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Wonders of Creation

A >> Anonymous >> Wonders of Creation




In the Island of Sangir, another of the Moluccas, there was a
violent eruption in March 1856. A large portion of the mountain
fell down, and tremendous floods of water issued forth. The
destruction that ensued was dreadful, upwards of two thousand
persons having perished.

In another part of the Indian Ocean, near Madagascar, lies the
little Isle of Bourbon, containing the volcano Salazes, which
occasionally throws out the curious thready substance already
mentioned, so strongly resembling spun glass.




CHAPTER XI.

Mud and Air Volcanoes--Luss--Macaluba--Taman--Korabetoff--New
Island in the Sea of Azof--Jokmali--Fires of Baku--Mud Volcano in
Flank of Etna--Air Volcanoes of Turbaco, Cartagena, and Galera-
Zamba.


The curious mud volcano in the Island of Java, described in
the preceding chapter, although presenting some peculiar features,
is not the only one of the kind in the world. Mud, as you have
learned, is often thrown out in great quantities, along with
boiling water, even by true volcanoes, which at other times eject
ashes and lava. But there are some volcanoes that never throw out
anything else than mud and water, gas and steam. Such are called
mud volcanoes or salses.

The most remarkable assemblage of mud volcanoes in the world exists
in the district of Luss, lying at the south-east corner of
Beloochistan. They extend over a very large area, and are
exceedingly numerous. The cone of one of them is no less than four
hundred feet high, and the crater at the top is ninety feet in
diameter. The mud in the crater is quite liquid, and is constantly
disturbed by bubbles of gas, and occasionally by jets of the mud
itself.

More familiarly known is the mud volcano of Macaluba, near
Girgenti, in Sicily. It is situated in a country much impregnated
with sulphur and other inflammable matters. The top of the hill is
covered with dry clay, in which are numerous basins full of warmish
water mixed with mud and bitumen. From these small craters bubbles
of gas arise from time to time; but at long intervals they become
much more active, and throw up jets of wet mud to the height of
nearly two hundred feet. This mud smells strongly of sulphur.

In the peninsula of Taman, near the entrance to the Sea of Azof,
there is a group of mud volcanoes, from one of which there was a
considerable eruption on the 27th of February 1793. It was preceded
by underground detonations, and accompanied by a column of fire and
dense vapour, which rose to the height of several hundred feet. The
discharge of mud and gas was abundant. The accompaniment of fire
and smoke makes this eruption more nearly resemble that of a true
volcano.

There is in the adjacent parts of the Crimea a mountain named
Korabetoff, which also presents similar phenomena. On the 6th of
August 1853, a column of fire and smoke was seen to rise from the
top of this mountain to a great height, and it continued for five
or six minutes. Two other similar but less violent ejections of
fire and smoke followed at short intervals. These appearances were
the accompaniments of an eruption of black fetid mud, which
overspread the ground at the foot of the mountain to a considerable
depth.

A still more striking phenomenon occurred in the Sea of Azof, on
the 10th of May 1814. On that day a column of flame and very thick
smoke arose out of the water, with a loud report like that of a
cannon, and masses of earth with large stones were tossed high up
into the air. Ten eruptions of this kind succeeded each other at
intervals of about a quarter of an hour; and after they had ceased
for a time, they began again during the night. Next morning it was
found that an island had risen out of the sea, between nine and ten
feet in height, surrounded by a lower level of hardened mud. A
strong fetid smell, probably that of petroleum, proceeded from the
island, and extended for a considerable distance all round.

[Illustration: Air Volcanoes of Turbaco]

Another mud volcano, named Jokmali, near the Caspian Sea, was
formed in November 1827. In this case, also, the ejection of mud
was for several hours preceded by flames, rising to so great a
height that they could be seen at a distance of twenty-four miles.
Large pieces of rock were at the same time thrown up and scattered
to considerable distances all round. The entire district in which
this mountain is situated, has its soil copiously impregnated with
petroleum, and numerous wells are formed for its collection.
Quantities of this mineral oil are frequently found floating on the
sea, along the neighbouring shores, where the sailors are in the
habit of setting fire to this floating petroleum, while they
dexterously steer their boats so as to avoid the flames. In this
district also stands the city of Baku, held sacred by the Parsees,
or fire-worshippers, who have here built a temple, in which are
kept burning perpetual fires, fed by the naphtha springing from the
ground.

