyed by the very forces to which it
owed its fame. Its waters were maintained nearly at the boiling point
by the continual accession of boiling water from numerous springs.
The most abundant of those sources was situated at the height of
about 100 feet above the level of the lake. It kept continually
filled an oval basin about 250 feet in circumference — the margins of

330 VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

which were fringed all round with beautiful pure white stalactites,
formed by deposits of silica, with which the hot water was strongly
impregnated. At various stages below the principal spring were
several others, that contributed to feed the lake at the bottom, in
the centre of which was a small island. Minute bubbles contin-
jfually escaped from the surface of the water with a hissing sound,
and the sand all round the lake was at a high temperature. If a
stick was thrust into it, very hot vapors would ascend from the hole.
Not far from this lake were several small basins filled with tepid
water, which was very clear, and of a blue color.

The conditions here were of a kind with those to which are
due the great geysers of Iceland and the Yellowstone Park, but
different in the fact that instead of being intermittent and throw-
ing up jets at intervals, the springs allowed the water to flow from
them in a continuous stream.

THE PINK AND WHITE TERRACES

The silicious incrustations left by the overflow from the large
pool had made a series of terraces, two to six feet high, with the
appearance of being hewn from white or pink marble ; each of the
basins containing a similar azure water. These terraces covered
an area of about three acres, and looked like a series of cataracts
changed into stone, each edge being fringed with a festoon of deli-
cate stalactites. The water contained about eighty-five per cent, of
silica, with one or two per cent, of iron alumina, and a little
alkali.

There were no more beautiful products of nature upon the
earth than those " pink and white terraces," as they were called.
The hot springs of the Yellowstone have produced formations
resembling them, but not their equal in fairy-like charm. One

VOLCANOES OF THE PACIF/C ISLANDS

33'

series of these terraced pools and cascades was of the purest white
tint, the other of the most delicate pink, the waters topping over
the edge of each pool and falling in a miniature cascade to the one
next below, thus keeping the edges built up by a continual renewal
of the silicious incrustation. But all their beauty could not save
them from utter and irremediable destruction by the forces below
the earth's surface.

On June 9, 1886, a great volcanic disturbance began in the

PINK AND WHITE TERRACES OP LAKE ROTO MAHANA, NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Lake region with a tremendous earthquake, followed dur-
ing the night by many others. At seven the next morning a lead-
covered cloud of pumice sand, advancing from the south, burst and
discharged showers of fine dust. The range of Mount Tarawera
seemed to be in full volcanic activity, including some craters sup-
posed to be extinct, and embracing an area of one hundred and
twenty miles by twenty.

33* VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

The showers of dust were so thick as to turn day into night
for nearly two days. Some lives were lost, and several villages
were destroyed, these being covered ten feet deep with ashes, dust
and clayey mud. The volcanic phenomena were of the most vio-
lent character, and the whole island appears to have been more or
less convulsed. Mount Tarawera is said to be five hundred feet
higher than before the eruption ; glowing masses were thrown up
into the air, and tongues of fiery hue, gases or illuminated vapors,
five hundred feet wide, towered up one thousand feet high. The
mountain was 2,700 feet in height.

TARAWERA IN ERUPTION

This eruption presented a spectacle of rarely-equalled gran-
deur. To travelers and strangers the greatest resultant loss will be
the destruction of those world-famous curiosities, the white and
pink terraces, in the vicinity of Lake Rotomahana and the region
of the famous geysers. The natives have a superstition that the
eruption of the extinct Tarawera was caused by the profanation of
foreign footsteps. It was to them a sacred place, and its crater a
repository for their dead. The first earthquake occurred in this
region. One side of the mountain fell in, and then the eruption
began. The basin of the lake was broken up and disappeared, but
again reappeared as a boiling mud cauldron ; craters burst out in
various places, and the beautiful terraces were no more. After
the first day the violence gradually diminished, and in a week had
ceased. Very possibly another lake will be formed, and in time
other terraces ; but it is hardly within the range of probability that
the beauty of the lost terraces will ever be paralleled.

In this eruption, as usual, we find the earthquake preceding
the volcanic outburst. New Zealand, like the Philippines, Java and

VOLCANOES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS 333

the Japanese Islands, is situated over a great earth-fissure or line
of weakness. Subsidence or dislocation from tensile strain of the
crust took place, and the influx of water to new regions of heated
strata may have developed the explosive force. The earthquake and
the volcano worked together here, as they frequently do, unfortun-
ately in this case destroying one of the most beautiful scenes on
the surface of the globe.

THE ANTARCTIC VOLCANOES

Much further south, on the frozen shore of Victoria Land in
the Antarctic regions, Sir James Ross, in 1841, sailing in his dis-
covery ships the Erebus and Terror, discovered two great volcanic
mountains, which he named after those two vessels. Mount
Erebus is continually covered, from top to bottom, with snow and
glaciers. The mountain is about 12,000 feet high, and although
the snow reaches to the very edge of the crater, there rise con-
tinually from the summit immense volumes of volcanic fumes, illumi-
nated by the glare of glowing lava beneath them. The vapors
ascend to an estimated height of 2,200 feet above the top of the
mountain.

CHAPTER XXVII.

The Wonderful Hawaiian Craters and Kilauea's

Lake of Fire.

IN the central region of the North Pacific Ocean lies the archi-
pelago formerly known as the Sandwich Islands, now collec-
tively designated as Hawaii. The people of the United States
should be specially interested in this island group, for it has become
one of our possessions, an outlying Territory of our growing
Republic, and in making it part of our national domain we have
not alone extended our dominion far over the seas, but have added
to the many marvels of nature within our land one of the chief
wonders of the world, the stupendous Hawaiian volcanoes, before
whose grandeur many of more ancient fame sink into insignificance.

THE ISLAND OF HAWAII

The Island of Hawaii, the principal island of the group, we
may safely say contains the most enormous volcano of the earth.
Indeed, the whole island, which is 4000 square miles in extent,
may be regarded as of volcanic origin. It contains four volcanic
mountains — Kohola, Hualalia, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. The
two last named are the chief, the former being 13,800 feet, the latter
13,600 feet, above the sea-level. Although their height is so vast,
the ascent to their summits is so gradual that their circumference
at the base is enormous. The bulk of each of them is reckoned to

be equal to two and a half times that of Etna. Some of the streams
334

WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS 335

of lava which have emanated from them are twenty-six miles in
length by two miles in breadth.

On the adjoining island of Maui is a still larger volcano, the
mighty Haleakala, long since extinct, but memorable as possessing'
the most stupendous crater on the face of the earth. The moun-
tain itself is over 10,000 feet high, and forms a great dome-like
mass of 90 miles circumference at base. The crater on its summit
has a length of 7^ and a width of 2^ miles, with a total area of
about sixteen square miles. The only approach in dimensions to
this enormous opening exists in the still living crater of Kilauea,
on the flank of Mauna Loa.

A VOLCANIC ISLAND GROUP

The peaks named are the most apparent remnants of a world-
rending volcanic activity in the remote past, by whose force this
whole Hawaiian island group was lifted up from the depths of the
ocean, here descending some three and a half miles below the sur«
face level. The coral reefs which abound around the islands are
of comparatively recent formation, and rest upon a substratum of
lava probably ages older, which forms the base of the archi-
pelago. The islands are volcanic peaks and ridges that have been
pushed up above the surrounding seas by the profound action o<
the interior forces of the earth.

It must not be supposed that this action was a violent perpen-
dicular thrust upward over a very limited locality, for the mountains
continue to slope at about the same angle under the sea and for
great distances on every side, so that the islands arc really the
crests of an extensive elevation, estimated to cover an area of about
2000 miles in one direction by 150 or 200 miles in the other. The
process was probably a gradual one of up-building, by means of

WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS

which the sea receded as the land steadily rose. Some idea of the
mighty forces that have been at work beneath the sea and above it
can be gained by considering the enormous mass of material now
above the sea-level. Thus, the bulk of the island of Hawaii, the
largest of the group, has been estimated by the Hawaiian Surveyor
General as containing 3,600 cubic miles of lava rock above sea-level.
Taking the area of England at 50,000 square miles, this mass of
volcanic matter would cover that entire country to a depth of 274
feet. We must remember, however, that what is above sea-level is
only a small fraction of the total amount, since it sweeps down
below the waves hundreds of miles on every side.

CRATER OF HALEAKALA

Of the lava openings on these islands, the extinct one of
Haleakala, as stated, with its twenty-seven miles circumference, is
far the most stupendous. It is easy of access, the mountain sides
leading to it presenting a gentle slope ; while the walls of the crater,
in places perpendicular, in others are so sloping that man and horse
can descend them. The pit varies from 1500 to 2000 feet in depth,
its bottom being very irregular from the old lava flows and the
many cinder cones, these still looking as fresh as though their fires
had just gone out. Some of these cones are over 500 feet high.
There is a tradition among the natives that the vast lava streams
which in the past flowed from the crater to the sea continued to
do so in the period of their remote ancestors. They still, indeed,
appear as if recent, though there are to-day no signs of volcanic
activity anywhere on this island.

In fact, the only volcano now active in the Hawaiian Islands
is Mauna Loa, in the southern section of the Island of Hawaii. A
striking feature of this is that it has two distinct and widely discon-

WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS 337

nected craters, one on its summit, the other on its flank, at a much
lower level. The latter is the vast crater of Kilauea, the largest
active crater known on the face of the globe.

MISS BIRD IN THE CRATER OF KILAUEA

We cannot offer a better description of the aspect of this
'lava abyss than to give Miss Bird's eloquent description of her
adventurous descent into it:

" The abyss, which really is at a height of four thousand feet
on the flank of Mauna Loa, has the appearance of a pit on a roll-
ing plain. But such a pit ! It is quite nine miles in circumfer-
ence, and at its lowest area — which not long ago fell about three
hundred feet, just as the ice on a pond falls when the water below
is withdrawn — covers six square miles. The depth of the crater
varies from eight hundred to one thousand feet, according as the
molten sea below is at flood or ebb. Signs of volcanic activity are
present more or less throughout its whole depth and for some dis-
tance along its margin, in the form of steam-cracks, jets of sul-
phurous vapor, blowing cones, accumulating deposits of acicular
crystals of sulphur, etc,, and the pit itself is constantly rent and
shaken by earthquakes. Great eruptions occur with circumstances
of indescribable terror and dignity ; but Kilauea does not limit its
activity to these outbursts, but has exhibited its marvellous phe-
nomena through all known time in a lake or lakes on the southern
part of the crater three miles from this side.

" This lake — the Hale-mau-mau, or " House of Everlasting
Fire", of the Hawaiian mythology, the abode of the dreaded god-
dess Pele — is approachable with safety, except during an eruption.
The spectacle, however, varies almost daily ; and at times the level
o< the lava in the pit within a. pit is so low, and the suffocating

338 WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS

gases are evolved in such enormous quantities, that travellers are
unable to see anything.

" At the time of our visit there had been no news from it for
a week ; and as nothing was to be seen but a very faint bluish vapor
hanging round its margin, the prospect was not encouraging. After
more than an hour of very difficult climbing, we reached the lowest
level of the crater, pretty nearly a mile across, presenting from
above the appearance of a sea at rest ; but on crossing it, we found
it to be an expanse of waves and convolutions of ashy-colored lava,
with huge cracks filled up with black iridescent rolls of lava only a
few weeks old. Parts of it are very rough and ridgy, jammed
together like field-ice, or compacted by rolls of lava, which may
have swelled up from beneath ; but the largest part of the area
presents the appearance of huge coiled hawsers, the ropy forma-
tion of the lava rendering the illusion almost perfect. These are
riven by deep cracks, which emit hot sulphurous vapors.

" As we ascended, the flow became hotter under our feet,- as
well as more porous and glistening. It was so hot that a shower
of rain hissed as it fell upon it. The crust became increasingly
insecure, and necessitated our walking in single file with the guide
in front, to test the security of the footing. I fell through several
times, and always into holes full of sulphurous steam so malignantly
acid that my strong dogskin gloves were burned through as I raised
myself on my hands.

" We had followed the lava-flow for thirty miles up to the
crater's brink, and now we had toiled over recent lava for three
hours, and, by all calculations, were close to the pit ; yet there was
no smoke or sign of fire, and I felt sure that the volcano had died
out for once for my special disappointment

WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS

339

" Suddenly, just above and in front of us, gory drops were
tossed in the air, and springing forwards, we stood on the brink of
Hale-mau-mau, which was about thirty-five feet below us. I think
we all screamed. I know we all wept ; but we were speechless, for
a new glory and terror had been added to the earth. It is the most
unutterable of wonderful things. The words of common speech
are quite useless. It is unimaginable, indescribable ; a sight to

CRATER OP KILAUEA, HAWAII
Fiery Lake of Molten Lava

remember forever ; a sight which at once took possession of every
faculty-of sense and soul, removing one altogether out of the range
of ordinary life. Here was the real 'bottomless pit', 'the fire which
is not quenched', 'the place of Hell', 'the lake which burneth
with fire and brimstone', 'the everlasting burnings', 'the fiery
sea whose waves are never weary'. Perhaps those Scripture
phrases were suggested by the sight of some volcano in eruption.

340 WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS

There were groanings, rumblings, and detonations ; ri.shings, hiss-
ings, splashings, and the crashing sound of breakers on the coast :
but it was the surging of fiery waves upon a fiery shore. But what
can I write ? Such words as jets, fountains, waves, spray, convey
some idea of order and regularity, but here there are none.

" The inner lake, while we stood there, formed a sort of crater
within itself ; the whole lava sea rose about three feet ; a blowing
cone about eight feet high was formed ; it was never the same two
minutes together. And what we saw had no existence a month
before, and probably will be changed in every essential feature a
month from hence. The prominent object was fire in motion ; but
the surface of the double lake was continually skimming over for a
second or two with a cool crust of lustrous grey-white, like frost-
silver, broken by jagged cracks of a bright rose-color. The move-
ment was nearly always from the sides to the centre ; but the
movement of the centre itself appeared independent, and always
took a southerly direction. Before each outburst of agitation
there was much hissing and throbbing, with internal roaring as of
imprisoned gases. Now it seemed furious, demoniacal, as if no
power on earth could bind it, then playful and sportive ; then for a
second languid, but only because it was accumulating fresh force,
^ometimes the whole lake took the form of mighty waves, and,
surging heavily against the partial barrier with a sound like the
Pacific surf, lashed, tore, covered it, and threw itself over it in
clots of living fire. It was all confusion, commotion, forces, terror,
glory, majesty, mystery, and even beauty. And the color, ' eye
hath not seen ' it ! Molten metal hath not that crimson glea m, nor
blood that living light."

To this description we may add that of Mr. Ellis, a former
missionary to these islands, and one of the number who have

WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS MI

descended to the shores of Kilauea's abyss of fire. He says, after
describing his difficult descent and progress over the lava-strewn pit :

MR. ELLIS VISITS THE LAKE OF LAVA

" Immediately before us yawned an immense gulf, in the form
of a crescent, about two miles in length, from northeast to south-
west ; nearly a mile in width, and apparently 800 feet deep. The
bottom was covered with lava, and the southwestern and northern
parts of it were one vast flood of burning matter in a state of ter-
rific ebullition, rolling to and fro its ' fiery surges ' and flaming
billows. Fifty-one conical islands, of varied form and size, con-
taining as many craters, rose either round the edge or from the
surface of the burning lake ; twenty-two constantly emitted columns
of gray smoke or pyramids of brilliant flame, and several of these
at the same time vomited from their ignited mouths streams of
lava, which rolled in blazing torrents down their black indented
sides into the boiling mass below.

" The existence of these conical craters led us to conclude
that the boiling cauldron of lava before us did not form the focus of
the volcano ; that this mass of melted lava was comparatively shal-
low, and that the basin in which it was contained was separated by
a stratum of solid matter from the great volcanic abyss, which con-
stantly poured out its melted contents through these numerous
craters into this upper reservoir. The sides of the gulf before u»,
although composed of different strata of ancient lava, were per-
pendicular for about 400 feet, and rose from a wide horizontal
ledge of solid black lava of irregular breadth, but extending com-
pletely round. Beneath this ledge the sides sloped gradually towards
the burning lake, which was, as nearly as we could judge, 300 or
400 feet lower.

342 WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS

"It was evident that the large crater had been recently filled
with liquid lava up to this black ledge, and had, by some subterra-
neous canal, emptied itself into the sea or spread under the low land
on the shore. The gray and in some places apparently calcined sides
of the great crater before us, the fissures which intersected the
surface of the plain on which we were standing, the long banks of
sulphur on the opposite side of the abyss, the vigorous action of
the numerous small craters on its borders, the dense columns of
vapor and smoke that rose at the north and west end of the plain,
together with the ridge of steep rocks by which it was surrounded,
rising probably in some places 300 or 400 feet in perpendicular
height, presented an immense volcanic panorama, the effect of
which was greatly augmented by the constant roaring of the vast
furnaces below."

MAUNA LOA IN ERUPTION

Of the two great craters of Mauna Loa7 the summit one has
frequently in modern times overflowed its crest and poured its
molten streams in glowing rivers over the land. This has rarely
been the case with the lower and incessantly active crater of Kilauea,
whose lava, when in excess, appears to escape by subterranean
channels to the sea. We append descriptions of some of the more
recent examples of Mauna Loa's eruptive energy. The lava from
this crater does not alone flow over the crater's lip, but at times
makes its way through fissures far below, the immense pressure
causing it to spout in great flashing fountains high into the air. In
1852 the fiery fountains reached a height of 500 feet. In some
later eruptions they have leaped 1,000 feet high. The lava is
white hot as it ascends, but it assumes a blood-red tint in its fall,
and strikes the ground with a frightful noise-

WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS 343

The quantities of lava ejected in some of the recent eruptions
have been enormous. The river-like flow of 1855 was remarkable
for its extent, being from two to eight miles wide, with a depth of
from three to three hundred feet, and extending in a winding course
for a distance of sixty miles. The Apostle of Hawaiian volcanoes,
the Rev. Titus Coan, who ventured to the source of this flow while
it was in supreme action, thus describes it : —

" We ascended our rugged pathway amidst steam and smoke and
heat which almost, blinded and scathed us. We came to open
orifices down which we looked into the fiery river which rushed
madly under our feet. These fiery vents were frequent, some of
them measuring ten, twenty, fifty or one hundred feet in diameter.
In one place we saw the river of lava uncovered for thirty rods and
rushing down a declivity of from ten to twenty-five degrees. The
scene was awful, the momentum incredible, the fusion perfect (white
heat), and the velocity forty miles an hour. The banks on each
side of the stream were red-hot, jagged and overhanging. As we
viewed it rushing out from under its ebon counterpane, and in the
twinkling of an eye diving again into its fiery den, it seemed to say,
* Stand off! Scan me not! I am God's messenger. A work to
do. Away!'"

Later he wrote again : — " The great summit fountain is still
playing with fearful energy, and the devouring stream rushes
madly down toward us. It is now about ten miles distant, and
heading directly for our bay. In a few days we may be called to
announce the painful fa:t that our beauteous Hilo is no more, —
that our lovely, our inimitable landscape, our emerald bowers, our
crescent strand and our silver bay are blotted out. A fiery sword
hangs over us. A flood of burning ruin approaches us. Devour-
ing fires are near us. With sure and solemn progress the glowing

344 WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS

fusion advances through the dark forest and the dense jungle in
our rear, cutting down ancient trees of enormous growth and
sweeping away all vegetable life. For months the great summit
furnace on Mauna Loa has been in awful blast. Floods of burn-
ing destruction have swept wildly and widely over the top and
down the sides of the mountain. The wrathful stream has over-
come every obstacle, winding its fiery way from its high source to
the bases of the everlasting hills, spreading in a molten sea over
the plains, penetrating the ancient forests, driving the bellowing
herds, the wild goats and the affrighted birds before its lurid
glare, leaving nothing but ebon blackness and smoldering ruin in
its track."

His anticipation of the burial of Hilo under the mighty flow
was happily not realized. It came to an abrupt halt while seven
miles distant, the checked stream standing in a threatening and
rugged ridge, with rigid, beetling front.

THE ERUPTIONS OF 1859 AND 1865

In January, 1859, Mauna Loa was again at its fire-play, throw-
ing up lava fountains from 800 to 1,000 feet in height. From this
great fiery fountain the lava flowed down in numerous streams,
spreading over a width of five or six miles. One stream, probably
formed by the junction of several smaller, attained a height of from
twenty to twenty-five feet, and a breadth of about an eighth of a
mile. Great stones were thrown up along with the jet of lava, and
the volume of seeming smoke, composed probably of fine volcanic
dust, is said to have risen to the height of 10,000 feet.

An eruption of still greater violence took place in 1865, charac-
terized by similar phenomena, particularly the throwing up of jets
of lava. This fiery fountain continued to play without intermission

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><

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fr M

'Sl

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FIGHTING FOR FOOD IN THE STREETS OF MESSINA.

Earthquake and tidal wave had done their frightful work with merciless impartiality.

Food was destroyed and the survivors of the first horrors were forced to battle

for their existence even after they believed themselve* miraculously

tared from d«atk

WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS 345

for twenty days and nights, varying only as respects the height to
which the jet arose, which is said to have ranged between 100 and
1,000 feet, the mean diameter of the jet being about 100 feet
This eruption was accompanied by explosions so loud as to have
been heard at a distance of forty miles.

