CHAPTER XXV

Summary

In the preceding chapters we have considered a small part of those earthquakes only which have occurred during the last fifty years, of which accurate and authentic descriptions happen to have been recorded. We shall next proceed to examine some of earlier date, respecting which information of geological interest has been obtained.

Java, 1772.—In the year 1772, Papandayang, formerly one of the loftiest volcanos in the island of Java, was in eruption. Before all the inhabitants on the declivities of the mountain could save themselves by flight, the ground began to give way, and a great part of the volcano fell in and disappeared. It is estimated that an extent of ground of the mountain itself and its immediate environs fifteen miles long and full six broad, was by this commotion swallowed up in the bowels of the earth. Forty villages were destroyed, some being engulphed and some covered by the substances thrown out on this occasion, and two thousand nine hundred and fifty-seven of the inhabitants perished. A proportionate number of cattle were also killed, arid most of the plantations of cotton, indigo, and coffee in the adjacent districts were buried under the volcanic matter. This catastrophe appears to have resembled, although on a grander scale, that of the ancient Vesuvius in the year 79. The cone was reduced in height from nine thousand to about five thousand feet, and, as vapours still escape from the crater on its summit, a new cone may one day rise out of the ruins of the ancient mountain, as the modern Vesuvius has risen from the remains of Sorama.