During the past year, 1866, a small mud volcano has been formed in
the flanks of Mount Etna. It began with an outburst of strong jets
of boiling water. First, one rose to the height of about six feet,
then several others broke out, whereupon the height of the whole
set diminished. There was much gas bubbling through the water, and
some petroleum floated on its surface. It was very muddy, and left
a thick deposit as it flowed away. Neither flames nor noise
accompanied this eruption.

There are also diminutive volcanoes, consisting of small conical
hills, from which nothing seems to be emitted but various sorts of
gas. These are called air volcanoes. Such are those of Turbaco in
South America, discovered by Baron Humboldt, who has left us a
picture of them, of which you here have a copy. These volcanic
hillocks are truncated cones, eighteen or twenty in number,
composed of hardened mud, from 18 to 24 feet in height, and from
about 140 to about 180 feet in diameter at the base. The small
craters at the top are filled with liquid mud, whence bubbles of
gas, chiefly nitrogen, are being continually disengaged.

There is a similar, but much larger, group in the neighbouring
province of Cartagena. It consists of about one hundred cones
spread over a district of nearly four hundred square leagues. There
is also a group of about fifty cones within a range of four or five
miles in the adjacent peninsula of Galera-Zamba. A sub-marine
volcano, from which there have been several eruptions, is supposed
to be connected with these numerous salses.




CHAPTER XII.

New Zealand--Boiling Fountains and Lakes


In the eruptions of mud volcanoes, described in the foregoing
chapter, a frequent ingredient is boiling water. There are,
however, several instances in which there are thrown up jets of
boiling water that are not intermingled with mud, but in which the
water is either pure or impregnated with some mineral which it
holds in perfect solution. Of this nature are the Geysers of
Iceland and California, already described.

In New Zealand there is another variety of this phenomenon, the
boiling water issuing forth, not in intermittent jets, as in the
Geysers, but in perpetually flowing springs, forming lakes, in
which the water remains nearly at the boiling point. These springs
and lakes occur at a place called Roto-Mahana. The annexed woodcut
will convey an idea of their appearance.

There are several basins raised one above another, and all higher
than the level of the large lake. The highest is of an oval form,
and about two hundred and fifty feet in circumference. It is filled
from an opening at the height of about a hundred feet above the
level of the lower lake. At various stages below this upper basin
are numerous other springs, from which several similar basins are
filled. The whole of these basins empty themselves into the large
lake below, and the water in all of them is nearly boiling hot,
giving forth, with a hissing sound, volumes of white vapour.

[Illustration: Boiling Lakes of Roto Mahana]

These waters are richly impregnated with carbonate of lime, which
has formed all round the margins of the basins beautiful
incrustations of snowy whiteness. The sand round the lake is very
warm; and if a stick be thrust into it, jets of steam arise.

Doubtless, some years hence, the enterprising English settlers will
establish hot baths here. Not far from the lake there are smaller
basins, in which the water is not beyond what would be agreeable
for a warm bath; while it is of a blue colour and beautifully
clear.

On both banks of the river Waikato, also in this neighbourhood, are
found numerous basins full of boiling mud or slime, which cannot be
approached save with extreme care, owing to the softness and
slipperiness of the soil. The largest of these basins is oval in
form, 14 feet long by 8 feet wide, and about as much in depth. It
contains hot mud of a bright red colour, being strongly impregnated
with oxide of iron. Large viscous bubbles are continually rising to
the top, and on bursting they emit a fetid, sulphureous smell.
These phenomena are nearly akin to those of a mud volcano.




CHAPTER XIII.

Underground Sounds--Quito--Rio Apure--Guanaxuato--Melida--Nakous.