A cone of about 300 feet in height, and about a mile in circum-
ference, was accumulated round the orifice whence the jet ascended.
It was composed of solid matters ejected with the lava, and it con-
tinued to glow like a furnace, notwithstanding its exposure to the
air. The current of lava on this occasion flowed to a distance of
thirty-five miles, burning its way through the forests, and filling the
air with smoke and flames from the ignited timber. The glare
from the glowing lava and the burning trees together was dis-
cernible by night at a distance of 200 miles from the island.

THE LAVA FLOW OF l88o

A succeeding great lava flow was that which began on Novem-
ber 6, 1880. Mr. David Hitchcock, who was camping on Mauna
Kea at the time of this outbreak, saw a spectacle that few human
eyes have ever beheld. "We stood," writes he, "on the very edge
of that flowing river of rock. Oh, what a sight it was ! Not twenty
feet from us was this immense bed of rock slowly moving forward
with irresistible force, bearing on its surface huge rocks and immense
boulders of tons' weight as water would carry a toy-boat. The
whole front edge was one bright red mass of solid rock incessantly
breaking off from the towering mass and rolling down to the foot
of it, to be again covered by another avalanche of white-hot rocks
and sand. The whole mass at its front edge was from twelve to
thirty feet in height. Along the entire line of its advance it was
one crash of rolling, sliding, tumbling red-hot rock. We could hear

346 WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS

no explosions while we were near the flow, only a tremendous roar-
ing like ten thousand blast furnaces all at work at once."

This was the most extensive flow of recent years, and its pro-
gress from the interior plain through the dense forests above Hilo
and out on to the open levels close to the town was startling and
menacing enough. Through the woods especially it was a turbu-
lent, seething mass that hurled down mammoth trees, and licked
up streams of water, and day and night kept up an unintermitting
cannonade of explosions. The steam and imprisoned gases would
burst the congealing surface with loud detonations that could be
heard for many miles. It was not an infrequent thing for parties
to camp out close to the flow over night. Ordinarily a lava-flow
moves sluggishly and congeals rapidly, so that what seems like
hardihood in the narrating is in reality calm judgment, for it is per-
fectly safe to be in the close vicinity of a lava-stream, and even to
walk on its surface as soon as one would be inclined to walk on
cooling iron in a foundry. This notable flow finally ceased within
half a mile of Hilo, where its black form is a perpetual reminder of
a marvellous deliverance from destruction.

KILAUEA IN 1840

Kilauea seems never, in historic times, to have filled and over-
flowed its vast crater. To do so would need an almost inconceiv-
able volume of liquid rock material. But it approached this cul-
mination in 1840, when it became, through its whole extent, a raging
sea of fire. The boiling lava rose in the mighty mountain-cup to a
height of from 500 to 600 feet. Then it forced a passage through
a subterranean cavity twenty-seven miles long, and reached the sea,
forty miles distant, in two days. The stream where it fell into the sea
was half a mile wide, and the flow kept up for three weeks, heating

WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS 347

the ocean twenty miles from land. An eye-witness of this extraor-
dinary flow thus describes it :

" When the torrent of fire precipitated itself into the ocean,
the scene assumed a character of terrific and indescribable grandeur.
The magnificence of destruction was never more perceptibly dis-
played than when these antagonistic elements met in deadly strife.
The mightiest of earth's magazines of fire poured forth its burning
billows to meet the mightiest of oceans. For two score miles it
came rolling, tumbling, swelling forward, an awful agent of death.
Rocks melted like wax in its path ; forests crackled and blazed
before its fervent heat ; the works of man were to it but as a scroll
in the flames. Imagine Niagara's stream, above the brink of the
Falls, with its dashing, whirling, madly-raging waters hurrying on
to their plunge, instantaneously converted into fire ; a gory-hued
river of fused minerals ; volumes of hissing steam arising ; some
curling upward from ten thousand vents, which give utterance to
as many deep-toned mutterings, and sullen, confined clamorings ;
gases detonating and shrieking as they burst from their hot prison-
house ; the heavens lurid with flame ; the atmosphere dark and
oppressive ; the horizon murky with vapors and gleaming with the
reflected contest !

" Such was the scene as the fiery cataract, leaping a precipice
of fifty feet, poured its flood upon the ocean. The old line of
coast, a mass of compact, indurated lava, whitened, cracked and
fell. The waters recoiled, and sent forth a tempest of spray •, they
foamed and dashed around and over the melted rock, they boiled
with the heat, and the roar of the conflicting agencies grew fiercer
and louder. The reports of the exploding gases were distinctly
heard twenty-five miles distant, and were likened to a whole broad-
side of heavy artillery. Streaks of the intensest light glanced like

34* WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS

lightning in all directions ; the outskirts of the burning lava as it
fell, cooled by the shock, were shivered into millions of fragments,
and scattered by the strong wind in sparkling showers far into the
country. For three successive weeks the volcano disgorged an
uninterrupted burning tide, with scarcely any diminution, into the
ocean. On either side, for twenty miles, the sea became heated,
with such rapidity that, on the second day of the junction of the
lava with the ocean, fishes came ashore dead in great numbers, at a
point fifteen miles distant. Six weeks later, at the base of the hills,
the water continued scalding hot, and sent forth steam at every
wash of the waves."

THE SINKING OF KILAUEA*S FIRE-LAKE

In 1866 the great crater of Kilauea presented a new and un-
looked-for spectacle in the sinking and vanishing of its great lava
lake. In March of that year the fires in the ancient cauldron
totally disappeared, and the surrounding lava rock sank to a depth
of nearly 600 feet. Mr. Thrum, in a pamphlet on "The Sus-
pended Activity of Kilauea," says of it :

" Distant rumbling noises were heard, accompanied by a series
of earthquakes, forty-three in number. With the fourth shock the
brilliancy of New Lake disappeared, and towards 3 A. M. the fires
in Halemaumau disappeared also, leaving the whole crater in dark-
ness.

" With the dawn the shocks and noises ceased, and revealed the
changes which Kilauea had undergone in the night. All the high
cliff's surrounding Halemaumau and New Lake, which had become
a prominent feature in the crater, had vanished entirely, and the
molten lava of both lakes had disappeared by some subterranean
passage from the bottom of Halemaumau, There was no material

WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS 349

change in the sunken portion of the crater except a continual falling
in of rocks and debris from its banks as the contraction from its
former intense heat loosened their compactness and sent them
hurling some 200 or 300 feet below, giving forth at times a boom
as of distant thunder, followed by clouds of cinders and ashes
shooting up into the air 100 to 300 feet, proportionate, doubtless,
to the size of the newly fallen mass."

This remarkable recession of the liquid lava in Halemaumau
was probably due to the opening of some deep subterranean pass-
age through which the lake of lava made its way unseen to the
ocean's depths. The Rev. Mr. Baker, probably the most adven-
turesome explorer of Hawaiian volcanoes, actually descended into
that crumbling pit to a point within what he judged to be fifty feet
of the bottom. But Halemaumau had only taken an intermission,
for in two short months signs of returning life became frequent
and unmistakable, and, in June, culminated in the sudden outbreak
of a lake that has since then steadily increased in activity.

THE GODDESS PELE

We cannot close this chapter without some reference to the
Goddess Pele, to whom the Hawaiians long imputed the wonder
work of their volcanic mountains. When there is unusual com-
motion in Kilauea myriads of thread-like filaments float in the air
and fall upon the cliffs, making deposits much resembling matted
hair. A single filament over fifteen inches long was picked up on
a Hilo veranda, having sailed in the air a distance of fifty miles.
This is the famous Pele's Hair, being the glass-like product of
volcanic fires. It resembles Prince Rupert's Drops, and the tradi-
tion is that whenever the volcano becomes active it is because Pele,
the Goddess of the crater, emerges from her fiery furnace and shakes
her vitreous locks in anger.

350 WONDERFUL HAWAIIAN CRATERS

This fabled being, according to Emerson, in a paper on -The
Lesser Hawaiian Gods," " could at times assume the appearance of
a handsome young woman, as when Kamapuaa, to his cost, was
smitten with her charms when first he saw her with her sisters at
Kilauea." Kamapauaa was a gigantic hog, who "could appear as
a handsome young man, a hog, a fish or a tree." "At other times
the innate character of the fury showed itself, and Pele appeared
in her usual form as an ugly and hateful old hag, with tattered and
fire-burnt garments, scarcely concealing the filth and nakedness of
her person. Her bloodshot eyes and fiendish countenance para-
lized the beholder, and her touch turned him to stone. She "was a
jealous and vindictive monster, delighting in cruelty, and at the
slightest provocation overwhelming the unoffending victims of her
rage in widespread ruin."

The superstition regarding the Goddess Pele was thought to
have received a death blow in 1825, when Kapiolani, an Hawaiian
princess and a Christian convert, ascended, with numerous attend-
ants, to the crater of Kilauea, where she publicly defied the power
and wrath of the goddess. No response came to her defiance, she
descended in safety, and faith in Pele's power was widely shaken.

Yet as late as 1887 the old superstition revived and claimed
an exalted victim, for in that year the Princess Like Like, the
youngest sister of the king, starved herself to death to appease
the anger of the Goddess Pele, supposed to be manifested in
Mauna Loa's eruption of that year, and to be quieted only by the
sacrifice of a victim of royal blood. Thus slowly do the old super-
stitions die away.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Popocatapetl and Other Volcanoes of Mexico
and Central America.

MEXICO is very largely a vast table-land, rising through much
of its extent to an elevation of from 7,000 to 8,000 feet
above sea-level, and bounded east and west by wide
strips of torrid lowlands adjoining the oceans. It is crossed
at about 19° north latitude by a range of volcanic mountains, run-
ning in almost a straight line east and west, upon which are several
extinct volcanic cones, and five active or quiescent volcanoes. The
highest of these is Popocatapetl, south of the city of Mexico and
nearly midway between the Atlantic and Pacific.

East of this mountain lies Orizabo, little below it in height,
and San Martin or Tuxtla, 9,700 feet high, on the coast south of
Vera Cruz. West of it is Jorullo, 4,000 feet, and Colima, 12,800,
near the Pacific coast The volcanic energy continues south-
ward toward the Isthmus, but decreases north of this volcanic
range. These mountains have shown little signs of activity in
recent times. Popocatapetl emits smoke, but there is no record of
an eruption since 1540. Orizabo has been quiet since 1566. Tuxtla
had a violent eruption in 1793, but since then has remained quies-
cent. Colima is the only one now active. For ten years past it
has been emitting ashes and smoke. The most remarkable of
these volcanoes is Jorullo, which closely resembled Monte Nuovo,
described in Chapter XIII., in its mode of origin.

351

352 VOLCANIC WORK IN MEXICO

Popocatepetl, the hill that smokes, in the Mexican language,
the huge mountain clothed in eternal snows, and regarded by the
idolaters of old as a god, towers up nearly 18,000 feet above the
level of the sea, and in the days of the conquest of Mexico was a
volcano in a state of fierce activity. It was looked upon by the
natives with a strange dread, and they told the white strangers
with awe that no man could attempt to ascend its slopes and yet
live ; but, from a feeling of vanity, or the love of adventure, the
Spaniards laughed at these fears, and accordingly a party of ten of
the followers of Cortes commenced the ascent, accompanied by a
few Indians. But these latter, after ascending about 13,000 feet
to where the last remains of stunted vegetation existed, became
alarmed at the subterranean bellowings of the volcano, and returned,
while the Spaniards still painfully toiled on through the rarefied
atmosphere, their feet crushing over the scoriae and black-glazed
volcanic sand, until they stood in the region of perpetual snow,
amidst the glittering, treacherous glaciers and crevasses, with vast
slippery-pathed precipices yawning round.

Still they toiled on in this wild and wondrous region. A few
hours before they were in a land of perpetual summer ; here all
was snow. They suffered the usual distress awarded to those who
dare to ascend to these solitudes of nature but it was not given
to them to achieve, the summit, for suddenly, at a higher eleva-
tion, after listening to various ominous threatenings from the
interior of the volcano, they encountered so fierce a storm of
smoke, cinders, and sparks, that they were driven back half suffo-
cated to the lower portions of the mountain.

Some time after another attempt was made ; and upon this
occasion with a definite object. The invaders har nearly exhausted
their stock of gunpowder, and Cortes organi/^d a party to ascead

VOLCANIC WORK IN MEXICO 35.1

to the crater of the volcano, to seek and bring down sulphur for
the manufacture of this necessary of warfare. This time the party
numbered but five, led by one Francisco Montano ; and they expe-
rienced no very great difficulty in winning their way upwards.
The region of verdure gave place to the wild, lava-strewn slope,
which was succeeded in its turn by the treacherous glaciers ; and
at last the gallant little band stood at the very edge of the crater,
a vast depression of over a league in circumference, and 1,000 feet
in depth.

SULPHUR FROM THE CRATER

Flame was issuing from the hideous abysses, and the stoutest
man's heart must have quailed as he peered down into the dim,
mysterious cavity to where the sloping sides were crusted with
bright yellow sulphur, and listened to the mutterings which warned
him of the pent-up wrath and power of the mighty volcano. They
knew that at any moment flame and stifling sulphurous vapor
might be belched forth, but now no cowardice was shown. They
had come provided with ropes and baskets, and it. only remained
to see who should descend. Lots were therefore drawn, and it fell
to Montano, who was accordingly lowered by his followers in a
basket 400 feet into the treacherous region of- eternal fires.

The basket swayed and the rope quivered and vibrated, but
the brave cavalier sturdily held to his task, disdaining to show fear
before his humble companions. The lurid light from beneath
flashed upon his tanned features, and a sulphurous steam rose
slowly and condensed upon the sides ; but, whatever were his
thoughts, the Spaniard collected as much sulphur as he could take
up with him, breaking off the bright incrustations, and even dally-
ing with his task as if in contempt of the danger, till he had leisurely
filled his basket, when the signal was given and he was drawn up.
23

554 VOLCANIC WORK IN MEXICO

The basket was emptied, and then he once more descended into
the lurid crater, collected another store and was again drawn up ;
but far from shrinking from his task, he descenced again several
times, till a sufficiency had been obtained, with which the party
descended to the plain.

THE VOLCANO JORULLO

No further back than the middle of the eighteenth century the
site of Jorullo was a level plain, including several highly-cultivated
fields, which formed the farm of Don Pedro di Jorullo. The plain
was watered by two small rivers, called Cuitimba and San Pedro,
and was bounded by mountains composed of basalt — the only indi-
cations of former volcanic action. These fields were well irrigated,
and among the most fertile in the country, producing abundant
crops of sugar-cane and indigo.

In the month of June, 1759, the cultivators of the farm began
to be disturbed by strange subterranean noises of an alarming kind,
accompanied by frequent shocks of earthquake, which continued
for nearly a couple of months ; but they afterward entirely ceased,
so that the inhabitants of the place were lulled into security. On
the night between the 28th and 29th of September, however, the
subterranean noises were renewed with greater loudness than
before, and the ground shook severely. The Indian servants
living on the place started from their beds in terror, and fled to
the neighboring mountains. Thence gazing upon their master's
farm they beheld it, along with a tract of ground measuring be-
tween three and four square miles, in the midst of which it stood,
rise up bodily, as if it had been inflated from beneath like a blad-
der. At the edges this tract was uplifted only about 39 feet above
the original surfa.ce, but so great was its convexity that toward the
middle it attained a height of no less than 524 feet.

VOLCANIC WORk /N MEXICO

355

The Indians who beheld this strange phenomenon declared
that they saw flames issuing from several parts of this elevated
tract, that the entire surface became agitated like a stormy sea, that
great clouds of ashes, illuminated by volcanic fires glowing beneath
them, rose at several points, and that white-hot stones were thrown
to an immense height. Vast chasms were at the same time
opened in the ground, and into these the two small rivers above

JORULLO, THE GREAT MEXICAN VOLCANO

mentioned plunged. Their waters, instead of extinguishing the
subterranean conflagration, seemed only to add to its intensity.
Quantities of mud, enveloping balls of basalt, were then thrown
up, and the surface of the elevated ground became studded with
small cones, from which volumes of dense vapor, chiefly steam,
were emitted, some of the jets rising from 20 to 30 feet in heigh*

These cones the Indians called ovens, and in many of them
was long heard a subterranean noise resembling that of water

VOLCANIC WORK IN MEXICO

briskly boiling. Out of a great chasm in the midst of those ovens
there were thrown up six larger elevations, the highest being 1,640
feet above the level of the plain, 4,315 above sea level, and now
constituting the principal volcano of Jorullo. The smallest of the
six was 300 feet in height ; the others of intermediate elevation
The highest of these hills had on its summit a regular volcanic
crater, whence there have been thrown up great quantities of dross
and lava, contai ling fragments of older rocks. The ashes were
transported to immense distances, some of them having: fallen on
the houses at Queretaro, more than forty-eight leagues from Jorullo.
The volcano continued in this energetic state of activity for about
four months ; in the following years its eruptions became less fre-
quent, but it still continues .to emit volumes of vapor from the
principal crater, as well as from many of the ovens in the upheaved
ground.

EFFECT ON THE RIVERS

The two rivers, which disappeared on the first night of this
great eruption, now pursue an underground course for about a mile
and a quarter, and then reappear as hot springs, with a temperature
of 126° F.

This wonderful volcanic upheaval is all the more remarkable,
from the inland situation of the plain on which it occurred, it
being no less than 1 20 miles distant from the nearest ocean, while
there is no other volcano nearer to it than 80 miles. The activity
of the ovens has now ceased, and portions of the upheaved plain
on which they are situated have again been brought under cultiva-
tion, and the volcano is in a state of quiescence.

The crater of Popocatepetl, which towers to a height of
1 7,000 feet, is a vast circular basin, whose nearly vertical walls are
in some parts of a pale rose tint, in others quite black. The

VOLCANIC WORK IN MEXICO 357

bottom contains several small fuming cones, whence arise vapors of
changeable color, being successively red, yellow and white. All
round them are large deposits of sulphur, which are worked for
mercantile purposes.

Orizaba has a little less lofty snow-clad peak. This mountain
was in brisk volcanic activity from 1545 to 1560, but has since then
relapsed into a prolonged repose. It was climbed, in 1856, by
Baron Miiller, to whose mind the crater appeared like the entrance
to a lower world of horrible darkness. He was struck with aston-
ishment on contemplating the tremendous forces required to elevate
and rend such enormous masses — to melt them, and then pile them
up like towers, until by cooling they became consolidated into their
present forms. The internal walls of the crater are in many places
coated with sulphur, and at the bottom are several small volcanic
craters. At the time of his visit the summit was wholly covered
with snow, but the Indians affirmed that hot vapors occasionally
ascend from fissures in the rocks. Since then others have reached
its summit, among them Angelo Heilprin, the first to gaze into the
crater of Mont Pelee after its eruption.

ERUPTIONS IN NICARAGUA

On the I4th of November, 1867, there commenced an eruption
from a mountain about eight leagues to the eastward of the city of
Leon, in Nicaragua. This mountain does not appear to have been
previously recognized as an active volcano, but it is situated in a
very volcanic country. The outburst had probably some connec-
tion with the earthquake at St. Thomas, which took place on the
1 8th of November following. The mountain continued in a state of
activity for about sixteen days. There was thrown out an immense
quantity of black sand, which was carried as far as to the coast of

358 VOLCANIC WORK IN MEXICO

the: Pacific, fifty miles distant Glowing stones were projected from
the crater to an estimated height of three thousand feet

Central America is more prolific of volcanoes than Mexico,
and the State of Guatemala in particular. One authority credits
this State with fifteen or sixteen and another with more than thirty
volcanic cones. Of these at least five are decidedly active. Taju-
malco, which was in eruption at the time of the great earthquake
of 1863, yields great quantities of sulphur, , as also does Quesalte-
nango. The most famous is the Volcan de Agua (Water Vol-
cano), so called from its overwhelming the old city of Guatemala
with a torrent of water in 1541.

Nicaragua is also rich in volcanoes, being traversed its entire
length by a remarkable chain of isolated volcanic cones, several of
which are to some extent active. We have already told the story
of the tremendous eruption of Coseguina in 1835, one °f tne most
violent of modern times. The latest important eruption here was
that of Ometepec, a volcanic mount on an island of the same name
in Lake Nicaragua. This broke a long period of repose on June
19, 1883, with a severe eruption, in which the lava, pouring from a
new crater, in seven days overflowed the whole island and drove
off its population. Incessant rumblings and earthquake shocks
accompanied the eruption, and mud, ashes, stones and lava covered
the mountain slopes, which had been cultivated for many centuries.
These were the most recent strong displays of volcanic energy in
Central America, though former great outflows of lava are indi-
cated by great fields of barren rock, which extend for miles.

CHAPTER XXIX.

The Terrible Eruption of Krakatoa.

THE most destructive volcanic explosion of recent times, one
perhaps unequalled in violence in all times, was that of the
small mountain island of Krakatoa, in the East Indian Archi-
pelago, in 1883. This made its effects felt round the entire globe,
and excited such wide attention that we feel called upon to give it
a chapter of its own.

