eastern slope. After a pause of about thirty-six hours, there was
opened on the eastern slope, about half way down the mountain,
another crater, whence there rose an immense jet of liquid lava,
which attained a height of about a thousand feet, and had a
diameter of about a hundred feet. This jet was sustained for twenty
days and nights; but during that time its height varied from the
extreme limit of a thousand, down to about a hundred feet. The play
of this fiery fountain was accompanied by explosions so loud as to
be heard at the distance of forty miles. Nothing could surpass the
awful grandeur of this jet, which was at a white heat when it
issued from its source, but, cooling as it ascended into the air,
it became of a bright blood red, which, as the liquid fell,
deepened into crimson.

In a few days there was raised around this crater a cone of about
three hundred feet in height, composed of the looser materials
thrown out along with the lava. This cone continued to glow with
intense heat, throwing out occasional flashes. The base of this
cone eventually acquired a circumference of about a mile. But the
fountain itself formed a river of glowing lava, which rushed and
bounded with the speed of a torrent down the sides of the mountain,
filling up ravines and dashing over precipices, until it reached
the forests at the foot of the volcano. These burst into flames at
the approach of the fiery torrent, sending up volumes of smoke and
steam high into the air. The light from the burning forests and the
lava together was so intense as to turn night into day, and was
seen by mariners at a distance of nearly two hundred miles.

During the day the air throughout a vast extent was filled with a
murky haze, through which the sun showed only a pallid glimmer.