Not the least remarkable among the phenomena produced by volcanic
forces, are the strange underground noises which are occasionally
heard. For the most part these are the preludes either of shocks of
earthquake or of volcanic eruptions. Those which for months
preceded the upheaval of the volcano of Jorullo, will recur to your
remembrance. For about a month before the great mud eruption from
Tunguragua on 4th February 1797, already described, there proceeded
from the interior of that mountain noises of the most fearful kind.
These would occur suddenly in the midst of perfect silence. They
were heard by Antonio Pineda, the naturalist, who was there at the
time, and they led him to foretell the approach of some great
convulsion. Strange to say, however, the catastrophe itself was
unaccompanied by underground noises any where near the volcano.
But, stranger still, at Quito, which is distant about 200 miles, a
short time after the eruption began, there were heard tremendous
underground thunders. But this distance, between the site of the
underground noises and the probable focus of disturbance, was far
exceeded in another remarkable instance. It is stated by Humboldt
that, in the grassy plains of Calaboso, on the banks of the Rio
Apure, a tributary of the Orinoco, there were heard, over a large
extent of country, loud underground thunders, unaccompanied by any
shaking of the ground; while great streams of lava were being
poured forth from the crater of Morne-Garou, in the Island of St.
Vincent, at the distance of no less than 632 miles in a right line.
This was as though an eruption of Mount Vesuvius were accompanied
by underground thunders in Normandy.

There have, nevertheless, been instances of the existence of such
underground noises, without their having been followed either by an
earthquake, by a volcanic eruption, or any other outward appearance
whatever. One of the most remarkable cases of the kind, was that
mentioned by Humboldt as having occurred at Guanaxuato in Mexico, a
mountain-city situated far from any active volcano. This celebrated
traveller states that these noises began on the 9th of January
1784, and lasted above a month. The sounds were at first neither
very loud nor very frequent; but from the 15th to the 16th of
January they resembled continuous low rolling thunder, alternating
with short loud thunder-claps. The sounds then gradually died away
and nothing came of them, although they excited great terror among
the inhabitants while they lasted. There are mines in the
neighbourhood fifteen hundred and ninety-eight English feet in
depth, yet neither in them nor at the surface could the least
tremor be detected.

A somewhat similar phenomenon occurred in the Island of Melida in
the Adriatic, off the coast of Dalmatia, where underground
rumblings were heard from March 1822 to September 1824; but in this
case the sounds were sometimes accompanied by shocks.

A still more singular phenomenon of this sort occurs on the borders
of the Red Sea, at a place called Nakous, where intermittent
underground sounds have been heard for an unknown number of
centuries. It is situated at about half a mile's distance from the
shore, whence a long reach of sand ascends rapidly to a height of
about three hundred feet. This reach is about eighty feet wide, and
resembles an amphitheatre, being walled in by low rocks. The sounds
coming up from the ground at this place recur at intervals of about
an hour. They at first resemble a low murmur; but ere long there is
heard a loud knocking, somewhat like the strokes of a bell, and
which, at the end of about five minutes, becomes so strong as to
agitate the sand.

The explanation of this curious phenomenon given by the Arabs, is,
that there is a convent under the ground here, and that these
sounds are those of the bell, which the monks ring for prayers. So
they call it "Nakous," which means a bell. The Arabs affirm that
the noise so frightens their camels when they hear it as to render
them furious. Philosophers attribute the sounds to suppressed
volcanic action--probably to the bubbling of gas or vapours
underground.




CHAPTER XIV.

Extinct Volcanoes--Auvergne--Vienne--Agde--Eyfel--Italy--Lacus
Cimini--Grotto del Cane--Guevo Upas--Talaga Bodas--The Dead Sea.


There are two sorts of extinct volcanoes: _first_, those in
which all evidences of activity have entirely ceased; and,
_secondly_, those in which a subdued state of activity
lingers. The former are more widely distributed than the latter;
but sometimes both kinds occur in the same district of country.