The island of Krakatoa lies in the Straits of Sunda, between
Java and Sumatra. In size it is insignificant, and had been silent
so long that its volcanic character was almost lost sight of. Of its
early history we know nothing. At some remote time in the past
it may have appeared as a large cone, of some twenty-five miles in
circumference at base and not less than 10,000 feet high. Then,
still in unknown times, its cone was blown away by internal forces,
leaving only a shattered and irregular crater ring. This crater was
two or three miles in diameter, while the highest part of its walls
rose only a few hundred feet above the sea. Later volcanic work
built up a number of small cones within the crater, and still later a
new cone, called Rakata, rose on the edge of the old one to a height
of 2,623 Feet

The first known event in the history of the island volcano was
an eruption in the year 1680. After that it lay in repose, forming
a group of islands, one much larger, than the others. Some of the
Smaller islands indicated the rim of the old crater, much of which

359

360 TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA

was buried under the sea. Its state of quiescence continued for
two centuries, a tropical vegetation richly mantled the island, and
to all appearance it had sunk permanently to rest.

Indications of a coming change appeared in 1880, in the
form of earthquakes, which shook all the region around. These
continued at intervals for more that two years. Then, on May 20,
1883, there were heard at Batavia, a hundred miles away, "booming
sounds like the firing of artillery." Next day the captain of a vessel
passing through the Straits saw that Krakatoa was in eruption,
sending up clouds of smoke and showers of dust and pumice. The
smoke was estimated to reach a height of seven miles, while the
volcanic dust drifted to localities 300 miles away.

AWFUL PREMONITIONS

The mountain continued to play for about fourteen weeks
with varying activity, several parties meanwhile visiting it and
making observations. Such an eruption, in ordinary cases, would
have ultimately died away, with no marked change other than per-
haps the ejection of a stream of lava. But such was not now the
case. The sequel was at once unexpected and terrible. As the
island was uninhabited, no one actually saw what took place, those
nearest to the scene of the eruption having enough to do to save
their own lives, while the dense clouds of vapor and dust baffled
observation.

The phase of greatest violence set in on Sunday, August 26th.
Soon after midday sailors on passing ships saw that the island had
vanished behind a dense cloud of black vapor, the height of which
was estimated at not less than seventeen miles. At intervals fright-
ful detonations resounded, and after a time a rain of pumice began
to fall at places ten miles distant. For miles round fierce flashes

TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA 361

of lightning rent the vapor, and at a distance of fully forty miles
ghostly corposants gleamed on the rigging of a vessel.

These phenomena grew more and more alarming until August
27th, when four explosions of fearful intensity shook earth and sea
and air, the third being "far the most violent and productive of the
most widespread results." It was, in fact, perhaps the most tre-
mendous volcanic outburst, in its intensity, known in human his-
tory. It seemed to overcome the obstruction to the energy of the
internal forces, for the eruption now declined, and in a day or two
practically died away, though one or two comparatively insignificant
outbursts took place later.

FAR-REACHING DESTRUCTION

The eruption spread ruin and deatii ever many surrounding
leagues. At Krakotoa itself, when men once more reached its
shores, everything was found to be changed. About two-thirds of
the main island were blown completely away. The marginal cone
was cut nearly in half vertically, the new cliff falling precipitously
toward the centre of the crater. Where iand had been before now
sea existed, in some places more than one hundred feet deep. But
the part of the island that remained had been somewhat increased
in size by ejected materials.

Of the other islands and islets some bad disappeared ; some
were partially destroyed ; some were enlarged by fallen debris,
while many changes had taken place in the depth of the neighboring
sea-bed. Two new islands, Steers and Calmeyer, were formed. The
ejected pumice, so cavernous in structure i^ *o float upon the water,
at places formed great floating islands which covered the sea for
nvles, and sometimes rose from four to seven feet above it, proving
v serious obstacle to navigation. On vessels near by dust fell to

362 TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA

the depth of eighteen inches. The enormous clouds of volcanic
dust which had been flung high into the air darkened the sky
for a great area around. At Batavia, about a hundred miles from
the volcano, it produced an effect not unlike that of a London fog.
This began about seven in the morning of August 2 7th. Soon
after ten the light had become lurid and yellow, and lamps were
required in the houses ; then came a downfall of rain, mingled with
dust, and by about half-past eleven the town was in complete dark-
ness. It soon after began to lighten, and the rain to diminish, and
about three o'clock it had ceased.

At Buitenzorg, twenty miles further away, the conditions were
similar, but lasted for a shorter time. In places much farther away
the upper sky presented a strangely murky aspect, and the sun
assumed a green color. Phenomena of this kind were traced over
a broad area of the globe, even as far as the Hawaiian Islands,
while over a yet wider area the sky after sunset was lit up by after-
glows of extraordinary beauty. The height to which the dust was
projected has been calculated from various data, with the result
that 121,500 feet, or nearly 25 miles, is thought to be a probable
maximum estimate, though it may be that occasional fragments of
larger size were shot up to a still greater height.

A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE ERUPTION

Another effect, of a distressing character, followed the erup-
tion. A succession of enormous waves, emanating from Krakatoa,
traversed the sea, and swept the coast bordering the Straits of
Sunda with such force as to destroy many villages on the low-lying
shores in Java, Sumatra and other islands. Some buildings at a
height of fifty feet above sea-level were washed away, and in some
places the water rose higher, in one place reaching the height of

TERRIBLE ERUPTION Of KRAKATOA

115 feet. At Telok Betong, in Sumatra, a ship was carried inland
a distance of nearly two miles, and left stranded at a height of thirty
feet above the sea.

The eruption of Krakatoa seems to have been due to some
deep-lying causes of extraordinary violence, this appearing not only
in the terrible explosion which tore the island to fragments and
sent its remnants as floating dust many miles high into the air, but
also from an internal convulsion that affected many of the vol-
canoes of Java, which almost simultaneously broke into violent
eruption. We extract from Dr. Robert Bonney's " Our Earth and
its Story" a description of these closely-related events.

" The disturbances originated on the island of Krakatoa, with
eruptions of red hot stones and ashes, and by noon next day
Semeru, the largest of the Javanese volcanoes, was reported to be
belching forth flames at an alarming rate. The eruption soon
spread to Gunung Guntur and other mountains, until more than a
third of the forty-five craters of Java were either in activity or
seriously threatening it.

14 Just before dusk a great cloud hung over Gunung Guntur,
and the crater of the volcano began to emit enormous streams of
white sulphurous mud and lava, which were rapidly succeeded by
explosions, followed by tremendous showers of cinders and enor-
mous fragments of rock, which were hurled high into the air and
scattered in all directions, carrying death and destruction with them.
The overhanging clouds were, moreover, so charged with elec-
tricity that water-spouts added to the horror of the scene. The
eruption continued all Saturday night, and next day a dense cloud,
shot with lurid red, gathered over the Kedang range, intimating that
an eruption had broken out there.

364 TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA

" This proved to be the case, for soon after streams of lava
poured down the mountain sides into the valleys, sweeping every-
thing before them. About two o'clock on Monday morning — we
are drawing on the account of an eye-witness — the great cloud sud-
denly broke into small sections and vanished. When light came it
was seen that an enormous tract of land, extending from Point
Capucin on the south, and Negery Passoerang on the north and
west, to the lowest point, covering about fifty square miles, had
been temporarily submerged by the 'tidal wave.' Here were
situated the vilages of Negery and Negery Babawang. Few of
the inhabitants of these places escaped death. This section of the
island was less densely populated than the other portions, and the
loss of life was comparatively small, although it must have aggre-
gated several thousands. The waters of Welcome Bay in the
Sunda Straits, Pepper Bay on the east, and the Indian Ocean on
the south, had rushed in and formed a sea of turbulent waves.

DETONATIONS HEARD FOR MANY MILES AWAY

** On Monday night the volcano of Papandayang was in an
active state of paroxysmal eruption, accompanied by detonations
which are said to have been heard for many miles away. In
Sumatra three distinct columns of flame were seen to rise from a
mountain to a vast height, and its whole surface was soon covered
with fiery lava streams, which spread to great distances on all sides.
Stones fell for miles around, and black fragmentary matter carried
into the air caused total darkness. A whirlwind accompanied the
eruption, by which house-roofs, trees, men, and horses were swept
into the air. The quantity of matter ejected was such as to covef
the ground and the roofs of the houses at Denamo to the depth of
several inches. Suddenly the scene changed. At first it was

TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA 365

reported that Papandayang had been split into seven distinct peaks,
This proved untrue ; but in the open seams formed could be seen
great balls of molten matter. From the fissures poured forth
clouds of steam and black lava, which, flowing in steady streams,
ran slowly down the mountain sides, forming beds 200 or 300 feet
in extent. At the entrance to Batavia was a large group of houses
extending along the shore, and occupied by Chinamen. This por-
tion of the city was entirely destroyed, and not many of the
Chinese who lived on the swampy plains managed to save their
lives. They stuck to their homes till the waves came and washed
them away, fearing torrents of flame and lava more than torrents
of water.

" Of the 3, 500 Europeans and Americans in Batavia — which for
several hours was in darkness, owing to the fall of ashes — 800
perished at Anjer. The European and American quarter was first
overwhelmed by rocks, mud and lava from the crater, and then the
waters came up and swallowed the ruins, leaving nothing to mark
the site, and causing the loss of about 200 lives of the inhabitants
and those who sought refuge there."

The loss of life above mentioned was but a small fraction of
the total loss. All along the coasts of the adjoining large islands
towns and villages were swept away and their inhabitants drowned,
till the total loss was, as nearly as could be estimated, 36,000 souls.
Krakatoa thus surpassed Mont Pelee in its tale of destruction.
These two, indeed, have been the most destructive to life of known
volcanic explosions, since the volcano usually falls far short of the
earthquake in its murderous results.

The distant effects of this explosion were as remarkable as the
near ones. The concussion of the air reached to an unprecedented
distance and the clouds of floating dust encircled the earth!

366

producing striking phenomena of which an account is given at the
end of this chapter.

The rapidity with which the effects of the Krakatoa eruption
made themselves evident in all parts of the earth is perhaps the
most remarkable outcome of this extraordinary event. The floating
pumice reached the harbor of St. Paul on the 22nd of March, 1884,
after having made a voyage of some two hundred and sixty days
at a rate of six-tenths of a mile an hour. Immense quantities of
pumice of a similar description, and believed to have been derived
from the same source, reached Tamatave in Madagascar five months
later, and no doubt much of it long continued to float round the
world.

SERIES OF ATMOSPHERIC WAVES

Another result of the eruption was the series of atmospheric
waves, caused by the disturbance in the atmosphere, which affected
the barometer over the entire world. The velocity with which
e waves traveled has been variously estimated at from 91 2.09

to 1066*29 feet per second. This speed is, of course, very
much inferior to that at which sound travels through the air.- Yet,:
in. three : distinct cases, the noise of the Krakatao • explosion^ was
plainly heard at a distance of at least 2,200 miles, and in one in-
stance— rthat recorded from Rodriguez — of nearly 3,000. -The-
sound travelled to Ceylon, Burmah, Manila, New Guinea and West-^
ern Australia, places, however, within a radius of about 2,000 miles ;
out Diego Garcia lies outside that area, and Rodriguez a thousand
miles beyond it. Six days subsequent to the explosion, after the
atmospheric waves had traveled four times round the globe, the
barometer was still affected by them.

Another result, similar in kind, was the extraordinary dissemi-
nation of the great ocean wave, which in a like manner seems to have

TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA 367

encircled the earth, since high waves, without evident cause, appear-
ed not only in the Pacific, but at many places on the Atlantic coast
within a few days after the event. They were observed alike in
England and at New York. The writer happened to be at Atlantic
City, on the New Jersey coast, at this time. It was a period of
calm, the winds being at rest, but, unheralded, there came in an
ocean wave of such height as to sweep away the ocean-front board-
walk and do much other damage. He ascribed this strange wave
at the time to the Krakatoa explosion, and is of the same opinion
still.

In addition to the account given of this extraordinary volcanic
event, it seems desirable to give Sir Robert S. Ball's description
of it in his recent work, "The Earth's Beginnings." While re-
peating to some extent what we have already said, it is worthy,
from its freshness of description and general readability, of a place
here.

SIR ROBERT S. BALL'S DESCRIPTION

44 Until the year 1883 few had ever heard of Krakatoa. It
was unknown to fame, as are hundreds of other gems of glorious
vegetation set in tropical waters. It was not inhabited, but the
natives from the surrounding shores of Sumatra and Java used
occasionally to draw their canoes up on its beach, while they
roamed through the jungle in search of the wild fruits that there
abounded. It was known to the mariner who navigated the Straits
of Sunda, for it was marked on his charts as one of the perils of
the intricate navigation in those waters. It was no doubt recorded
that the locality had been once, or more than once, the seat of an
active volcano. In fact, the island seemed to owe its existence to
some frightful eruption of by-gone days ; but for a couple of cen-
turies there had been no fresh outbreak. It almost seemed as if

368 TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA

Krakatoa might be regarded as a volcano that had become extinct
In this respect it would only be like many other similar objects all
over the globe, or like the countless extinct volcanoes all over the
moon.

"As the summer of 1883 advanced the vigor of Krakatoa,
which had sprung into notoriety at the beginning of the year,
steadily increased and the noises became more and more vehement ;
these were presently audible on shores ten miles distant, and then
twenty miles distant ; and still those noises waxed louder and
louder, until the great thunders of the volcano, now so rapidly
developing, astonished the inhabitants that dwelt over an area at
least as large as Great Britain. And there were other symptoms
of the approaching catastrophe. With each successive convulsion
a quantity of fine dust was projected aloft into the clouds. The
wind could not carry this dust away as rapidly as it was hurled
upward by Krakatoa, and accordingly the atmosphere became
heavily charged with suspended particles.

"A pall of darkness thus hung over the adjoining seas and
islands. Such was the thickness and density of these atmospheric
volumes of Krakatoa dust that, for a hundred miles around, the
darkness of midnight prevailed at midday. Then the awful trag-
edy of Krakatoa took place. Many thousands of the unfortunate
inhabitants of the adjacent shores of Sumatra and Java were des-
tined never to behold the sun again. They were presently swept
away to destruction in an invasion of the shore by the tremendous
waves with which the seas surrounding Krakatoa were agitated.

"As the days of August passed by the spasms of Krakatoa
waxed more and more vehement. By the middle of that month
the panic was widespread, for the supreme catastrophe was at hand.
On the night of Sunday, August 26, 1883, the blackness of the

TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA 3«9

dust-clouds, now much thicker than ever in the Straits of Sunda
and adjacent parts of Sumatra and Java, was only occasionally
illumined by lurid flashes from the volcano.

"At the town of Batavia, a hundred miles distant, there was
no quiet that night. The houses trembled with subterranean vio-
lence, and the windows rattled as if heavy artillery were being dis-
charged in the streets. And still these efforts seemed to be only
rehearsing for the supreme display. By ten o'clock on the morn-
ing of Monday, August 27, 1883, the rehearsals were over, and the
performance began. An overture, consisting of two or three intro-
ductory explosions, was succeeded by a frightful convulsion which
tore away a large part of the island of Krakatoa and scattered it
to the winds of heaven. In that final outburst all records of pre-
vious explosions on this earth were completely broken.

AN EXTRAORDINARY NOISE

"This supreme effort it was which produced the mightest
noise that, so far as we can ascertain, has ever been heard on this
globe. It must have been indeed a loud noise which could travel
from Krakatoa to Batavia and preserve its vehemence over so
great a distance ; but we should form a very inadequate conception
of the energy of the eruption of Krakatoa if we thought that its
rounds were heard by those merely a hundred miles off. This
would be little indeed compared with what is recorded on testimony
which it is impossible to doubt.

" Westward from Krakatoa stretches the wide expanse of the
Indian Ocean. On the opposite side from the Straits of Sunda lies
the island of Rodriguez, the distance from Krakatoa being almost
three thousand miles. It has been proved by evidence which can-
not be doubted that the thunders of the great volcano attracted the
24

370 TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA

attention of an intelligent coast-guard on Rodriguez, who carefully
noted the character of the sounds and the time of their occurrence.
He had heard them just four hours after the actual explosion, for
this is the time the sound occupied on its journey.

A CONSTANT WIND

" This mighty incident at Krakatoa has taught us other les-
sons on the constitution of our atmosphere. We previously knew
little, or I might say almost nothing, as to the conditions prevail-
ing above the height of ten miles overhead. It was Krakatoa which
first gave us a little information which was greatly wanted. How
could we learn what winds were blowing at a height four times as
great as the loftiest mountain on the earth, and twice as great as
the loftiest altitude to which a balloon has ever soared ? No doubt
a straw will show which way the wind blows, but there are no straws
up there. There was nothing to render the winds perceptible until
Krakatoa came to our aid. Krakatoa drove into those winds pro-
digious quantities of dust. Hundreds of cubic miles of air were
thus deprived of that invisibility which they had hitherto main-
tained.

" With eyes full of astonishment men watched those vast vol-
umes of Krakatoa dust on a tremendous journey. Of course, every
one knows the so-called trade-winds on our earth's surface, which
blow steadily in fixed directions, and which are of such service to
the mariner. But there is yet another constant wind. It was first
disclosed by Krakatoa. Before the occurrence of that eruption, no
one had the slightest suspicion that far up aloft, twenty miles over
our heads, a mighty tempest is incessantly hurrying, with a speed
much greater than that of the awful hurricane which once laid so
large a part of Calcutta on the ground and slew 50 many of it3

TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA 371

inhabitants. Fortunately for humanity, this new trade-wind does
not come within less than twenty miles of the earth's surface. We
are thus preserved from the fearful destruction that its unintermit-
tent blasts would produce, blasts against which no tree could stand,
and which would, in ten minutes, do as much damage to a city as
would the most violent earthquake. When this great wind had
become charged with the dust of Krakatoa, then, for the first, and,
I may add, for the only time, it stood revealed to human vision.
Then it was seen that this wind circled round the earth in the
vicinity of the equator, and completed its circuit in about thirteen
days.

A VAST CLOUD OF DUST

"The dust manufactured by the supreme convulsion was
whirled round the earth in the mighty atmospheric current into
which the volcano discharged it. As the dust-cloud was swept
along by this incomparable hurricane it showed its presence in the
most glorious manner by decking the sun end the moon in hues of
unaccustomed splendor and beauty. The blue color in the sky
under ordinary circumstances is -due to particles in the air, and
when the ordinary motes of the sunbeam were reinforced by the
introduction of the myriads of motes produced by Krakatoa even
the sun itself sometimes showed a blue tint. Thus the progress of
the great dust-cloud was traced out by the extraordinary sky effects
it produced, and from the progress of the dust-cloud we inferred
the movements of the invisible air current which carried it along.
Nor need it be thought that the quantity of material projected
from Krakatoa should have been inadequate to produce effects of
this world-wide description. Imagine that the material which was
blown to the winds of heaven by the supreme convulsion of Kra-
katoa could be all recovered and swept into one vast heap. Imagine

37* TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA

that the heap were to have its bulk measured by a vessel consisting
of a cube one mile long, one mile broad and one mile deep ; it has
been estimated that even this prodigious vessel would have to be
filled to the brim at least ten times before all the products of Kra-
katoa had been measured."

It is not specially to the quantity of material ejected from
Krakatoa that it owes its reputation. Great as it was, it has been
much surpassed. Professor Judd says that the great eruptions of
Papapandayang, in Java, in 1772, of Skaptur Jokull, in Iceland, in
1783, and of Tamboro, in Sumbawa, in 1815, were marked by the
extrusion of much larger quantities of material. The special
feature of the Krakatoa eruption was its extreme violence, which
flung volcanic dust to a height probably never before attained, and
produced sea and air waves of an intensity unparalleled in the
records of volcanic action. Judd thinks this was due to the situa-
tion of the crater, and the possible inflow through fissures of a great
volume of sea water to the interior lava, the result being the sudden
production of an enormous volume of steam.

EXTRAORDINARY RED SUNSETS

The red sunsets spoken of above were so extraordinary in
character that a fuller description of them seems advisable. A
remarkable fact concerning them is the great rapidity with which
they were disseminated to distant regions of the earth. They ap-
peared around the entire equatorial zone in a few days after the
eruption, this doubtless being due to the great rapidity with which
the volcanic dust was carried by the upper air current. They were
seen at Rodriguez, 3,000 miles away, on August 28, and within a
week in every part of the torrid zone. From this zone they spread
north and south with less rapidity. Their first appearance in Aus-
tralia was on September i«»th, and at the Cape of Good Hope on

TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA 373

the 2Gth. On the latter day they were observed in California and
the Southern United States. They were first seen in England on
November Qth. Elsewhere in Europe and the United States they
appeared from November 2Oth to soth.

The effect lasted in some instances as long as an hour and
three-quarters after sunset. In India the sun and skies assumed a
greenish hue, and there was much curiosity regarding the cause of
the "green sun." Another remarkable phenomenon of this period
was the great prevalence of rain during the succeeding winter.
This probably was due to the same cause ; that is, to the fact of
the air being so filled with dust; the prevailing theory in regard to
rain being that the existence of dust in the air is necessary to its
fall. The vapor of the air concentrates into drops around such
minute particles, the result being that where dust is absent rain
cannot fall.