Extinct volcanoes are found in the district of Auvergne in France.
Solidified streams of lava occur at Volvic near Riom; and the
crater whence they descended is still visible on the top of the Puy
de Nugere. It is an oblong basin, having its edge broken on the
side down which the lava flowed. In its descent the fiery stream
appears to have encountered a knoll of granite, by which it was
divided into two branches. These seem to have reunited lower down,
and thence to have overspread the valley beneath.

The Puy de Come, a mountain near Clermont, appears to have sent
forth two streams of lava, which have effected considerable changes
in the surface of the country--blocking up the courses of rivers
diverting them into new channels, and forming swamps in the old. On
the top of Puy Pariou, to the north of Clermont, there exists a
perfect crater, quite round, and about two hundred and fifty feet
deep, whence there has flowed a stream of lava, whose course can be
distinctly traced. The summit of Puy Graveniere, a long round-
backed hill also near Clermont, consists almost entirely of a heap
of volcanic cinders, which have obliterated all traces of a crater;
but two streams of lava appear to have flowed from the sides of the
mountain. The Puy de Dome, and the mountains in its neighbourhood,
likewise appear to be of volcanic origin, and to have been upheaved
somewhat in the same manner as Jorullo. Although the aspect of the
mountains of Auvergne indicates so clearly their having been active
since the surrounding country acquired its present general
conformation, neither history nor tradition has preserved any
record of their eruptions.

There is extant, however, a letter from Sidonius Apollinaris, a
cotemporary of Pliny, addressed to the Bishop of Vienne, in which
he refers to forms of prayer which had been appointed by the bishop
at the time when earthquakes demolished the walls of Vienne, and
the mountains, opening, vomited forth torrents of inflamed
materials. It hence appears that the extinct volcanoes in the
neighbourhood of Vienne, and perhaps those of Le Puy, had been in a
state of eruption not long after the beginning of the Christian
era. To the westward of the latter town, there is a number of small
volcanic craters, of which the two largest are the Lake de Bouchet
and the Crater of Bar, which also appears to have been at one time
a lake, but is now dry. The former has its greatest diameter about
2300 feet, with a depth of about 90 feet. The latter is on the top
of a mountain, which is composed entirely of such substances as are
ejected by volcanoes. Its diameter is about 1660, and its depth
about 130 feet; while it is almost perfect in its form. The
mountains near Vienne exhibit streams of lava, which accommodate
themselves to the existing valleys. Near Agde also, on the shores
of the Gulf of Lions, on the top of a hill named St. Loup, there is
an extinct crater, whence have descended two streams of lava
apparently of recent origin. On one of them the town of Agde has
been built; the other projects into the sea.

The district of Eyfel, on the borders of the Rhine, is another in
which extinct volcanoes abound. They occur mostly in the form of
circular craters, which are now filled with water, their borders
consisting of volcanic ejections. They also exhibit various
superficial streams of lava. One of the most remarkable of these
round craters lies near Andernuch, a little west of the Rhine. It
is named the Lake of Laach, and is nearly two miles in circumference.
On its margin are found numerous volcanic ejections, exactly
resembling those of Mount Vesuvius. Notwithstanding these
evidences that the extinct volcanoes of Eyfel have been in activity
since the country acquired its present conformation, there are no
historical records of their operations. There is, indeed, a passage
in Tacitus referring to fires that issued from the earth near
Cologne; but his description does not warrant the conclusion that
the event to which he alludes was of the nature of a volcanic
eruption. The Drachenfels on the eastern bank of the Rhine, and the
other mountains in its neighbourhood, belong to the more ancient
volcanic formations. The same may be affirmed of the other
mountains scattered throughout Germany and central Europe
generally, in which rocks of volcanic origin occur.