As regards the sunsets spoken of, there are three similar instances
on record. The first of these was in the year 526, when a dry fog
covered the Roman Empire with a red haze. Nothing further is
known concerning it. The other instances were in the years 1783
and 1831. The former of these has been traced to the great
eruption of Skaptur Jdkull in that year. It lasted for several
months as a pale blue haze, and occasioned so much obscurity that
the sun was only visible when twelve degrees above the horizon,
and then it had a blood-red appearance. Violent thunderstorms
were associated with it, thus assimilating it with that of 1883.
Alike in 1783 and 1831 there was a pearly, phosphorescent gleam
in the atmosphere, by which small print could be read at midnight
We know nothing regarding the meteorological conditions of 1831.
The red sunsets of 1883 were remarkable for their long per-
sistence. They were observed in the autumn of 1884 with almost

374 TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA

their original brilliancy, and they were still visible in 1885, being
seen at intervals, as if the dust was then distributed in patches,
and driven about by the winds. In fact, similar sunsets were occa-
sionally visible for several years afterwards. These may well have
been due to the same cause, when we consider with what extreme
slowness very fine dust makes its way through the air, and how
much it may be affected by the winds.

THE RED SUNSETS DESCRIBED

One writer describes the appearance of these sunsets in the
following terms : " Immediately after sunset a patch of white light
appeared ten or fifteen degrees above the horizon, and shone for
ten minutes with a pearly lustre. Beneath it a layer of bright red
rested on the horizon, melting upward into orange, and this passed
into yellow light, which spread around the lucid spot. Next the
white light grew of a rosy tint, and soon became an intense rose
hue. A vivid golden oriole yellow strip divided it from the red
fringe below and the rose red above." This description, although
exaggerated, represents the general conditions of the phenomenon.

On October 2oth, 1884, the author observed the sunset effect
as follows : ' Immediately after the sun had set, a broad cone of
silvery lustre rested upon a horizon of smoky pink. After fifteen
minutes the white became rose color above and yellowish below,
deepening to lemon color, and finally into reddish tint, while the
rose faded out. The whole cone gradually sank and died away in
the brownish red flush on the horizon, more than an hour after sun-
set. The time of duration varied, since, on the succeeding evening;
it lasted only a half-hour. These sunset effects, if we can justly
attribute them all to the Krakatoa eruption, were extraordinary

TERRIBLE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA 375

not alone for their intensity and beauty but for their extended dura*
tion, the influence of this remarkable volcanic outbreak being vis-
ible for several years after the event.

Though no doubt is entertained concerning the cause of the
red sunset effects of 1783 and 1883, that of 1831 is not so readily
explained, there having been no known volcanic explosion of
great intensity in that year. But in view of the fact that vol-
canoes exist in unvisited parts of the earth, some of which may
have been at work unknown to scientific man, this difficulty is not
insuperable. Possibly Mounts Erebus or Terror, the burning
mountains of the Antarctic zone, may, unseen by man, have pre-
pared for civilized lands this grand spectacular effect of Nature's
doings.

* Vr.v*. •/.;'

CHAPTER XXX.

St. Vincent Island and Mont Soufriere in 1812.

AMONG all the islands of the Caribbees St. Vincent is unique
in natural wonders and beauties. Situated about ninety-five
miles west of Barbados, it has a length of eighteen and a
width of eleven miles, the whole mass being largely composed of a
single peak which rises from the ocean's bed. From north to south
volcanic hills traverse its length, their ridges intersected by fertile
and beautiful valleys.

A ridge of mountains crosses the island, dividing it into eastern
and western parts. Kingstown, the capital, a town of 8,000 inhabi-
tants, is on the southward side and extends along the shores of
a beautiful bay, with mountains gradually rising behind it in the
form of a vast amphitheatre. Three streets, broad and lined with
good houses, run parallel to the water-front There are many
other intersecting highways, some of which lead back to the foot-
hills, from which good roads ascend the mountains.

The majority of the houses have red tile roofing and a goodly
number of them are of stone, one story high, with thick walls after
the Spanish style — the same types of houses that were in St. Pierre
and which are not unlike the old Roman houses which in all stages
of ruin and semi -preservation are found in Pompeii to this day.

Behind the general group of the houses of the town loom the
Governor's residence and the buildings of the botanical gardens
which overlook the town.

(377;

378 ST. VINCENT AND MONT SOUFRIERE

Kingstown is the trading centre and the town of importance in
the island. It contains the churches and chapels of five Protestant
denominations and a number of excellent schools. Away from
Kingstown, and the smaller settlement of Georgetown, the popula-
tion is almost wholly rural, occupying scattered villages which con-
sist of negro huts clustering around a few substantial buildings or
of cabins grouped about old plantation buildings somewhat after
the ante-bellum fashion in our own Southern States.

One of the tragedies of the West Indies was the sinking of
old Port Royal, the resort of buccaneers, in 1692. The harbor of
Kingstown is commonly supposed to cover the site of the old settle-
ment. There is a tradition that a buoy for many years was attached
to the spire of a sunken church in order to warn mariners. Three
thousand persons perished in the disaster.

DESCENDANTS OF ORIGINAL INDIAN POPULATION

The northern portion of the island, that desolated by the
recent volcanic eruption, was inhabited by people living in the
manner just described, the great majority of them being negroes.
The total population of the island is about 45,000, of whom 30,000
are Africans and about 3,000 Europeans, the remainder being
nearly all Asiatics. There are, or rather were, a number of Caribs,
the descendants of the original warlike Indian population of these
islands. Many of these live in St. Vincent, though there are others
in Dominico. As their residence was in the northern section of
the island, the volcano seems to have completed the work for the
Caribs of this island which the Spaniard long ago began. These
Caribs were really half-breds, having amalgamated with the negroes.
Many of the blacks own land of their own, raising arrow root, which,
since the decay of the sugar industry, is the chief export.

57*. VINCENT AND MONT SOUFRIERE 379

In an island only eighteen miles long by eleven broad there is
not room for any distinctly marked mountain range. The whole of
St. Vincent, in fact, is a fantastic tumble of hills, culminating in the
volcanic ridge which runs lengthwise of the oval-shaped island.
The culminating peak of the great volcanic mass, for St. Vincent
is nothing more, is Mont Garou, of which La Soufriere is a
sort of lofty excrescence in the northwest, 4,048 feet high, and
flanking the main peak at some distance away.

It may be said that all the volcanic mountains in this part of
the West Indies have what the people call a "soufriere" — a
"sulphur pit," or " sulphur crater " — the name coming, as in the
case of past disturbances of Mont Pelee, from the strong stench of
sulphuretted hydrogen which issues from them when the volcano
becomes agitated.

In 1812 it was La Soufriere adjacent to Mont Garou
which broke loose on the island of St. Vincent, and it was the same

Soufriere which again devastated the island in 1902 and bombarded
Kingstown with rocks, lava and ashes.

The old crater of Mont Garou has long been extinct, and,
like the old crater of Mont Pelee, near St. Pierre, it had far down
in its depths, surrounded by sheer cliffs from 500 to 800 feet high,
a lake. Glimpses of the lake of Mont Garou are difficult to get,
owing to the thick verdure growing about the dangerous edges of I
the precipices, but those who have seen it describe it as a beautiful
sheet of deep blue water.

THE APPBARANCF OF THE SOUFRIERE

Previous to the eruption of 1812 the appearance of the
Soufriere was most interesting. The crater was half a mile in
diameter and five hundred feet in depth. In its centre was a

38o 57-. VINCENT AND MONT SOUFRIERE

conical hill, fringed with shrubs and vines ; at whose base were two
small lakes, one sulphurous, the other pure and tasteless. This
lovely and beautiful spot was rendered more interesting by the
singularly melodious notes of a bird, an inhabitant of these upper
solitudes, and altogether unknown to the other parts of the island
— hence called, or supposed to be, " invisible," as it had never been
seen. (It is of interest to state that Frederick A. Ober, in a visit
to the island some twenty years ago, succeeded in obtaining speci-
mens of this previously unknown bird.) From the fissures of the
cone a thin white smoke exuded, occasionally tinged with a light
blue flame. Evergreens, flowers and aromatic shrubs clothed the
steep sides of the crater, which made, as the first indication of the
eruption on April 27, 1812, a tremulous noise in the air. A severe
concussion of the earth followed, and then a column of thick black
smoke burst from the crater.

THE ERUPTION OF l8l2

The eruption which followed these premonitory symptoms was
one of the most terrific which had occurred in the West Indies up
to that time. It was the culminating event which seemed to relieve
a pressure within the earth's crust which extended from the Missis-
sippi Valley to Caracas, Venezuela, producing terrible effects in
the latter place. Here, thirty-five days before the volcanic explo-
sion, the ground was rent and shaken by a frightful earthquake
which hurled the city in ruins to the ground and killed ten thousand
of its inhabitants in a moment of time.

La Soufriere made the first historic display of its hidden powers
in 1718, when lava poured from its crater. A far more violent
demonstration of its destructive forces was that above mentioned. On
his occasion the eruption lasted for three days, ruining a number of

ST. VINCENT AND MONT SOUFRIERE 381

the estates in the vicinity and destroying many lives. Myriads of
tons of ashes, cinders, pumice and scoriae, hurled from the crater,
fell in every section of the island. Volumes of sand darkened
the air, and woods, ridges and cane fields were covered with light
gray ashes, which speedily destroyed all vegetation. The sun foi
three days seemed to be in a total eclipse, the sea was discolored
and the ground bore a wintry appearance from the white crust of
fallen ashes.

Carib natives who lived at Morne Rond fled from their houses
to Kingstown. As the third day drew to a close flames sprang pyra-
midically from the crater, accompanied by loud thunder and electric
flashes, which rent the column of smoke hanging over the volcano.
Eruptive matter ^pouring from the northwest side plunged over
the cliff, carrying down rocks and woods in its course. The island
was shaken by an earthquake and bombarded with showers of cinders
and stones, which set houses on fire and killed many of the natives.

THE TERRIBLE EARTHQUAKE AT CARACAS

For nearly two years before this explosion earthquakes had
been common, and sea and land had been agitated from the valley
of the Mississippi to the coasts of Venezuela and the mountains of
New Grenada, and from the Azores to the West Indies. On
March 26, 1812, these culminated in the terrible tragedy, spoken of/
above, of which Humboldt gives us a vivid account.

On that day the people of the Venezuelan city of Caracas
were assembled in the churches, beneath a still and blazing sky,
when the earth suddenly heaved and shook, like a great monster
waking from slumber, and in a single minute 10,000 people were
buried beneath the walls of churches and houses, which tumbled in
hideous ruin upon their heads. The same earthquake made itself

382 ST. VINCENT AND MONT SOUFRIERE

felt along the whole line of the Northern Cordilleras, working terri-
ble destruction, and shook the earth as far as Santa Fe de Bogota
and Honda, 180 leagues from Caracas. This was a preliminary
symptom of the internal disorder of the earth.

While the wretched inhabitants of Caracas who had escaped
the earthquake were dying of fever and starvation, and seeking
among villages and farms places of safety from the renewed earth-
quake shocks, the almost forgotten volcano of St. Vincent was
muttering in suppressed wrath. For twelve months it had given
warning, by frequent shocks of the earth, that it was making ready
to play its part in the great subterranean battle. On the 27th of
April its deep-hidden powers broke their bonds, and the conflict
between rock and fire began.

THE MOUNTAIN STONES A HERD-BOY

The first intimation of the outbreak was rather amusing than
alarming. A negro boy was herding cattle on the mountain side.
A stone fell near him. Another followed. He fancied that some
other boys were pelting him from the cliff above, and began throw-
ing stones upward at his fancied concealed tormentors. But the
stones fell thicker, among them some too large to be thrown by
any human hand. Only then did the little fellow awake to the fact
that it was not a boy like himself, but the mighty mountain, that
was flinging these stones at him. He looked up and saw that the
black column which was rising from the crater's mouth was no
longer harmless vapor, but dust, ashes and stones. Leaving the
cattle to their fate, he fled for his life, while the mighty cannon of
the Titans roared behind him as he ran. For three days and nights
this continued ; then, on the 3Oth, a stream of lava poured over the
crater's rim and rushed downward, reaching the sea in four hours,
and the great eruption was at an end,

ST. VINCENT AND MONT SOVFRIERE 383

On the same day, says Humboldt, at a distance of more than
200 leagues, "the inhabitants not only of Caracas, but of Calabozo,
situated in the midst of the Lianos, over a space of 4,000 square
leagues, were terrified by a subterranean noise which resembled
frequent discharges of the heaviest cannon. It was accompanied
by no shock, and, what is very remarkable, was as loud on the coast
as at eighty leagues' distance inland, and at Caracas, as well as at
Calabozo, preparations were made to put the place in defence
against an enemy who seemed to be advancing with heavy
artillery."

It was no enemy that man could deal with. Fortunately, it
confined its assault to deep noises, and desisted from earthquake
shocks. Similar noises were heard in Martinique and Guadeloupe,
and here also without shocks. The internal thunder was the signal
of what was taking place on St. Vincent. With this last warning
sound the trouble, which had lasted so long, was at an end. The
earthquakes which for two years had shaken a sheet of the earth's
surface larger than half Europe, were stilled by the eruption of St.
Vincent's volcanic peak.

BARBADOS COVERED WITH ASHES

Northeast of the original crater of the Soufriere a new one was
formed which was a half mile in diameter and five hundred feet
deep. The old crater was in time transformed into a beautiful
blue lake, as above stated, walled in by ragged cliffs to a height of
eight hundred feet.

It was looked upon as a remarkable circumstance that although
the air was perfectly calm during the eruption, Barbados, which is
ninety-five miles to the windward, was covered inches deep with
ashes. The inhabitants there and on other neighboring islands were

384 ST. VINCENT AND MONT SOUFRIERE

terrified by the darkness, which continued for four hours and a
half. Troops were called under arms, the supposition from the con-
tinued noise being that hostile fleets were in an engagement

The movement of the ashes to windward, as just stated, was
viewed as a remarkable phenomenon, and is cited by Elise Reclus,
in " The Ocean," to show the force of different aerial currents ;
"On the first day of May, 18:2 when the northeast trade-wind was in
ail its force, enormous quantities of ashes obscured the atmosphere
abo re the Island of Barbados, and covered the ground with a thick
layer. Ot)e won Id have supposed that they came from the volca-
noes 01 ttfe /: ^cres, which were to the northeast ; nevertheless they
were cast up by the crater in St. Vincent, one hundred miles to the
west. It is therefore certain that the debris had been hurled, by
the force of the eruption, above the moving sheet of the trade-
winds into an aerial river proceeding in a contrary direction." For
this it must have been hurled miles high into the air, till caught by
the current of the anti-trade winds.

KINGSLEY'S VISIT TO SAINT VINCENT

From Charles Kingsley's "At Last " we extract, from the ac-
count of the visit of the author to St. Vincent, some interesting
matter concerning the 1812 eruption and its effect on the moun
tain ; also its influence upon distant Barbados, as just stated.

"The strangest fact about this eruption was, that the mountain
did not make use of its old crater. The original vent must have
become so jammed and consolidated, in the few years between 1 785
and 1812, that it could not be reopened, even by a steam force the
vastness of which may be guessed at from the vastness of the area
which it had shaken for two years. So, when the eruption was
over, it was found that the old crater-lake, incredible as it may

ST. VINCENT AND MONT SOUFRIERE 385

seem, remained undisturbed, so far as has been ascertained; but clote
to it, and separated only by a knife-edge of rock some 700 feet in
height, and so narrow that, as I was assured by one who had seen
it, it is dangerous to crawl along it, a second crater, nearly as large
as the first, had been blasted out, the bottom of which, in like
manner, was afterward filled with water.

" I regretted much that I could not visit it Three points I
longed to ascertain carefully — the relative heights of the water in
the two craters ; the height and nature of the spot where the lava
stream issued ; and, lastly, if possible, the actual causes of the
locally famous Rabacca, or ' Dry River,' one of the largest streams
in the island, which was swallowed up during the eruption, at a
short distance from its source, leaving its bed an arid gully to this
day. But it could not be, and I owe what little I know of the sum-
mit of the soufriere principally to a most intelligent and gentleman-
like young Wesleyan minister, whose name has escaped me. He
described vividly, as we stood together on the deck, looking up at
the volcano, the awful beauty of the twin lakes, and of the clouds
which, for months together, whirl in and out of the cups in fantas-
tic shapes before the eddies of the trade wind.

BLACK SUNDAY AT BARBADOS

" The day after the explosion, * Black Sunday,' gave a proof of,
though no measure of, the enormous force which had been ex-
erted. Eighty miles to windward lies Barbados. All Saturday a
heavy cannonading had been heard to the eastward. The English
and French fleets were surely engaged. The soldiers were called
out ; the batteries manned ; but the cannonade died away, and all
went to bed in wonder. On the ist of May the clocks struck six,
but the sun did not, as usual in the tropics, answer to the call

3'86 ST. VINCENT AND MONT SOUFRIEK'E

The darkness was still intense, and grew more intense as the morn«
ing wore on. A slow and silent rain of impalpable dust was falling
over the whole island. The negroes rushed shrieking into the
streets. Surely the last day was come. The white folk caught
(and little blame to them) the panic, and some began to pray who
•had not prayed for years. The pious and the educated (and there
were plenty of both in Barbados) were not proof against the infec-
tion. Old letters describe the scene in the churches that morning
as hideous — prayers, sobs, and cries, in Stygian darkness, from
trembling crowds. And still the darkness continued and the dust
fell.

INCIDENTS AT BARBADOS

" I have a letter written by one long since dead, who had at
least powers of description of no common order, telling how, when
he tried to go out of his house upon the east coast, he could not
find the trees on his own lawn save by feeling for their stems. He
stood amazed not only in utter darkness, but in utter silence ; for
the trade-wind had fallen dead, the everlasting roar of the surf was
gone, and the only noise was the crashing of branches, snapped by
the weight of the clammy dust. He went in again, and waited.
About one o'clock the veil began to lift ; a lurid sunlight stared in
from the horizon, but all was black overhead. Gradually the dust
drifted away; the island saw the sun once more, and saw itself
inches deep in black, and in this case fertilizing, dust. The trade-
wind blew suddenly once more out of the clear east, and the surf
roared again along the shore.

" Meanwhile a heavy earthquake-wave had struck part at least
of the shores of Barbados. The gentleman on the east coast, go-
ing out, found traces of the sea, and boats and logs washed up some

ST. VINCENT AND MONT SOUFRlERh 3«7

ten to twenty feet above high-tide mark ; a convulsion which
seemed to have gone unmarked during the general dismay.

"One man at least, an old friend of John Hunter, Sir Joseph
Banks and others their compeers, was above the dismay, and the
^superstitious panic which accompanied it. Finding it still dark
when he rose to dress, he opened (so the story used to run) his
window ; found it stick, and felt upon the sill a coat or soft powder.
*'The volcano in St. Vincent has broken out at last,' said the wise
man, 'and this is the dust of it.' So he quieted his household and
his negroes, lighted his candles, and went to his scientific books, in
that delight, mingled with an awe not the less deep, because it is
rational and self-possessed, with which he, like the other men of
science, looked at the wonders of this wondrous world."

On May 7, 1902, simultaneously with the terrible explosion of
Mount Pelee, Martinique, St. Vincent was visited with an eruption
more violent than that of 1812, Soufriere bursting out in flames
and smoke and spreading ruin and death over a great part of the
island. It was estimated that 1600 people were killed, including
nearly the whole of the Carib Indians, the remnant of a famous
West Indian tribe. The outbreak was repeated at intervals for
several weeks, leaving the country buried deep in volcanic ashes
and converting a fertile island into a desolate and forbidding waste.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Mount Pelee and its Harvest of Death.

ST. PIERRE, the principal city of the French island of Mar
Unique, in the West Indies, lies for the length of about a
mile along the island coast, with high cliffs hemming it
in, its houses climbing the slope, tier upon tier. At one place
where a river breaks through the cliffs, the city creeps further up to-
wards the mountains. As seen from the bay, its appearance is pic-
turesque and charming, with the soft tints of its tiles, the grey of
its walls, the clumps of verdure in its midst, and the wall of green
in the rear. Seen from its streets this beauty disappears, and the
chief attraction of the town is gone.

Back from the three miles of hills which sweep in an arc
round the town, is the noble Montague Pelee lying several miles to.
the north of the city, a mass of dark rock some four thousand feet
high, with jagged outline, and cleft with gorges and ravines, down
which flow numerous streams, gushing from the crater lake of the
great volcano.

Though known to be a volcano, it was looked upon as practi-
cally extinct, though as late as August, 1856, it had been in eruption.
No lava at that time came from its crater, but it hurled out great
quantities of ashes and mud, with strong sulphurous odor. Then it
went to rest again, and slept till 1902.

The people had long ceased to fear it. No one expected that
grand old Mount Pelee, the slumbering (so it was thought)

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH 389

tranquil old hill, would ever spurt forth fire and death. This was
entirely unlooked for. Mont Pelee was regarded by the natives as
a sort of protector ; they had an almost superstitious affection for it
From the outskirts of the city it rose gradually, its sides grown
thick with rich grass, and dotted here and there with spreading
shrubbery and drooping trees. There was no pleasanter outing for
an afternoon than a journey up the green, velvet-like sides of the
towering mountain and a view of the quaint, picturesque city slunv
bering at its base.

A PEACEFUL SCENE

There were no rocky cliffs, no crags, no protruding boulders.
The mountain was peace itself, It seemed to promise perpetual
protection. The poetic natives relied upon it to keep back storms
from the land and frighten, with its stern brow, the tempests from
the sea, They pointed to it with profoundest pride as one of the
most beautiful mountains in the world.