There are a good many traces of extinct volcanoes in Italy, besides
those of the Phlegraean fields already mentioned. In general
character they resemble those previously described. The chief
localities are certain lakes, near Volterra in Tuscany, which give
forth very hot sulphurous and boracic acid vapours; a small
sulphureous lake near Viterbo continually giving forth bubbles of
gas; the Lake of Vico between Viterbo and Rome; the mountain and
Lake of Albano near Rome; Mount Vultur in the Apennines, in the
province of the Basilicata; and Lake Agnano near Naples. Of these,
the Lakes of Vico and Agnano are the most interesting. The former
is the ancient Lacus Cimini, and old authors state that its site
was once occupied by a town, whose ruins used to be visible at the
bottom of the lake when the water was clear. The ground, with the
town upon it, is said to have been ingulfed during a volcanic
convulsion, when the lake was formed in its place.

The Lake Agnano is the site of an ancient volcanic crater, and on
its margin is situated the Grotto del Cane, so famous for the
deadly vapours it exhales. These consist of carbonic acid gas, in
combination with watery vapour. This celebrated Grotto is thus
described, in his work on volcanoes, by Dr. Daubeny, who visited
the spot:--

"The mouth of the cavern being somewhat more elevated than its
interior, a stratum of carbonic acid goes on constantly
accumulating at the bottom, but upon rising above the level of its
mouth, flows like so much water over the brim. Hence the upper part
of the cavern is free from any noxious vapour; but the air of that
below is so fully impregnated, that it proves speedily fatal to any
animal that is immersed in it, as is shown to all strangers by the
experiment with the dog.

"The sensation I experienced, on stooping my head for a moment to
the bottom, resembled that of which we are sometimes sensible on
drinking a large glass of soda water in a state of brisk
effervescence. The cause in both instances is plainly the same.

"The quantity of carbonic acid present in the cavern at various
heights, was shown by immersing in it various combustibles in a
state of inflammation. I found that phosphorus would continue
lighted at about two feet from the bottom, whilst a sulphur match
went out a few inches above, and a wax taper at a still higher
level.

"It was impossible to fire a pistol at the bottom of the cavern,
for although gunpowder may be exploded even in carbonic acid by the
application of a heat sufficient to decompose the nitre, and
consequently to envelop the mass in an atmosphere of oxygen gas,
yet the mere influence of a spark from steel produces too slight an
augmentation of temperature for this purpose."

Similar phenomena, but on a grander scale, are presented by the
extinct crater in the Island of Java called "Guevo Upas," the
Poison-Valley. It is a level about half a mile in circumference,
surrounded by precipitous rocks. From various parts of its soil
carbonic acid gas is discharged in such quantities as to prove
fatal to any animal venturing nigh. The ground is consequently
strown with numerous skeletons. This valley gave rise to the famous
figment about the upas-tree, which once obtained such general
belief in Europe.

There is another extinct crater in Java, whence are exhaled vapours
equally deadly, but which exert a most peculiar effect on the dead
carcasses subjected to their influence. Instead of their being, as
in the Gruevo Upas, reduced to skeletons, the carcasses have all
their bones dissolved by the vapours; while the flesh, skin, hair,
and nails are by their action preserved from decay. This remarkable
crater is situated near the volcano of Talaga Bodas.

Of all the extinct volcanoes in the world, however, none is so
remarkable as the Dead Sea. That singular collection of salt and
bitter water has the level of its surface depressed 1312 feet below
that of the Mediterranean--thus indicating an enormous subsidence.
The Dead Sea occupies the site of what was formerly the plain of
Jordan, described as having been "well-watered everywhere, as the
garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt." One part of it, called
the Vale of Siddim, was full of slime-pits--the only indications of
volcanic action. When the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which stood
in the plain, were destroyed, the Lord, it is said, rained upon
them fire and brimstone from heaven; but while these fell upon the
cities from the atmosphere, it appears that they must have
primarily been discharged from the earth; for "the smoke of the
country went up as the smoke of a furnace." The phenomena,
therefore, most likely resembled, in the first instance, those of
Jorullo; but the catastrophe seems to have ended like the last
great eruption of the volcano in Timor--the whole of the plain
having been ingulfed and replaced by the salt lake, whose depressed
level so clearly indicates the nature of its origin.

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