Children played in its bowers and arbors ; families picnicked
there day after day during the balmy weather ; hundreds of tour-
ists ascended to the summit and looked with pleasure at the beauti-
ful crystal lake which sparkled and glinted in the sunshine. Mont
Pelee was the place of enjoyment of the people of St. Pierre. I
can hear the placid natives say ; " Old Father Pelee is our protec-
tor— not our destroyer."

Not until two weeks before the eruption did the slumbering
mountain show signs of waking to death and disaster. On the 23d
of April it first displayed symptoms of internal disquiet, A
great column of smoke began to rise from it, and was accompanied
from time to time by showers of ashes and cinders.

Despite these signals, there was nothing until Monday, May
5th, to indicate actual danger. On that day a stream of smoking

39o MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH

mud and lava burst through the top of the crater and plunged into
the valley of the River Blanche, overwhelming the Guerin sugar
works and killing twenty-three workmen and the son of the proprie-
tor. Mr. Guerin's was one of the largest sugar works on the island ;
its destruction entailed a heavy loss. The mud which overwhelmed it
followed the beds of streams towards the north of the island.

The alarm in the city was great, but it was somewhat allayed
by the report of an expert commission appointed by the Governor,
which decided that the eruption was normal and that the city was
in no peril. To further allay the excitement, the Governor, with
several scientists, took up his residence rn St. Pierre. He could
not restrain the people by force, but the moral effect of his pre-
sence and the decision of the scientists had a similar disastrous
result

A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION BY A SUFFERER.

The existing state of affairs during these few waiting days is
so graphically given in a letter from Mrs. Thomas T. Prentis, wife
of the United States Consul at St. Pierre, to her sister in Melrose,
a suburban city of Boston, that we quote it here :

"J/y Dear Sister: This morning the whole population of the
city is on the alert and every eye is directed toward Mont Pelee,
an extinct volcano. Everybody is afraid that the volcano has taken
into its heart to burst forth and destroy the whole island.

" Fifty years ago Mont Pelee burst forth with terrific force and
destroyed everything within a radius of several miles. For several
days the mountain has been bursting forth in flame and immense
quantities of lava are flowing down its sides.

"All the inhabitants are going up to see it. There is not a
horse to be had on the island, those belonging to the natives being
kept in readiness to leave at a moment's notice.

MOUNT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH 39*

" Last Wednesday, which was April 2$d, I was in my room
with little Christine, and we heard three distinct shocks. They
were so great that we supposed at first that there was some one at
the door, and Christine went and found no one there. The first
report was very loud, and the second and third were so great that \
dishes were thrown from the shelves and the house was rocked.

INTERIOR OP A HOME IN ST. PIERRE.

14 We can see Mont Pelee from the rear windows of our house,
and although it is fully four miles away, we can hear the roar of
the fire and lava issuing from it.

* The city is covered with ashes and clouds of smoke have
been over our heads for the last five days. The smell of sulphur is
so strong that horses on the streets stop and snort, and some of
them are obliged to give up, drop in their harness and die from
suffocation. Many of the people are obliged to wear wet handker-
chiefs over their faces to protect them from the fumes of sulphur.

392 MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATh

" My husband assures me that there is no immediate danger,
and when there is the least particle of danger we will leave the
place. There is an American schooner, the R. J. Morse, in the
harbor, and she will remain here for at least two weeks. If the
volcano becomes very bad we shall embark at once and go out to
sea. The papers in this city are asking if we are going to experi-
ence another earthquake similar to that which struck here some fifty
years ago."

THE FATEFUL EIGHTH OF MAY

The writer of this letter and her husband, Consul Prentis,
trusted Mont Pelee too long. They perished, with all the inhabi-
tants of the city, in a deadly flood of fire and ashes that descended
on the devoted place on the fateful morning of Thursday, May
8th. Only for the few who were rescued from the ships in the
harbor there would be scarcely a living soul to tell that dread story
of ruin and death. ' The most graphic accounts are those given by
rescued officers of the Roraima, one of the fleet of the Quebec
Steamship Co., trading with the West Indies. This vessel had left
the Island of Dominica for Martinique at midnight of Wednesday,
and reached St. Pierre about 7 o'clock Thursday morning. The
greatest difficulty was experienced in getting into port, the air
being thick with falling ashes and the darkness intense. The ship
had to grope its way to the anchorage. Appalling sounds were
issuing from the mountain behind the town, which was shrouded
in darkness. The ashes were falling thickly on the steamer's deck,
where the passengers and others were gazing at the town, some
being engaged in photographing the scene.

The best way in which we can describe a scene of which few
lived to tell the story, is to give the narratives of a number of the
survivors. From their several stories a coherent idea of the terrible

Copyrighted by Judge Publishing Co., 1902.

THE CLOCK THAT TOLD THE STORY OF MARTINIQUE.

This picture shows the ruins of the Hospital of St. Pierre and the clock with

the hands pointing to 7.50, which indicated the time at which

tie city wm* ttrimrhrliarf

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH 393

scene can be formed. From the various accounts given of the ter-
rible explosion by officers of the Roraima, we select as a first
example the following description by Assistant Purser Thompson :

A TALE OF SUDDEN RUIN

" I saw St. Pierre destroyed. It was blotted out by one great
flash of fire. Nearly 40,000 persons were all killed at once. Out
of eighteen vessels lying in the roads only one, the British steam-
ship Roddam, escaped, and she, I hear, lost more than half on
board. It was a dying crew that took her out.

" Our boat, the Roraima, of the Quebec Line, arrived at St
Pierre early Thursday morning. For hours before we entered the
roadstead we could see flames and smoke rising from Mont Pelee.
No one on board had any idea of danger. Captain G. T. Muggah
was on the bridge, and all hands got on deck to see the show.

"The spectacle was magnificent. As we approached St
Pierre we could distinguish the rolling and leaping of the red
flames that belched from the mountain in huge volumes and gushed
high into the sky. Enormous clouds of black smoke hung over the
volcano.

44 When we anchored at St. Pierre I noticed the cable steam-
ship Grappler, the Roddam, three or four American schooners and
a number of Italian and Norwegian barks. The flames were then
spurting straight up in the air, now and then waving to one side or
the other for a moment and again leaping suddenly higher up.

"There was a constant muffled roar. It was like the biggest
oil refinery in the world burning up on the mountain top. There
was a tremendous explosion about 7.45 o'clock, soon after we got
in. The mountain was blown to pieces. There was no warn-
ing. The side of the volcano was ripped out, and there was hurled

3^4 MONT PELEE AND ITS HAR VEST OF DEA TH

straight toward us a solid wall of flame. It sounded like thousands
of cannon.

"The wave of fire was on us and over us like a lightning
flash. It was like a hurricane of fire. I saw it strike the cable
steamship Grappler broadside on and capsize her. From end to

end she burst into flames and then sank. The fire rolled in mass
i

straight down upon St. Pierre and the shipping. The town van-
ished before our eyes and the air grew stifling hot, and we were in
the thick of it.

" Wherever the mass of fire struck the sea the water boiled
and sent up vast clouds of steam. The sea was torn into huge
whirlpools that careened toward the open sea.

" One of these horrible hot whirlpools swung under the Ror-
aima and pulled her down on her beam ends with the suction. She
careened way over to port, and then the fire hurricane from the
volcano smashed her, and over she went on the opposite side. The
fire wave swept off the masts and smokestack as if they were cut
with a knife.

HEAT CAUSED EXPLOSIONS

" Captain Muggah was the only one on deck not killed out-
right. He was caught by the fire wave and terribly burned. He
yelled to get up the anchor, but, before two fathoms were heaved in
the Roraima was almost upset by the boiling whirlpool, and the fire
wave had thrown her down on her beam ends to starboard. Cap-
tain Muggah was overcome by the flames. He fell unconscious
from the bridge and toppled overboard.

" The blast of fire from the volcano lasted only a few minutes.
It shriveled and set fire to everything it touched. Thousands of
casks of rum were stored in St. Pierre, and these were exploded by
the terrific heat. The burning rum ran in streams down every street

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH 393

and out to the sea. This blazing rum set fire to the Roraima several
times. Before the volcano burst the landings of St. Pierre were
crowded with people. After the explosion not one living being was
seen on land. Only twenty-five of those on the Roraima out of
sixty-eight were left after the first flash.

"The French cruiser Suchet came in and took us off at 2
p. M. She remained nearby, helping all she could, until 5 o'clock,
then went to Fort de France with all the people she had rescued.
At that time it looked as if the entire north end of the island was
on fire."

C. C. Evans, of Montreal, and John G. Morris, of New York,
who were among those rescued, say the vessel arrived at 6 o'clock.
As eight bells were struck a frightful explosion was heard up the
mountain. A cloud of fire, toppling and roaring, swept with light-
ning speed down the mountain side and over the town and bay.
The Roraima was nearly sunk, and caught fire at once.

" I can never forget the horrid, fiery, choking whirlwind which
enveloped me," said Mr. Evans. " Mr. Morris and I rushed below.
We are not very badly burned, not so bad as most of them.
When the fire came we were going to our posts (we are engineers)
to weigh anchor and get out. When we came up we found the
ship afire aft, and fought it forward until 3 o'clock, when the
Suchet came to our rescue. We were then building a raft."

" Ben " Benson, the carpenter of the Roraima, said : " I was
on deck, amidships, when I heard an explosion. The captain or-
dered me to up anchor. I got to the windlass, but when the fire
came I went into the forecastle and got my 'duds.' When I came
out I talked with Captain Muggah, Mr. Scott, the first officer and
others. They had been on the bridge. The captain was horribly
burned. He had inhaled flames and wanted to jump into the sea.

396 MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH

I tried to make him take a life-preserver. The captain, who was
undressed, jumped overboard and hung on to a line for a while.
Then he disappeared"

THE COOPER'S STORY.

James Taylor, a cooper employed on the Roraima, gives the
following account of his experience of the disaster :

"Hearing a tremendous report and seeing the ashes falling
thicker, I dived into a room, dragging with me Samuel Thomas, a
gangway man and fellow countryman, shutting the door tightly.
Shortly after I heard a voice, which I recognized as that of the
chief mate, Mr. Scott. Opening the door with great caution,
I drew him in. The nose of Thomas was burned by the intense heat.

" We three and Thompson, the assistant purser, out of sixty-
eight souls on board, were the only persons who escaped practically
uninjured. The heat being unbearable, I emerged in a few
moments, and the scene that presented itself to my eyes baffles de-
scription. All around on the deck were the dead and dying cov-
ered with boiling mud. There they lay, men, women and little
children, and the appeals of the latter for water were heart-rending.
When water was given them they could not swallow it, owing
to their throats being filled with ashes or burnt wit.A the heated air.

" The ship was burning aft, and I jumped overboard, the
sea being intensely hot. I was at once svv^pt seaward by a tidal
wave, but, the sea receding a considerable distance, the return
wave washed me against an upturned sloop to which I clung. I
was joined by a man so dreadfully burned and disfigured as to
be unrecognizable. Afterwards I found he was the captain of the
Roraima, Captain Muggah. He was in dreadful agony, begging
piteously to be put on board his ship.

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH 397

" Picking up some wreckage which contained bedding and
a tool chest, I, with the help of five others who had joined me
on the wreck, constructed a rude raft, on which we placed the cap-
itain. Then, seeing an upturned boat, I asked one of the five, a
native of Martinique, to swim and fetch it Instead of returning to
us, he picked up two of his countrymen and went away in the di-
rection of Fort de France. Seeing the Roddam, which arrived in
port shortly after we anchored, making for the Roraima, I said
good-bye to the captain and swam back to the Roraima.

" The Rcddam, however, burst into flames and put to sea. I
reached the Roraima at about half-past 2, and was afterwards taken
off by a boat from the French warship Suchet. Twenty-four others
with myself were taken on to Fort de France, Three of these
died before reaching port A number of others have since died."

Samuel Thomas, the gangway man, whose life was saved by
the forethought of Taylor, says that the scene on the burning ship
was awful. The groans and cries of the dying, for whom nothing
could be done, were horrible. He describes a woman as being
burned to death with a living babe in her arms. He says that it
seemed as if the whole world was afire.

CONSUL AYME'S STATEMENT

The inflammable material in the forepart of the ship that
would have ignited that part of the vessel was thrown overboard
by him and the other two uninjured men. The Grappler, the
telegraph company's ship, was seen opposite the Usine Gutrin,
and disappeared as if blown up by a submarine explosion. The
captain's body was subsequently found by a boat from the Suchet.

Consul Ayme, of Guadeloupe, who, as already stated, had
hastened to Fort de France on hearing of the terrible event, tells
the story of the disaster in the following words :

393 MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH

44 Thursday morning the inhabitants of the city awoke to find
heavy clouds shrouding Mont Pelee crater. All day Wednesday
horrid detonations had been heard. These were echoed from St.
Thomas on the north to Barbados on the south. The cannonad-
ing ceased on Wednesday night, and fine ashes fell like rain on
St. Pierre. The inhabitants were alarmed, but Governor Mouttet,
who had arrived at St. Pierre the evening before, did everything
possible to allay the panic.

" The British steamer Roraima reached St. Pierre on Thursday
with ten passengers, among whom were Mrs. Stokes and her three
children, and Mrs. H. J. I nee. They were watching the rain of
ashes, when, with a frightful roar and terrific electric discharges,
a cyclone of fire, mud and steam swept down from the crater over
the town and bay, sweeping all before it and destroying the fleet
of vessels at anchor off the shore. There the accounts of the
catastrophe so far obtainable cease. Thirty thousand corpses are
strewn about, buried in the ruins of St. Pierre, or else floating,
gnawed by sharks, in the surrounding seas. Twenty-eight charred,
half-dead human beings were brought here. Sixteen of them are
already dead, and only four of the whole number are expected to

recover."

A WOMAN'S EXPERIENCE ON THE "RORAIMA"

Margaret Stokes, the 9 year old daughter of the late Clement
Stokes, of New York, who, with her mother, a brother aged 4 and
a sister aged 3 years, was on the ill-fated steamer Roraima, was
saved from that vessel, but is not expected to live. Her nurse,
Clara King, tells the following story of her experience :

She says she was in her stateroom, when the steward of the
Roraima called out to her :

14 Look at Mont Pelee."

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH ,599

She went on deck and saw a vast mass of black cloud coming
down from the volcano. The steward ordered her to return to the.
saloon, saying, " It is coming."

Miss King then rushed to the saloon. She says she experi-
enced a feeling of suffocation, which was followed by intense heat
The afterpart of the Roraima broke out in rlames. Ben Benson,
the carpenter of the Roraima, severely burned, assisted Miss King
and Margaret Stokes to escape. With the help of Mr. Scott, the
first mate of the Roraima, he constructed a raft, with life preservers.
Upon this Miss King and Margaret were placed.

While this was being done Margaret's little brother died.
Mate Scott brought the child water at great personal danger, but
it was unavailing. Shortly after the death of the little boy Mrs.
Stokes succumbed. Margaret and Miss King eventually got away
on the raft, and were picked up by the steamer Korona. Mate
Scott also escaped. Miss King did not sustain serious injuries.
She covered the face of Margaret with her dress, but still the child
was probably fatally burned.

The only woman known at that time to have survived the dis-
aster at St. Pierre was a negress named Fillotte. She was found
in a cellar Saturday afternoon, where she had been for three days.
She was still alive, but fearfully burned from head to toes. She died
afterward in the hospital.

CAPTAIN FREEMAN'S THRILLING ACCOUNT

Of the vessels in the harbor of St. Pierre on the fateful morn-
ing, only one, the British steamer Roddam, escaped, and that with
a crew of whom few reached the open sea alive. Those who did
escape were terribly injured. Captain Freeman, of this vessel, tells
what he experienced in the following thrilling language :

400 MOUNT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH

"St. Lucia, British West Indies, May 1 1. — The steamer Roddam,
of which I am captain, left St. Lucia at midnight of May 7, and
was off St. Pierre, Martinique, at 6 o'clock on the morning of the
8th. I noticed that the volcano, Mont Pelee, was smoking, and
crept slowly in toward the bay, finding there among others the
steamer Roraima, the telegraph repairing steamer Grappler and
four sailing vessels. I went to anchorage between 7 and 8 and had
hardly moored when the side of the volcano opened out with a
terrible explosion. A wall of fire swept over the town and the bay.
The Roddam was struck broadside by the burning mass. The
shock to the ship was terrible, nearly capsizing her.

AWFUL RESULTS

' Hearing the awful report of the explosion and seeing the
great wall of flames approaching the steamer, those on deck sought
shelter wherever it was possible, jumping into the cabin, the fore-
castle and even into the hold. I was in the chart room, but the
burning embers were borne by so swift a movement of the air that
they were swept in through the door and port holes, suffocating and
scorching me badly. I was terribly burned by these embers about
the face and hands, but managed to reach the deck. Then, as soon
as it was possible, I mustered the few survivors who seemed
(able to move, ordered them to slip the anchor, leaped for the bridge
and ran the engine for full speed astern. The second and the third
engineer and a fireman were on watch below and so escaped injury.
They did their part in the attempt to escape, but the men on deck
could not work the steering gear because it was jammed by the
debris from the volcano. We accordingly went ahead and astern
until the gear was free, but in this running backward and forward
it was two hours after the first shock before we were clear of the bay,

402 MOUNT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH

"One of the most terrifying conditions was that, the atmosphere
being charged with ashes, it was totally dark. The sun was com-
pletely obscured, and the air was only illuminated by the flames from
the volcano and those of the burning town and shipping. It seems
small to say that the scene was terrifying in the extreme. As we
backed out we passed close to the Roraima, which was one mass of
blaze. The steam was rushing from the engine room, and the
screams of those on board were terrible to hear. The cries for help
were all in vain, for I could do nothing but save my own ship.
When I last saw the Roraima she was settling down by the stern.
That was about 10 o'clock in the morning.

" When the Roddam was safely out of the harbor of St. Pierre,
with its desolations and horrors, I made for St. Lucia. Arriving
there, and when the ship was safe, I mustered the survivors as well
as I was able and searched for the dead and injured. Some I found
in the saloon where they had vainly sought for safety, but the cabins
were full of burning embers that had blown in through the port
holes. Through these the fire swept as through funnels and burned
the victims where they lay or stood, leaving a circular imprint of
scorched and burned flesh. I brought ten on deck who were thus
burned ; two of them were dead, the others survived, although in a
dreadful state of torture from their burns. Their screams of agony
were heartrending. Out of a total of twenty-three on board the
Roddam, which includes the captain and the crew, ten are dead and
several are in the hospital. My first and second mates, my chief
engineer and my supercargo, Campbell by name, were killed. The
ship was covered from stem to stern with tons of powdered lava,
which retained its heat for hours after it had fallen. In many cases
it was practically incandescent, and to move about the deck in this
burning mass was not only difficult but absolutely perilous. I am

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH 403

only now able to begin thoroughly to clear and search the ship for
any damage done by this volcanic rain, and -to see if there are any
corpses in out-of-the-way places. For instance, this morning, I found
one body in the peak of the forecastle. The body was horribly burned
and the sailor had evidently crept in there in his agony to die.

" On the arrival of the Roddam at St. Lucia the ship presented
an appalling appearance. Dead and calcined bodies lay about the
deck, which was also crowded with injured, helpless and suffering
people. Prompt assistance was rendered to the injured by the
authorities here and my poor, tortured men were taken to the hos-
pital. The dead were buried. I have omitted to mention that
out of twenty-one black laborers that I brought from Grenada to
help in stevedoring, only six survived. Most of the others threw
themselves overboard to escape a dreadful fate, but they met a
worse one, for it is an actual fact that the water around the ship
was literally at a boiling heat. The escape of my vessel was miracu-
lous. The woodwork of the cabins and bridge and everything in-
flammable on deck were constantly igniting, and it was with great
difficulty that we few survivors managed to keep the flames down.
My ropes, awnings, tarpaulins were completely burned up.

" I witnessed the entire destruction of St. Pierre. The flames
enveloped the town in every quarter with such rapidity that it was
impossible that any person could be saved. As I have said, the
day was suddenly turned to night, but I could distinguish by the
light of the burning town people distractedly running about on the
beach. The burning buildings stood out from the surrounding
darkness like black shadows. All this time the mountain was roar-
ing and shaking, and in the intervals between these terrifying sounds
I could hear the cries of despair and agony from the thousands who
were perishing. These cries added to the terror of the scene, but

404 MONT PELEE AND ITS HAR VEST OF DEATH

it is impossible to describe its horror or the dreadful sensations it
produced. It was like witnessing the end of the world.

" Let me add that, after the first shock was over, the survivors
of the crew rendered willing help to navigate the ship to this port.
Mr. Plissoneau, our agent in Martinique, happening to be on board,
was saved, and I really believe that he is the only survivor of St.
Pierre. As it is, he is seriously burned on the hands and face.

"FREEMAN,
" Master British Steamship Roddam"

THE "ETONA" PASSES ST. PIERRE

The British steamer Etona, of the Norton Line, stopped at
St. Lucia to coal on May loth. Captain Cantell there visited the
Roddamzn& had an interview with Captain Freeman. On the nth
the Etona put to sea again, passing St. Pierre in the afternoon.
We subjoin her captain's story :

" The weather was clear and we had a fine view, but the old
outlines of St. Pierre were not recognizable. Everything was a
mass of blue lava, and the formation of the land itself seemed to
have changed. When we were about eight miles off the northern
end of the island Mount Pelee began to belch a second time.
Clouds of smoke and lava shot into the air and spread over all the
sea, darkening the sun. Our decks in a few minutes were covered
with a substance that looked like sand dyed a bluish tint, and which
smelled like phosphorus. For all that the day was clear, there was
little to be seen satisfactorily. Over the island there hung a blue
haze. It seemed to me that the formation, the topography, of the
island was altered.

" Everything seemed to be covered with a blue dust, such as
had fallen aboard us every day since we had been within the affected

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH 405

region. It was blue lava dust. For more than an hour we scanned
the coast with our glasses, now and then discovering something
that looked like a ruined hamlet or collection of buildings. There
was no life visible. Suddenly we realized that we might have to
fight for our lives as the Roddarris people had done.

" We were about four miles off the northern end of the island
when suddenly there shot up in the air to a tremendous height a
column of smoke. The sky darkened and the smoke seemed to
swirl down upon us. In fact, it spread all around, darkening the
atmosphere as far as we could see. I called Chief Engineer Far-
rish to the deck.

" ' Do you see that over there ?' I asked, pointing to the
eruption, for it was the second eruption of Mont Pelee. He saw
it all right. Captain Freeman's story was fresh in my mind.

" ' Well, Farrish, rush your engines as they have never been
rushed before,' I said to him. He went below, and soon we began
to burn coal and pile up the feathers in our forefoot

" I was on watch with Second Officer Gibbs. At once we
began to furl awnings and make secure against fire. The crew
were all showing an anxious spirit, and everybody on board, includ-
ing the four passengers, were serious and apprehensive.

" We began to cut through the water at almost twelve knots.
Ordinarily we make ten knots. We could see no more of the land
contour, but everything seemed to be enveloped in a great cloud.
There was no fire visible, but the lava dust rained down upon us
steadily. In less than an hour there were two inches of it upon
our deck.

" The air smelled like phosphorus. No one dared to look
up to try to locate the sun, because one's eyes would fill with lava
dust. Some of the blue lava dust is sticking to our mast yet,

406 MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH

although we have swabbed 'decks and rigging again and again to be

•

clear of it.

" After a little more than an hour's fast running we saw day-
light ahead and began to breathe easier. If I had not talked
with Captain Freeman and heard from him just how the black
swirl of wind and fire rolled down upon him, I would not have
been so apprehensive, but would have thought that the darkness
and cloud that came down upon us meant just an unusually heavy
squall*

CHIEF ENGINEER FARRISH's STORY

11 The Etonas run from Montevideo was a fast one — I think
a record breaker. We were 22 days and 21 hours from port to port.
Off Martinique I stared at the coast for about an hour, and
then went below. The blue lava that covered everything faded
into the haze that hung over the island so that nothing was dis-
tinctly visible. Through my glass I discovered a stream of lava,
though. It stretched down the mountain side, and seemed to be
flowing into the sea. It was not clearly and distinctly visible,
however.

" About 3 o'clock I went below to take forty winks. I had
been in my berth only a few minutes when the steward told me the
captain wanted me on the bridge.

' ' Do you see that, Farrish ?' he asked, pointing at the land.
An outburst of smoke seemed to be sweeping down upon us. It
made me think of the Roddam s experience. Smoke and dust
closed in about us, shutting out the sunlight, and precipitating a fall
of lava on our decks.

" 'Go below and drive her,' said the captain, and I didn't lose
any time, I can tell you. We burned coal as though it didn't cost

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH 4<>7

a cent. The safety valve was jumping every second, even though
we were making twelve knots an hour. For two hours we kept up
the pace, and then, running into clear daylight, let the engines slow
down and we all cheered up a bit."

CAPTAIN CANTELL VISITS THE " RODDAM "

Captain Cantell went on board the Roddam, whose frightful
condition he thus describes :

"At St. Lucia, on May nth, I went on board the British
steamship Roddam, which had escaped from the terrible volcanic
eruption at Martinique two days before. The state of the ship
was enough to show that those on board must have undergone an
awful experience.

"The Roddam was covered with a mass of fine bluish gray
dust or ashes of cement-like appearance. In some parts it lay two
feet deep on the decks. This matter had fallen in a red-hot state
all over the steamer, setting fire to everything it struck that was
burnable, and, when it fell on the men on board, burning off limbs
and large pieces of flesh. This was shown by finding portions of
human flesh when the decks were cleared of the debris. The rig-

ging, ropes, tarpaulins, sails, awnings, etc., were charred or burned,
and most of the upper stanchions and spars were swept over-
board or destroyed by fire. Skylights were smashed and cabins
were filled with volcanic dust. The scene of ruin was deplorable.

"The captain, though suffering the greatest agony, succeeded in
navigating his vessel safely to the port of Castries, St. Lucia, with
eighteen dead bodies on the deck and human limbs scattered about
A sailor stood by constantly wiping the captain's iniured eyes.

" I think the performance of the Roddam s captain was most
wonderful, and the more so when I saw his pitiful condition. I do

408 MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATtT

not understand how he kept up, yet when the steamer arrived at
St Lucia and medical assistance was procured, this brave man
asked the doctors to attend to the others first and refused to be
treated until this was done.

" My interview with the captain brought out this account. I
left him in good spirits and receiving every comfort. The sight of
his face would frighten anyone not prepared to see it"

THE VIVID ACCOUNT OF M. ALBERT

To the accounts given by the survivors of the Roraimam& the
officers of the Etona, it will be well to add the following graphic
story told by M. Albert, a planter of the island, the owner of an
estate situated only a mile to the northeast of the burning crater of
Mont Pelee. His escape from death had in it something of the
marvellous. He says :

" Mont Pelee had given warning of the destruction that was to
come, but we, who had looked upon the volcano as harmless, did
not believe that it would do more than spout fire and steam, as it
had done on other occasions. It was a little before eight o'clock on
the morning of May 8 that the end came. I was in one of the fields
of my estate when the ground trembled under my feet, not as it
does when the earth quakes, but as though a terrible struggle was
going on within the mountain. A terror came upon me, but I could
not explain my fear.

" As I stood still Mont Pelee seemed to shudder, and a moaning
sound issued from its crater. It was quite dark, the sun being ob-
scured by ashes and fine volcanic dust. The air was dead about
me, so dead that the floating dust seemingly was not disturbed.
Then there was a rending, crashing, grinding no&e, which I can
only describe as sounding as though every bit of machinery in the

Copyrighted by Judge Publishing Co., 1902.

A PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURE GIVING GENERAL VIEW OF RUINS
OF ST. PIERRE LOOKING TOWARD THE MOUNTAIN.

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THE VOLCANIC OUTBREAK OF MT. PELEE, MAY 8, 1902.

The only photograph taken during the height of the eruption, a scene as

grand at it was appalling.

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OP DEATH 409

world had suddenly broken down. It was deafening, and the flash
of light that accompanied it was blinding, more so than any light*
ning I have ever seen.

"It was like a terrible hurricane, and where a fraction of a
second before there had been a perfect calm, I felt myself drawn
into a vortex and I had to brace myself firmly. It was like a great
express train rushing by, and I was drawn by its force. The mys-
terious force levelled a row of strong trees, tearing them up by the
roots and leaving bare a space of ground fifteen yards wide and
more than one hundred yards long. Transfixed I stood, not know-
jng in what direction to flee. I looked toward Mont Pelee, and
above its apex there appeared a great black cloud which reached high
in the air. It literally fell upon the city of St. Pierre. It moved with
a rapidity that made it impossible for anything to escape it. From
the cloud came explosions that sounded as though all of the navies
of the world were in titanic combat. Lightning played in and out
in broad forks, the result being that intense darkness was followed
by light that seemed to be of magnifying power.

" That St. Pierre was doomed I knew, but I was prevented
from seeing the destruction by a spur of the hill that shut off the
view of the city. It is impossible for me to tell how long I stood
there inert. Probably it was only a few seconds, but so vivid were
my impressions that it now seems as though I stood as a spectator
for many minutes. When I recovered possession of my senses I
ran to my house and collected the members of the family, all of
whom were panic stricken. I hurried them to the seashore, where
we boarded a small steamship, in which we made the trip in safety
to Fort de France.

41 1 know that there was no flame in the first wave that was
sent down upon St Pierre. It was a heavy gas, like firedamp, and

410

it must have asphyxiated the inhabitants before they were touched
by the fire, which quickly followed. As we drew out to sea in the
small steamship, Mont Pelee was in the throes of a terrible convul-
sion. New craters seemed to be opening all about the summit and
lava was flowing in broad streams in every direction. My estate
was ruined while we were still in sight of it. Many women who
lived in St. Pierre escaped only to know that they were left
widowed and childless. This is because many of the wealthier men
sent their wives away, while they remained in St. Pierre to attend
to their business affairs."

WHAT HAPPENED ON THE "HORACE"

The British steamer Horace experienced the effect of the explo-
sion when farther from land. After touching at Barbados, she
reached the vicinity of Martinique on May Qth, her decks being
covered with several inches of dust when she was a hundred and
twenty-five miles distant. We quote engineer Anderson's story :

" On the afternoon of May 8 (Thursday) we noticed a peculiar
haze in the direction of Martinique. The air seemed heavy and
oppressive. The weather conditions were not at all unlike those
which precede the great West Indian hurricanes, but, knowing it
was not the season of the year for them, we all remarked in the
engine room that there must be a heavy storm approaching.

"Several of the sailors, experienced deep water seamen, laughed
at our prognostications, and informed us there would be no storm
within the next sixty hours, and insisted that, according to all
fo'cas'le indications, a dead calm was in sight.

" So unusually peculiar were the weather conditions that we
talked of nothing else during the evening. That night, in the direc-
tion of Martinique, there was a very black sky, an unusual thing at

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH 41 1

this season of the year, and a storm was apparently brewing in a
direction from which storms do not come at this season.

GREAT FLASHES OF LIGHT

44 As the night wore on those on watch noticed what appeared
to be great flashes of lightning in the direction of Martinique, h
seemed as though the ordinary conditions were reversed, and even
the fo'cas'le prophets were unable to offer explanations.

" Occasionally, over the pounding of the engines and the rush of
water, we thought we could hear long, deep roars, not unlike the
ending of a deep peal of thunder. Several times we heard the
rumble or roar, but at the time we were not certain as to exactly
what it was, or even whether we really heard it.

44 There would suddenly come great flashes of light from the
dark bank toward Martinique. Some of them seemed to spread
over a great area, while others appeared to spout skyward, funnel
shaped. All night this continued, and it was not until day came
that the flashes disappeared. The dark bank that covered the hori-
zon toward Martinique, however, did not fade away with the break-
ing of day, and at eight in the morning of the gth (Friday) the
whole section of the sky in that direction seemed dark and troubled.

" About nine o'clock Friday morning I was sitting on one of
the hatches aft with some of the other engineers and officers of the
ship, discussing the peculiar weather phenomena. I noticed a sort
of grit that got into my mouth from the end of the cigar I was
smoking.

44 1 attributed it to some rather bad coal which we had shipped
aboard, and, turning to Chief Engineer Evans, I remarked that
4 that coal was mighty dirty,' and he said that it was covering the
ship with a sort of grit. Then I noticed that grit was getting on

4i2 MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH

my clothes, and finally some one suggested that we go forward of
the funnels, so we would not get dirt on us. As we went forward
we met one or two of the sailors from the forecastle, who wanted to
know about the dust that was falling on the ship. Then we found
that the grayish-looking ash was sifting all over the ship, both for-
ward and aft.

ASHES RAINED ON THE SHIP

" Every moment the ashes rained down all over the ship, and
at the same time grew thicker. A few moments later, the lookout
called down that we were running into a fog-bank dead ahead. Fog
banks in that section are unheard of at nine o'clock in the morning
at this season, and we were more than a hundred miles from land,
and what could fog and sand be doing there.

" Before we knew it, we went into the fog, which proved to be
a big dense bank of this same sand, and it rained down on us from
every side. Ventilators were quickly brought to their places, and
later even the hatches were battened down. The dust became suffo-
cating, and the men at times had all they could do to keep from
choking. What the stuff was we could not at first conjecture, or
rather, we didn't have much time to speculate on it, for we had to
get our ship in shape to withstand we hardly knew what.

" At first we thought that the sand must have been blown from
shore. Then we decided that if the Captain's figures were right we
wouldn't be near enough to shore to have sand blow on us, and as
we had just cleared Barbados, we knew that the Captain's figures
had to be right.

"Just as the storm of sand was at its height, Fourth Engineer
Wild was nearly suffocated by it, but was easily revived. About
this time it became so dark that we found it necessary to start up
the electric lights, and it was not until after we got clear fiom the

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH 4'3

fog that we turned the current off. In the meantime they had
burned from nine o'clock in the morning until after two in the after-
noon.

THE ENGINE BECAME CHOKED

"Then there was another anxious moment shortly after nine)
o'clock. Third Engineer Rennie had been running the donkey
engine, when suddenly it choked, and when he finally got it clear
from the sand or ashes, he found the valves were all cut out, and
then it was we discovered that it was not sand, but some sort of a
composition that seemed to cut steel like emery. Then came the
danger that it would get into the valves of the engine and cut them
out, and for several moments all hands scurried about and helped
make the engine room tight, and even then the ash drifted in and
kept all the engine room force wiping the engines clear of it

44 Toward three o'clock in the afternoon of Friday we were
practically clear of the sand, but at eleven o'clock that night we ran
into a second bank of it, though not as bad as the first. We made
some experiments, and found the stuff was superior to emery dust.
It cut deeper and quicker, and only about half as much was required
to do the work. We made up our minds we would keep what came
on board, as it was better than the emery dust and much cheaper,
so we gathered it up.

" That night there were more of the same electric phenomena
toward Martinique, but it was not until we got into St. Lucia, where
we saw the Roddam, that we learned of the terrible disaster at St.
Pierre, and then we knew that our sand was lava dust."

The volcanic ash which fell on the decks of the Horace was
ground as fine as rifle powder, and was much finer than that which
covered the decks of the Etona.

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH

Returning to the stories told by officers of the Roraima, of
which a number have been given; it seems desirable to add here
the narrative of Ellery S. Scott, the mate of the ruined ship, since
it gives a vivid and striking account of his personal experience of
the frightful disaster, with many details of interest not related by
others.

MATE SCOTT'S GRAPHIC STORY

"We got to St. Pierre in the Roraima" began Mr. Scott, "at
6.30 o'clock on Thursday morning. That's the morning the moun-
tain and the town and the ships were all sent to hell in a minute.

"All hands had had breakfast. I was standing on the fo'c's'l
head trying to make out the marks on the pipes of a ship 'way out
and heading for St, Lucia. I wasn't looking at the mountain at
all. But I guess the captain was, for he was on the bridge, and the
last time I heard him speak was when he shouted, ' Heave up, Mr.
Scott ; heave up.' I gave the order to the men, and I think some
of them did jump to get the anchor up, but nobody knows what
really happened for the next fifteen minutes. I turned around to-
ward the captain and then I saw the mountain.

" Did you ever see the tide come into the Bay of Fundy. It
doesn't sneak in a little at a time as it does 'round here. It rolls
in in waves. That's the way the cloud of fire and mud and white-
hot stones rolled down from that volcano over the town and over
the ships. It was on us in almost no time, but I saw it and in the
same glance I saw our captain bracing himself to meet it on the
bridge. He was facing the fire cloud with both hands gripped hard
to the bridge rail, his legs apart and his knees braced back stiff.
I've seen him brace himself that same way many a time in a tough
sea with the spray going mast-head high and green water pouring
along the decks.

4*5

" I saw the captain, I say, at the same instant I saw that ruin
coming down on us. I don't know why, but that last glimpse of
poor Muggah on his bridge will stay with me just as long as I
remember St. Pierre and that will be long enough.

" In another instant it was all over for him. As I was looking
at him he was all ablaze. He reeled and fell on the bridge with his
face toward me. His mustache and eyebrows were gone in a jiffy.
His hat had gone, and his hair was aflame, and so were his clothes
from head to foot. I knew he was conscious when he fell, by
the look in his eyes, but he didn't make a sound.

41 That all happened a long way inside of half a minute ; then
something new happened. When the wave of fire was going over
us, a tidal wave of the sea came out from the shore and did the rest
That wall of rushing water was so high and so solid that it seemed to
rise up and join the smoke and flame above. For an instant we
could see nothing but the water and the flame.

" That tidal wave picked the ship up like a canoe and then
smashed her. After one list to starboard the ship righted, but the
masts, the bridge, the funnel and all the upper works had gone
overboard.

" I had saved myself from fire by jamming a metal ventilator
cover over my head and jumping from the fo'c's'l head. Two St.
Kitts negroes saved me from the water by grabbing me by the legs
and pulling me down into the fo'c's'l after them. Before I could
get up three men tumbled in on top of me. Two of them were dead.

44 Captain Muggah went overboard, still clinging to the frag-
ments of his wrecked bridge. Daniel Taylor, the ship's cooper, and
a Kitts native jumped overboard to save him. Taylor managed to
push the captain on to a hatch that had floated off from us and then
they swam back to the ship for more assistance, but nothing could be

4i« MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH

done for the captain. Taylor wasn't sure he was alive. The last
we saw of him or his dead body it was drifting shoreward on
that hatch.

" Well, after staying in the fo'c's'l about twenty minutes, I
went out on deck. There were just four of us left aboard who
could do anything. The four were Thompson, Dan Taylor,
Quashee, and myself. It was still raining fire and hot rocks and you
could hardly see a ship's length for dust and ashes, but we could
stand that. There were burning men and some women and
two or three children lying around the deck. Not just burned, but
burning, then, when we got to them. More than half the ship's
company had been killed in that fir~t rush of flame. Some had
rolled overboard when the tidal wave came and we never saw so
much as their bodies. The cook was burned to death in his galley.
He had been paring potatoes for dinner and what was left of his
right hand held the shank of his potato knife. The wooden handle
was in ashes. All that happened to a man in less than a minute.
The donkey engineman was killed on deck s»»cting in front of his
boiler. We found parts of some bodies — a hand, or an arm or a
leg. Below decks there were some twenty alive.

" The ship was on fire, of course, what was left of it. The
stumps of both masts were blazing. Aft she was like a furnace, but
forward the flames had not got below deck, so we four carried those
who were still alive on deck into the fo'c's'l. All of them were
burned and most of them were half strangled.

" One boy, a passenger and just a little shaver [the I Dur-year-
old son of the late Clement Stokes, above spoken of] w«s picked
up naked. His hair and all his clothing had been burned off, but
he was alive. We rolled him in a blanket and put him in a sailor's
bunk. A few minutes later we looked at him and he was dead.

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH 417

" My own son's gone, too. It had been 'iis trick at lookout
ahead during the dog watch that morning, when we were making
for St. Pierre, so I supposed at first when the fire struck us that he
was asleep in his bunk and >afe. But he wasn't. Nobody could
tell me where he was. I dun't know whether he was burned to
death or rolled overboard and drowned. He was a likely boy. He
had been several voyages with me and would have been a master
some day. He used to say he'd make me mate.

"After getting all hands that had any life left in them below
and 'tended to the best we could, the four of us that were left half
way ship-shape started in to fight the fire. We had case oil stowed
forward. Thanks to that tidal wave that cleared our decks there
wasn't much left to burn, so we got the fire down so's we could live
on board with it for several hours more and then the four turned
to to knock a raft together out of what timber and truck we could
find below. Our boats had gone overboard with the masts and
funnel.

PREPARED TO TRUST TO LUCK

" We made that raft for something over thirty that were alive.
We put pfovisions on for two days and rigged up a make-'shift mast
and sail, for we intended to go to sea. We were only three boats'
length from the shore, but the shore was hell itself. We intended
to put straight out and trust tc luck that the Korona, that was about
due at St. Pierre, would pick \ is up. But we did not have to risk
the raft, for about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when we were almost
ready to put the raft overboard, the Suchet came along and took
us all off. We thought for a minute just after we were wrecked
that we were to get help from a ship that passed us. We burned
blue lights, but she kept on We learned afterward that she was

the Roddam"
27

4i8 MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH

Soundings made off Martinique after the explosion showed
that earthquake effects of much importance had taken place under
the sea bottom, which had been lifted in some places and had sunk
in others. While deep crevices had been formed on the land, a
still greater effect had seemingly been produced beneath the water.
During the explosion the sea withdrew several hundred feet from
its shore line, and then came back steaming with fury ; this indi-
cating a lift and fall of the ocean bed off the isle. Soundings
made subsequently near the island found in one place a depth of
4,000 feet where before it had been only 600 feet deep. The
French Cable Company, which was at work trying to repair the
cables broken by the eruption, found the bottom of the Caribbean
Sea so changed as to render the old charts useless.

New charts will need to be made for future navigation. The
changes in sea levels were not confined to the immediate centre of
volcanic activity, but extended as far north as Porto Rico, and it
was believed that the seismic wave would be found to have altered
the ocean bed round Jamaica. Vessels plying between St. Thomas,
Martinique, St. Lucia and other islands found it necessary to heave
the lead while many miles at sea.

It is estimated that the sea had encroached from ten feet to
two miles along the coast of St. Vincent near Georgetown, and that
a section on the north of the island had dropped into the sea. Sound-
ings showed seven fathoms where before the eruption there were
thirty-six fathoms of water. Vessels that endeavored to approach
St. Vincent toward the north reported that it was impossible to get
nearer than eight miles to the scene of the catastrophe, and that
at that distance the ocean was seriously perturbed as from a sub
marine volcano, boiling and hissing continually.

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST Of DEATH 4*9

In this connection the remarkable experience reported by the
officers of the Danish steamship Nordby, on the day preceding the
eruption, is of much interest, as seeming to show great convulsions
of the sea bottom at a point several hundred miles from Mar-
tinique. The following is the story told by Captain Eric Lillien-
skjold :

THE STRANGE EXPERIENCE OF THE " NORDBY "

"On May 5th," the captain said, "we touched at St. Michael's
for water. We had had an easy voyage from Girgenti, in Sicily, and
we wanted to finish an easy run here. We left St. Michael's on the
same day. Nothing worth while talking about occurred until two
days afterward — Wednesday, May 7th.

" We were plodding along slowly that day. About noon I
took the bridge to make an observation. It seemed to be hotter
than ordinary. I shed my coat and vest and got into what little
shade there was. As I worked it grew hottCi* and hotter. I didn't
know what to make of it. Along about 2 o'clock in the afternoon
it was so hot that all hands got to talking about it. We reckoned
that something queer was coming off, but none of us could explain
what it was, You could almost see the pitch softening in the
seams.

4 Then, as quick as you could toss a biscuit over its rail, the
Norclby dropped — regularly dropped — three or four feet down into
the sea. No sooner did it do this than big waves, that looked like
they were coming from all directions at once, began to smash
against our sides. This was queerer yet, because the water a min-
ute before was as smooth as I ever saw it. I had all hands piped
on deck, and we battened down everything loose to make ready for
a storm. And we got it all right — the strangest storm you ever
heard tell of.

420 MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH

" There was something wrong with the sun that afternoon. It
grew red and then dark red and then, about a quarter after 2, it
went out of sight altogether. The day got so dark that you
couldn't see half a ship's length ahead of you. We got our lamps
going, and put on our oilskins, ready for a hurricane. All of a
sudden there came a sheet of lightning that showed up the whole
tumbling sea for miles and miles. We sort of ducked, expecting
an awful crash of thunder, but it didn't come. There was no sound
except the big waves pounding against our sides. There wasn't a
breath of wind.

"Well, sir, at that minute there began the most exciting time
I've ever been through, and I've been on every sea on the map for
twenty-five years. Every second there'd be waves 15 or 20 feet
high, belting us head-on, stern-on and broadside, all at once. We
could see them coming, for without any stop at all flash after flash
of lightning was blazing all about us.

"Something else we could see, too. Sharks! There were
hundreds of them on all sides, jumping up and down in the water.
Some of them jumped clear out of it. And sea birds ! A flock of
them, squawking and crying, made for our rigging and perched
there. They seemed like they were scared to death. But the
queerest part of it all was the water itself. It was hot — not so hot
that our feet could not stand it when it washed over the deck, but
hot enough to make us think that it had been heated by some kind
of a fire.

" Well that sort of thing went on hour after hour. The waves,
the lightning, the hot water and the sharks, and all the rest of the
odd things happening, frightened the crew out of their wits. Some
of them prayed out loud — I guess the first time they ever did in
their lives; Some Frenchmen aboard kept running around and

MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH 411

yelling, 'Cest le dernier jour /' (This is the last day.) We were
all worried. Even the officers began to think that the world was
coming to an end. Mighty strange things happen on the sea, but
this topped them all.

"I kept to the bridge all night When the first hour of morn-
ing came the storm was still going on. We were all pretty much
tired out by that time, but there was no such thing as trying to
sleep. The waves still were batting us around and we didn't know
whether we were one mile or a thousand miles from shore. At 2
o'clock in the morning all the queer goings on stopped just the way
they began — all of a sudden. We lay to until daylight ; then we
took our reckonings and started off again. We were about 700
miles off Cape Henlopen.

" No, sir ; you couldn't get me through a thing like that again
for $10,000. None of us was hurt, and the old Nordby herself
pulled through all right, but I'd sooner stay ashore than see waves
without wind and lightning without thunder."

FIERY STREAM CONTAINED POISONOUS GASES

Careful inspection showed that the fiery stream which so com-
pletely destroyed St. Pierre must have been composed of poisonous
gases, which instantly suffocated every one who inhaled them, and
of other gases burning furiously, for nearly all the victims had their
hands covering their mouths, or were in some other attitude show-
ing that they had perished from suffocation.

It is believed that Mont Pelee threw off a great gasp of some
exceedingly heavy and noxious gas, something akin to firedamp,
which settled upon the city and rendered the inhabitants insensible.
This was followed by the sheet of flame that swept down the side
of the mountain. This theory is sustained by the experience of the

422 MONT PELEE AND ITS HARVEST OF DEATH

survivors who were taken from the ships in the harbor, as they say
that their first experience was one of faintness.

The dumb animals were wiser than man, and early took warn-
ing of the storm of fire which Mont Pelee was storing up to hurl
upon the island. Even before the mountain began to rumble, late
in April, live stock became uneasy, and at times were almost uncon-
trollable. Cattle lowed in the night. Dogs howled and sought the
company of their masters, and when driven forth they gave every
evidence of fear.

Wild animals disappeared from the vicinity of Mont Pelee.
Even the snakes, which at ordinary times are found in great num-
bers near the volcano, crawled away. Birds ceased singing and
left the trees that shaded the sides of Pelee. A great fear seemed
to be upon the island, and though it was shared by the human
inhabitants, they alone neglected to protect themselves.

Of the villages in the vicinity of St. Pierre only one escaped,
the others suffering the fate of the city. The fortunate one was
Le Carbet, on the south, which escaped uninjured, the flood of lava
stopping when within two hundred feet of the town. Morne Rouge,
a beautiful summer resort, frequented by the people of the island
during the hot season as a place of recreation, also escaped. In
the height of the season several thousand people gathered there,
though at the time of 'the explosion there were but a few hundred.
Though located on an elevation between the city and the crater, it
was by great good fortune saved.

The Governor of Martinique, Mr. Mouttet, whose precautions
to prevent the people fleeing from the city aided to make the
work of death complete, was himself among the victims of the
burning mountain. With him in this fate was Colonel Dain, com-
mander of the troops who formed a cordon round the doomed city.

CHAPTER XXXIL

Suomarine Volcanoes and their Work of Island

Building.

IN November, 1867, a volcano suddenly began to show signs of
activity beneath the deep sea of the Pacific Ocean. There

are some islands nearly two thousands miles to the east of
Australia called the Navigator's Group, in which there had been
no history of an eruption, nor had such an event been handed
down by tradition. Most of the islands in the Pacific Ocean are
old volcanoes, or are made up of rocks cast forth from extinct
burning mountains. They rise up like peaks through the great
depths of the ocean, and the top, which just appears above the
sea-level, is generally encircled by a growth of coral. Hence
they are termed coral islands. These islands every now and then
rise higher than the sea-level, owing to some deep upheaving force,
and then the coral is lifted up above the water, and become a solid
rock. But occasionally the reverse of this takes place, and the
islands begin to sink into the sea, owing to a force which causes
the base of the submarine mountain to become depressed. Some
times they disappear. All this shows that some great disturbing
forces are in action at the bottom of the sea, and just within the
earth's crust, and that they are of a volcanic nature

For some time before the eruption in question, earthquakes
shook the surrounding islands of the Navigator's Group, and
caused great alarm, and when the trembling of the earth was very

424 SUBMARINE VuiLCANOES

great, the sea began to be agitated near one of the islands, and
vast circles of disturbed water were lotmed. Soon the water began
to be forced upwards, and dead fish were seen floating about
After a while, steam rushed forth, and jets of mud and volcanic
sand. Moreover, when the steam began to rush up out of the
water, the violence of the general ajitation of the land and of the
surface of the sea increased.

AN ERUPTION INSCRIBED

When the eruption was at its height vast columns of mud and
masses of stone rushed into the air to a height of 2,000 feet, and
the fearful crash of masses of rock hurled upwards and coming in
collision with others which were falling attested the great volume
of ejected matter which accumulated in the bed of the ocean,
although no trace of a volcano could be seen above the surface of
the sea. Similar submarine volcanic action has been observed in
the Atlantic Ocean, and crews of ships have reported that they
have seen in different places sulphurous smoke, flame, jets of water,
and steam, rising up from the sea, or they have observed the waters
greatly discolored and in a state of violent agitation, as if boiling
in large circles.

New shoals have also been encountered, or a reef of rocks just
emerging above the surface, where previously there was always
supposed to have been deep water On some few occasions, the
gradual building up of an island by Hubmarine volcanoes has been
observed, as that of Sabrina in 1181, off St. Michael's, in the
Azores. The throwing up of ashes in this case, and the formation
of a conical hill 300 feet high, with a crater out of which spouted
lava and steam, took place very rapidly. But the waves had the
best of it, and finally washed Sabrin ? mto the depths of the ocean.

SUBMARINE VOLCANOES 4*5

Previous eruptions in the same part of the sea were recorded as
having happened in 1691 and 1720.

In 1831, a submarine volcanic eruption occurred in the Medi-
terranean Sea, between SiciFy and that part of the African coast
where Carthage formerly wood. A few years before, Captain
Smyth had sounded the sort in a survey of the sea ordered by
Government, and he found t le sea-bottom to be under 500 feet of
water. On June 28, about a fortnight before the eruption was
visible, Sir Pulteney Malcom, in passing over the spot in his ship,
felt the shock of an earthquake as if he had struck on a sandbank,
and the same shocks were "elt on the west coast of Sicily, in a
direction from south-west tr- lorth-east.

BUILDING UP OF AN ISLAND BY SUBMARINE VOLCANOES

About July 10, the captain of a Sicilian vessel reported that as
he passed near the place he saw a column of water like a water-
spout, sixty feet high, and 800 yards in circumference, rising from
the sea, and soon after a dense rush of steam in its place, which
ascended to the height of r 800 feet. The same captain, on his
return eighteen days after, found a small island twelve feet high,
with a crater in its centre, throwing forth volcanic matter and
immense columns of vapor, the sea around being covered with
floating cinders and dead fish. The eruption continued with great
violence to the end of the same month. By the end of the month
the island grew to ninety feet in height, and measured three-
quarters of a mile round. By August 4th it became 200 feet high
and three miles in circumference ; after which it began to diminish
in si <e by the action of the waves. Towards the end of October
the island was levelled nearly to the surface of the sea.

426

SUBMARINE VOLCANOES

Naval officers and foreign ministers alike took an absorbing
interest in this new island. The strong national thirst for terri-
tory manifested itself and eager mariners waited only till the new
land should be cool enough to set foot on to strive who should be
first to plant there his country's flag. Names in abundance were
given it by successive observers, — Nerita, Sciacca, Fernandina,
Julia, Hotham, Corrao, and Graham. The last holds good in Eng-

GRAHAM'S ISLAND
Uplift of a Submarine Volcano

lish speech, and as Graham's Island it is known in books to-day,
though the sea took back what it had given, leaving but a shoal of
cinders and sand.

The Bay of Santorin, in the island of that name, which lies
immediately to the north of Crete, has long been noted for its sub-
marine volcanoes. According to one account, indeed, the whole
island was at a remote period raised from the bottom of the sea ;

SUBMARINE VOLCANOES 427

but this is questionable. It is, with more reason, supposed that the
bay is the site of an ancient crater, which was situated on the sum-
mit of a volcanic cone that subsequently fell in. Certain it is that
islands have from time to time been thrown up by volcanic forces
from the bottom of the sea within this bay, and that some of them
have remained, while others have sunk again.

HOW AN ISLAND GREW

Of the existing islands, some were thrown up shortly before
the beginning of the Christian era ; in particular, one called the
Great Cammeni, which, however, received a considerable accession
to its size by a fresh eruption in A. D. 726. The islet nearest San-
torin was raised in 1573, and was named the Little Cammeni ; and
in 1 707 there was added, between the other two, a third, which is
now called the Black Island. This made its appearance above
water on the 23rd of May, 1 707, and was first mistaken for a wreck ;
but some sailors, who landed on it, found it to be a mass of rock ;
consisting of a very white soft stone, to which were adhering quan-
tities of fresh oysters. While they were collecting these, a violent
shaking of the ground scared them away.

During several weeks the island gradually increased in volume ;
but in July, at a distance of about sixty paces from the new islet,
there was thrown up a chain of black calcined rocks, followed by
volumes of thick black smoke, having a sulphurous smell. A few
days thereafter the water all around the spot became hot, and many
dead fishes were thrown up. Then, with loud subterraneous noises,
flames arose, and fresh quantities of stones and other substances
were ejected, until the chain of black rocks became united to the
first islet that had appeared. This eruption continued for a long
time, there being thrown out quantities of ashes and pumice, which

428 SUBMARINE VOLCANOES

covered the island of Santorin and the surface of the sea — some
being drifted to the coasts of Asia Minor and the Dardanelles.
The activity of this miniature volcano was prolonged, with greater
or less energy, for about ten years.

In 1866 similar phenomena took place in the Bay of Santorin,
beginning with underground sounds and slight shocks of earth-
quake, which were followed by the appearance of flames on the
surface of the sea. Soon after there arose, out of a dense smoke,
a small islet, which gradually increased until in a week's time it was
60 feet high, 200 long and 90 wide. The people of Santorin named
it "George," in honor of the King of Greece. In another week it
joined and became continuous with the Little Cammeni. The deto-
nations increased in loudness, and large quantities of incandescent
stones were thrown up from the crater.

About the same time, at the distance of nearly 1 50 feet from
the coast, to the westward of a point called Cape Phlego, there
rose from the sea another island, to which was given the name of
Aphroessa. It sank and reappeared several times before it estab-
lished itselr above water. The detonations and ejection of incan-
descent lava and stones continued at intervals during three weeks.
From the crater of the islet George, which attained a height of 1 50
feet, some stones several cubic yards in bulk were projected to a
great distance. One of them falling on board of a merchant vessel,
killed the captain and set fire to the ship.

By the loth of March the eruptions had partially subsided, but
were then renewed, and a third island, which was named Reka,
rose alongside of Aphroessa. They were at first separated by a
channel sixty feet deep ; but in three days this was filled up, and
the two islets became united.

VBMARINE VOLCANOES 429

Reference may properly be made here to Monte Nuovo and
Jorullo, not that they appertain to the present subject, but that they
form examples of the action of similar forces, in the one instance
exerted on a lake bottom, in the other on dry land, each yielding
permanent volcanic elevations in every respect analogous to those
which rise as islands from the bottom of the sea.

IN THE ICELANDIC SEAS

Off the coast of Iceland islands have appeared during several of
the volcanic eruptions which that remote dependency of Denmark
has manifested, and at various periods in Iceland's history the sea
has been covered with pumice and other debris, which tell their own
tale of what has been going on, without being in sufficient quantity
to reach the surface in the form of an island mass. The sea off
Reykjanes — Smoky Cape, as the name means — has been a frequent
scene of these submarine eruptions. In 1240, during what the Ice-
landic historians describe as the eighth outburst, a number of islets
were formed, though most of them subsequently disappeared, only
to have their places occupied by others born at a later date. In
1422 high rocks of considerable circumference appeared. In 1783,
about a month before the eruption of Skaptar Jokull, a volcanic
island named Nyoe, from which fire and smoke issued, was built up.
But in time it vanished under the waves, all that remains of it to-day
being a reef from five to thirty-five fathoms below the sea-level.
In 1830, after several long-continued eruptions of the usual char-
acter, another isle arose ; while at the same time the skerries known
as the Geirfuglaska disappeared, and with them vanished the great
auks, or gare-fowls — birds now extinct — which up to that time had
bred on them. At all events, though the auks could not well have
been drowned, no traces of them were seen after the date mentioned

430 SUBMARINE VOLCANOES

In July, 1884, an island again appeared about ten miles off Reykja-
nes ; but it is already beginning to diminish in size, and may soon
disappear.

OFF THE COAST OF ALASKA

Elsewhere in the region of the northern seas there are other
instances of the influence of the submarine forces in raising up and
lowering land. The coast of Alaska is a region of intense volcanic
action. In 1795, during a period of volcanic activity in the craters
of Makushina, on Unalaska, and in others on Umnak Island, a vol-
ume of smoke was seen to rise out of the sea about 42 miles to the
north of Unalaska, and the next year it was followed by a heap of
cindery material, from which arose flame and volcanic matter, the
glow being visible over a radius of ten miles. In four years the
island grew into a large cone, 3000 feet above the sea-level, an ( two
or three miles in circumference. Two years later it was still so hot
that when some hunters landed on it they found the soil too warm
for walking. It was named lonna Bogoslova (St. John the Theo-
logian), by the Russians, Agashagok by the Aleuts, and is now
known to the whites of that region as Bogosloff. Mr. Dall believes
that it occupies the site of some rocks that existed there as long as
tradition extends.

There were additions to the cone up to the year 1823, when
it became so quiescent as to be the favorite haunt of seals and
sea-fowls, and, when the weather was favorable, was visited by
native egg-hunters from Unalaska. During the summer of 1883
Bogosloff was again seen in eruption, as it was thought. However,
on closely examining the neighborhood, it was found that the old
island was undisturbed, but that there had been a fresh eruption,
which had resulted in the extension of Bogosloff by the appearance
of a cone and crater (Hague Volcano), 357 feet high, connected

SUBMARINE VOLCANOES 431

with the parent. island by a low sand-spit, and situated in a spot
where, the year before, the lead showed 800 fathoms of water. At
the same time Augustin and two other previously quiet islands on
the peninsula of Alaska began simultaneously to emit smoke, dust
and ashes, while a reef running westward and formerly submerged
became elevated to the sea surface. Other islands, of origin exactly
similar to Bogosloff and those mentioned, are to be found in this
region, notably Koniugi and Kasatochi, in the western Aleutians,
and Pinnacle Island, near St. Matthew Island. Indeed, the volcano
of Kliutchevsk, which rises to a height of over 1 5,000 feet, is really
a volcanic island.

A permanent addition was made to the Aleutian group of
Islands by the action of a submarine volcano in 1806. This new
island has the form of a volcanic peak, with several subsidiary
cones. It is four geographical miles in circumference. In 1814
another arose out of the sea in the same archipelago, the cone of
which attained a height of 3,000 feet ; but at the end of a year it
lost a portion of this elevation.

In 1856, in the sea in the same neighborhood, Captain Newell,
of the whaling bark Alice Fraser, witnessed a submarine eruption,
which was also seen by the crews of several other vessels. There
was no island formed on this occasion, but large jets of water were
thrown up, and the sea was greatly agitated all around. Then fol-
lowed volcanic smoke, and quantities of stones, ashes, and pumice ;
the two latter being scattered over the surface of the sea to a great
distance. Loud thundering reports accompanied this eruption, and
all the ships in the neighborhood felt concussions like those pro-
duced by an earthquake. These phenomena seem to have ended
in the formation of some great submarine chasm, into which the
waters rushed with extreme violence and a terrific roar.

432 SUBMARINE VOLCANOES

Occurrences similar to this lajt have been several times
observed in a tract of open sea in th« Atlantic, about half a degree
south of the equator, and between ja° and 22° of west longitude.
Although quantities of volcanic dros* have been from time to time
thrown up to the surface in this regi( a, no island has yet made its
appearance above water.

The events here described repet i on a far smaller scale similar
ones which have occurred in remote ages in many parts of the
ocean and left great island masses as the permanent effects of their
work. We may instance the Hawaiian group, which is wholly of
volcanic origin, with the exception of its minor coral additions, and
represents a stupendous activity of underground agencies beneath
the domain of Father Neptune.

In part, as we have said elsewhere in this work, all oceanic
islands, remote from those in the shoal bordering waters of the
continents, have been of volcanic or i»ral formation, or more often
a combination of the two. No soonar does an island mass appear
above or near the surface of tropical waters than the minute coral
animals — effective only by their myrlids — begin their labors, build-
ing fringes of coral rock around the cindery heaps lifted from the
ocean floor. The atolls of the Pacific — circular or oval rings of
coral with lagunes of sea-water within — have long been thought to
be built on the rims of submarine volcanoes, rising to within a few
hundred feet of the surface, much as coral reefs around actual
islands. If the volcanic mass should subsequently subside, as it is
likely to do, the minute ocean builders will continue their work—
unless the subsidence be too rapid for their powers of production —
and in this way ring-like islands of coral may in time rise from
great depths of sea, their basis being the volcanic island which has
sunk from near the surface far toward old ocean's primal floor.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Mud Volcanoes, Geysers, and Hot Springs.

OUR usual impression of a volcano is indicated in the title of
"burning mountain," so often employed, a great fire-
spouting cone of volcanic debris, from which steam, lava,
rock-masses, cinder-like fragments, and dust, often of extreme fine-
ness, are flung high into the air or flow in river-like torrents of
molten rock. This, no doubt, applies in the majority of cases, but
the volcanic forces do not confine themselves to these magnificent
displays of energy, nor are their products limited to those above
specified. We have seen that mud is a not uncommon product,
due to the mingling of water with volcanic dust, while water alone
is occasionally emitted, of which we have a marked instance in the
Volcan de Agua, of Guatemala, already mentioned. As regards
mud flows, we may specially instance the first outflow from Mont
Pelee, that by which the Guerin sugar works were overwhelmed.

The imprisoned forces of the earth have still other modes of
manifestation. A very frequent one of these, and the most destine-
tive to human life of them all, is the earthquake.

Minor manifestations of volcanic action may be seen in the
geyser and the hot spring, the latter the most widely disseminated
of all the resultant effects of the heated condition of the earth's
interior. It is these displays of subterranean energy, differing from
those usually termed volcanic, yet due to the same general causes,
that we have next to consider. And it may be premised that their
28 433

434 MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS

manifestations, while, exdept in the case of the earthquake, less
violent, are no less interesting, especially as the minor displays are
free from that peril to human life which renders the major ones so
terrible.

While the largest volcanoes at times pour out rivers of liquid
mud, there are volcanoes from which nothing is ever ejected but
mud and water, the latter being generally salt. From this circum-
stance they are sometimes called salses, but they are more generally
termed mud -volcanoes. Some varieties of them throw out little
else than gases of different sorts, and these are called air-volcanoes.

THE GREAT MUD VOLCANO OF SICILY

One of the best known mud-volcanoes is at Macaluba, near
Girgenti, in Sicily. It consists of several conical mounds, varying
from time to time in their form and height, which ranges from eight
to thirty feet. From orifices on the tops of these mounds there
are thrown out sometimes jets of warmish water and mud mixed
with bitumen, sometimes bubbles o:f gas, chiefly carbonic acid and
carburetted hydrogen, occasionally piue nitrogen. The mud ejected
has often a strong sulphurous smell. The jets in general ascend
only to a moderate height ; but occasio..ally they are thrown up
with great violence, attaining a height of about 200 feet. In 1777
there was ejected an immense column, consisting of mud strongly
impregnated with sulphur and mixed with naphtha and stones, ac-
companied also by quantities ol sulpiicrous vapors. This mud-
volcano is known to have been in action for fifteen centuries.

Very recently a small mud-volcano nas been foimec cr. the
flanks of Mount Etna. It began with the throwing up or jets 01
boiling water, mixed with petroleum and mud, .jiea quantities ot
gas bubbling up at the same time. In seveiu. o ti.c valleys of

MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS 433

Iceland there are similar phenomena, the boiling water and mud
being thrown up in jets to the height of fifteen feet and upwards,
the mud accumulating around the orifices whence the jets arise.

A mud-volcano named Korabetoff, in the Crimea, presents
phenomena more akin to those of the igneous volcanoes of South
America. There was an eruption from this mountauli on the 6th
of August, 1853. It began by throwing up frorr -.L summit
a column of fire and smoke, which ascended to a grea. height
This continued for five or six minutes, and was followed at short
intervals by two similar eruptions. There was then ejected with a
hissing noise a quantity of black fetid mud, which was so hot as to
scorch the grass on the edges of the stream. The mud cont'r aed
to pour out for three hours, covering a wide space at the mountain's
base. The mud-volcanoes on the coast of Beloochistan are v -i
numerous, and extend over an area of nearly a thousand square
miles. Their action resembles that at Macaluba.

THE MUD VOLCANO OF JAVA

There is a mud volcano in Java which is of interest as some*
what resembling the geyser in its mode of operation and apparently
due to similar agencies. It is thus described by Dr. Horsfield : —

" On approaching it from a distance, it is first discovered by a
large volume of smoke, rising and disappearing at intervals of a few
seconds, resembling the vapors rising from a violent surf. A foud
noise is heard, like that of distant thunder. Having advanced so
near that the vision was no longer impeded by the smoke, a large
hemispherical mass was observed, consisting of black earth mixed
with water, about sixteen feet in diameter, rising to the height of
twenty or thirty feet in a perfectly regular manner, and as if it were
pushed up by a force beneath, which suddenly exploded with a loud

436 MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS

noise, and scattered about a volume of black mud in every direc-
tion. After an interval of two or three, or sometimes four or five
seconds, the hemispherical body of mud rose and exploded again.
In the manner stated this volcanic ebullition goes on without inter-
ruption, throwing up a globular body of mud, and dispersing it with
violence through the neighboring plain. The spot where the ebul-
lition occurs is nearly circular, and perfectly level. It is covered
only with the earthy particles, impregnated with salt water, which
are thrown up from below. The circumference may be esti-
mated at about half an English mile. In order to conduct the salt
water to the circumference, small passages or gutters are made in the
loose muddy earth, which lead to the borders, where it is collected
in holes dug in the ground for the purpose of evaporation."

The mud has a strong, pungent, sulphurous smell, resembling
that of mineral oil, and is hotter than the surrounding atmosphere.
During the rainy season the explosions increase in violence.

There are submarine mud volcanoes as well as those of
igneous kind. In 1814 one of this character broke out in the
Sea of Azof, beginning with flame and black smoke, accompanied
by earth and stones, which were flung to a great height. Ten of
these explosions occurred, and, after a period of rest, others were
heard during the night. The next morning there was visible above
the water an island of mud some ten feet high. A very similar
occurrence took place in 1827, near Baku, in the Caspian sea.
This began with a flaming display and the ejection of great frag-
ments of rock. An eruption of mud succeeded. A set of small vol-
canoes discovered by Humboldt in Turbaco, in South America,
confined their emissions almost wholly to gases, chiefly nitrogen.

There is a close connection in character between mud volcanoes
and those intermittent boiling springs named geysers. A good many

MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS 437

of the mud volcanoes throw out jets of boiling water along with
the mud; but in the case of the geysers, the boiling water is ejected
alone, without any visible impregnation, though some mineral in
solution, as silica, carbonate of lime, or sulphur, is usually present.

THE GEYSER IS A WATER VOLCANO

The phenomenon of the geyser serves in a measure to support
the theory that steam is an important agent in volcanic action. A
geyser, in fact, may be designated as a water volcano, since it
throws up water only. It comprises a cone or mound, usually only
a few feet high. In the middle of this is a crater-like opening with
a passage leading down into the earth. As in the case
of the volcano, the geyser cone is built up by its own action.
In the boiling water which is ejected there is dissolved a certain
amount of silica. As the water falls and cools this mineral is
deposited, gradually building up a cup-like elevation. The basin of
the geyser is generally full of clear water, with a little steam rising
from its surface ; but at intervals an eruption takes place, some-
times at regular periods, but more often at irregular intervals.

Among the largest and best known geysers in the world are
those of Iceland, chief among them being the Great Geyser. Silica
is the mineral with which the waters of this fountain are impreg-
nated, and the substance which they deposit, as they slowly evapo-
rate, is named siliceous sinter. Of this material is composed the
mound, six or seven feet high, on which the spring is situated. On
the top of the mound is a large oval basin, about three feet in depth,
measuring in its larger diameterabout fifty-six, and in its shorter about
forty-six feet. The centre of this basin is occupied by a circular
well about ten feet in diameter, and between seventy and eighty
feet deep.

43* MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS

Out of the central well spiings a jet of boiling water, at inter-
vals of six or seven hours. When the fountain is at rest, both the
basin and the well appear quite empty, and no steam is seen. But
on the approach of the moment for action, the water rises in the
well, till it flows over into the basin. Then loud subterranean ex-
plosions are heard, and the ground ill round is violently shaken.

Instantly, and with immense force, a steaming jet of boiling
water, of the full width of the well, springs up and ascends to a
great height in the air. The top of this large column of water is
enveloped in vast clouds of steam, which diffuse themselves through
the air, rendering it misty. These jets succeed each other with great
rapidity to the number of sixteen or eighteen, the period of action
of the fountain being about five minutes. The last of the jets
generally ascends to the greatest height, usually to about 100, but
sometimes to 1 50 feet ; on one occasion it rose to the great height
of 212 feet. Having ejected this great column of water, the action
ceases, and the water that had filled the basin sinks down into the
well. There it remains till the time for the next eruption, when the
same phenomena are repeated. It has been found that, by throw-
ing large stones into the well, the period of the eruption may be
hastened, while the loudness of the explosions and the violence of
the fountain effect are increased, the stones being at the same time
ejected with great force.

ERUPTION CAN BE INDUCED BY ARTIFICIAL MEANS

Geysers are found all over the island, presenting various pecu-
liarities. In the case of one of the smaller ones, which is called
Strokr, or the Churn, an eruption can be induced by artificial means.
A barrow-load of sods is thrown into the crater of the geyser, with
the effect of causing an eruption. The sensitiveness of Strokr h

MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS 43$

due to its peculiar form. An observer states that, "The bore is
eight feet in diameter at the top, and forty-four feet deep. Below
twenty-seven feet it contracts to nineteen inches, so that the turf
thrown in completely chokes it. Steam collects below ; a foaming
scum covers the surface of the water, and in a quarter of an hour
it surges up the pipe. The fountain then begins playing, sending
its bundles of jets rather higher than those of the Great Geyser,
flinging up the clods of turf which have been its obstruction like a
number of rockets. This magnificent display continues for a quar-
ter of an hour or twenty minutes. The erupted water flows back
into the pipe from the curved sides of the bowl. This occasions a
succession of bursts, the last expiring effort, very generally, being
the most magnificent. Strokr gives no warning thumps, like the
Great Geyser, and there is not the same roaring of steam accom-
panying the outbreak of the water."

The same author thus describes an eruption of the Great
Geyser, which occurred about two o'clock in the morning : "A vio-
lent concussion of the ground brought me and my companions to
our feet We rushed out of the tent in every condition of disha-
bille and were in time to see Geyser put forth his full strength.
Five strokes underground were the signal, then an overflow, wet-
ting every side of the mound. Presently a dome of water rose in
the centre of the basin and fell again, immediately to be followed
by a fresh bell, which sprang into the air fully forty feet high,
accompanied by a roaring burst of steam. Instantly the fountain
began to play with the utmost violence, a column rushing up to the
height of ninety or one hundred feet against the gray night sky,
with mighty volumes of white steam cloud rolling after it and
swept off by the breeze to fall in torrents of hot rain. Jets and
lines of water tore their way through the clouds, or leaped high

440 MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS

above its domed mass. The earth trembled and throbbed during
the explosion, then the column sank, started up again, dropped
once more, and seemed to be sucked back into the earth. We ran
to the basin, which was left dry, and looked down the bore at the
water, which was bubbling at the depth of six feet."

In the case of Strokr, the cause of this eruption is not difficult
to understand. The narrow part of the channel is choked up by
the turf and the steam, and prevented from escaping. Finally it
gains such force as to drive out the obstacle with a violent explo-
sion, just as a bottle of fermenting liquor may blow out the cork
and discharge some of its contents.

Geysers are somewhat abundant phenomena, existing in many
parts of the earth, while striking examples of them are found in
the widely separated regions of Iceland, New Zealand, Japan and
the western United States. In the volcanic region of New Zealand
geysers and their associated hot springs are abundant. It was to
their action that we owed the famous white and pink terraces and
the warm lake of Rotomahana which were ruined by the destructive
eruption of Mount Tarawera, already described.

GEYSERS OF THE UNITED STATES

The United States is abundantly supplied with hot springs,
but geysers, outside of the Yellowstone region, are found only in
California and Nevada. Those of California exist chiefly in Napa
Valley, north of San Francisco, in a canon or defile. Their waters
are impregnated not with silica, but with sulphur, and they thus
approach more nearly in their character to mud-volcanoes, whose
ejections are, in like manner, much impregnated with that sub
stance. They are also, like them, collected in groups, there being
no less than one hundred openings within a space of flat ground a

MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS

44»

mile square. Owing to their number and proximity, their indiv*-4ual
energy is nothing like so violent as that of the geysers of Iceland.
Their jets seldom rise higher than 20 or 30 feet ; but so great a
number playing within so
confined a space produces
an imposing effect. The
jets of boiling water issue
with a loud noise from lit-
tle conical mounds, around
which the ground is merely
a crust of sulphur. When
this crust is penetrated,
the boiling water may be
seen underneath. The
rocks in the neighbor-
hood of these fountains
are all corroded by the
action of the sulphurous
vapors. Nevertheless,
within a distance of not
more than 50 feet from
them, trees grow without
injury to their health.

Few of these foun-
tains, however, are regular
geysers, most of them
discharging only steam.
From the Steamboat Geyser this ascends to a height of from 50
to TOO feet, with a roar like that of the escape from a steamboat
boiler. Associated with the geysers are numerous hot springs.

A QEYSER IN ERUPTION, YELLOWSTONE
NATIONAL PARK.

44* MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS

some clear, some turbid, and variously impregnated with iron,
sulphur or alum. In Nevada the Steamboat Springs, as they are
designated, exist in Washoe Valley, east of the Virginian range.
They come nearer in character to the Yellowstone geysers, their
waters depositing true geyserite, or silicious concretions. The
Volcano Springs, in Lauder County, are also true geysers, though
of small importance. The ground here is so thickly perforated by
holes from which steam escapes that it looks like a cullender.

THE YELLOWSTONE GEYSERS

The most remarkable geyser country in the world, alike for
the size and the number of its spouting fountains, is the Yellow-
stone region in the northwest part of the Territory of Wyoming,
in the United States, which, by a special act of Congress, has been
reserved as the Yellowstone National Park, exempt from settle-
ment, purchase or pre-emption. Here nearly every form ot geyser
and unintermittent hot spring occurs, with deposits of various
kinds, silicious, calcareous, etc. Of the hot springs, Dr. Peale
enumerates 2,195, and considers that within the limits of the park —
which is about 54 miles by 62 miles, and includes 3,312 square
miles — as many as 3,000 actually exist. The same geologist notes
the existence of 71 geysers in the area mentioned, though some of
the number are only inferred to be spouting springs from the form
of their basins and the character of the surrounding deposits. Of
this vast collection of still and eruptive springs, between which
there seems every gradation, those which do not send water into the
air are, owing to the magnificent cascades which they form, often
quite as remarkable as those which take the shape of geysers. The
more striking of the latter may, however, be briefly mentioned

MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS 443

In the Gibbon Basin is a geyser of late origin. In 1878 this
consisted of two steam holes, roaring on the side of a hill, that
looked as if they had recently burst through the surface ; and the
gully leading towards the ravine was at that date filled with sand,
which appeared to have been poured out during an eruption. Dead
trees stood on the line of this sand floor, and others, with their bark
still remaining, and even with their foliage not lost, were uprooted
hard by, everything indicating that the " steamboat vent," as it was
called, was of recent formation. In 1875 ^ na<^ no existence, but
in 1879 the spouting spring — which first opened, it is believed, on
the nth of August in the preceding year — had "settled down to
business as a very powerful flowing geyser," with a double period ;
one eruption occurring every half hour, and projecting water to the
height of 30 feet ; the main eruption occurring every six or seven
days, with long continued action, and a column of nearly 100 feet
The New Geyser in the same basin is also of quite recent
origin. It consists of two fissures in the rock, in which the water
boils vigorously. But there is no mound, and the rocks of the fis-
sure are just beginning to get a coating of the silicious geyserite
deposited from the water, so that it cannot long have been spout-
ing- Again, in the Grotto Geyser — in the Upper Geyser Basin of
Fire Hole River — the main or larger crater is hollowed into fantas-
tic arches, beneath which are the grotto-like cavities from which it
is named, which act as lateral orifices for the escape of water during
an eruption. It plays several times in the course of the twenty-four
hours, "and sends a column of water sixty feet high, the eruption
lasting an hour. As yet, however, the force of the water has not
been sufficient, or of sufficiently long duration, to break through
the arches covering the basin or crater. The Excelsior- -claimed
to be the largest of its order, which sent water nearly 300 feet into

444 MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS

the air at intervals of about five hours, and of such volume as to
wash away bridges over small streams below — was not, until com-
paratively recent years, known as a specially powerful geyser. But
if it had for a time waned in importance, its immense crater, 330
feet in length and 200 feet at the widest part, shows that at a still
earlier date it was a gigantic fountain. In this deep pit, when the
breeze wafted aside the clouds of steam constantly arising from its
surface, the water could be seen seething 15 or 20 feet below the
surrounding level. Yet into the cauldron of boiling water a little
stream of cold water, from the melting snow of the uplands, ran
unceasingly. Since 1888 this great geyser has been inactive.

The Castle Geyser is so named on account of the fancied
resemblance which its mound of white and grey deposit presents to
the ruins of a feudal keep, the crater itself being placed on a cone
or turret, which has a somewhat imposing appearance compared
with the other geysers in the neighborhood. It throws a column
usually about fifty or sixty feet high, at intervals of two or three
hours, but sometimes the discharge shoots up much higher.

The Giant, in the Upper Geyser Basin, has a peculiar crater,
which has been likened to the stump of a hollow sycamore tree of
gigantic proportions, whose top has been wrenched off by a storm.
This curious cup is broken down at one side, as though it had
been torn away during an eruption of more than ordinary violence,
and on this side the visitor is able to look into the crater, if he can
contrive to avoid the jets which are constantly spouted from it. The
periods of rest which it takes are varied, an eruption often not occur-
ring for several days at a time ; yet when it breaks out it con-
tinues playing for more than three hours, with a volume of water
reaching a height of from 130 to 140 feet. In the interval little
spouts are constantly in progess. Mr. Stanley saw one eruption

MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS

445

which he calculated to have shot a column of water to the height
of more than 200 feet. At first it seemed as though the geyser
was only making a feint, the discharge which preceded the great
one being merely repeated several times, followed by a cessation
both of the rumblintr noises and of the ejection of water. But

THE FAMOUS TERRACES OP YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

soon, after a premonitory cloud of steam, the geyser began to work
in earnest, the column discharged rising higher and higher, until
it reached the altitude mentioned.

"At first it appeared to labor in raising the immense volume,
which seemed loath to start on its heavenward tour; but it was
with perfect ease that the stupendous column was held to its place,

•

446 MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS

the water breaking into jets and returning in glittering showers to
the basin. The steam ascended in dense volumes for thousands of
feet, when it was freighted on the wings of the winds and borne
away in clouds. The fearful rumble and confusion attending it
were as the sound of distant artillery, the rushing of many horses
to battle, or the roar of a fearful tornado. It commenced to act at
? p. M., and continued for an hour and a half, the latter part of
which it emitted little else than steam, rushing upward from its
chambers below, of which, if controlled, there was enough to run
an engine of wonderful power. The waving to and fro of such a
gigantic fountain, when the column is at its height,

'Tinselled o'er in robes of varying hues,'

and glistening in the bright sunlight, which adorns it with the
glowing colors of many a gorgeous rainbow, affords a spectacle so
wonderful and grandly magnificent, so overwhelming to the mind,
that the ablest attempt at description gives the reader who has
never witnessed such a display but a feeble idea of its glory."

A DESCRIPTION OF THE GEYSER AT WORK

The only other geysers in this remarkable geyserland which
we can spare room to notice are those known as the Giantess, the
Beehive, and the Grand. The Giantess sends a column of water
to the height of 250 feet. An eruption is usually divided into
three periods — two preliminary efforts and a final one, divided
from each other by intervals of between one and two hours, while
the intervals of discharge are very long. Sometimes it does not
play for several weeks. The Beehive, which is 400 feet from the
Giantess, gets its name from the peculiar beehive-like cone which
it has formed. The eruption is also almost unique. It is heralded
by a slight escape of steam, which is followed by a column of steam

MUD VOLCANODS AND GEYSERS 447

and water, shooting to the height of over 200 feet The column
is somewhat fan-shaped, but it does not fall in rain, the spray-
being evaporated and carried off as steam — if, indeed, there is not
more steam than water in the column. The duration of the dis-
charge is between four and five minutes, and the interval between
two eruptions from twenty-one to twenty-five hours.

The Grand is one of the most important in the Upper Gey
ser basin. Yet, unlike the Grotto, the Giant, or the Old Faithful,
— so called from its frequent and regular eruptions — it has no raised
cone or crater, and a much less cavernous bowl than the Giantess
and other geysers. The column discharged ascends to the height
of from eighty to two hundred feet, and the eruptions last from
fifteen minutes to three-quarters of an hour, with intervals on an
average of from seven to twenty hours This fountain is appar .
ently very irregular in its action, though it is just possible that
when the Yellowstone geysers have been more consecutively stud
ied, it will be found that these seeming irregularities depend on
the varying supplies of water at different times of the year

THE MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS

The marvellous phenomena of the Yellowstone region are not
confined to geyser action, hot springs of steady flow being, as above
stated, exceedingly numerous. Of these the most striking are those
known as the Mammoth Hot Springs, whose waters find their way
through underground passages, finally flowing from an opening as
the " Boiling River," which empties into the Gardiner River.

These springs are marvels of beauty. Their terraced bowls,
adorned with delicate fret-work, are among the finest specimens of
Nature's handiwork in the world, and the colored waters themselves
are startling in their brilliancy. Red, pink, black, canary, green,

*44» MUD VOLCANOES AND GEYSERS

saffron, blue, chocolate, and all their intermediate gradations are
found here in exquisite harmony. The springs rise in terraces of
various heights and widths, having intermingled with their delicate
shades chalk-like cliffs, soft and crumbly, these latter being the
remains of springs from which the life and beauty have departed.
The great spring is the largest in the .country, the water flowing
through three openings into a basin forty feet long by twenty-five
feet wide. From this the h 3t mineral waters drip over into lower
basins, of gracefully curved and scalloped outline, the minerals
deposited on the lips of the basin forming stalagmites of variegated
hue, yielding a brilliant and beautiful effect. The terraced basins
bear a close resemblance to the former New Zealand pink and white
terraces, and since the annihilation of the latter are the most
charming examples in existence of this rare form of Nature's artistic
handiwork.

* There are 512 pages in this volume. The sixty four pages of halftone illustrations
should be added to the last folio number (448) indicated, giving a total of 512 pages.

MORRIS, CHARLES

Morris's story of the great
earthquake of 1908, and other
historic disasters..

DG
828*
.M6

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