So lately as September 1849, Mount Merapia, another volcano in this
island, which had been supposed to be quite extinct, burst forth
into an eruption, which lasted three days. It was accompanied by a
violent hurricane. The bed of a river was filled up by the matter
thrown out from the crater, and the destruction of property in
crops, &c., was immense. Fortunately the inhabitants succeeded in
making their escape, so that no lives were lost. A second eruption
of this mountain however, in January 1864, was more disastrous,
three hundred and fifty people having perished.

Java likewise contains a remarkable mud volcano. When viewed from a
distance, there are seen to rise from it large volumes of vapour,
like the spray from the billows dashing against a rocky shore, and
there is heard a loud noise like distant thunder. On a nearer
approach, the source of these phenomena is seen to be a
hemispherical mound of black earth mixed with water, about sixteen
feet in diameter, and which at intervals of a few seconds is pushed
upwards by a force acting from beneath to a height of between
twenty and thirty feet. It then suddenly explodes with a loud
noise, scattering in every direction a quantity of black mud, which
has a strong pungent smell resembling that of coal-tar, and is
considerably warmer than the air. With the mud thus thrown out
there has been formed around the mound a large perfectly level and
nearly circular plain, about half a mile in circumference. The
water mixed with the mud is salt, and the salt is separated from it
by evaporation for economical purposes. During the rainy season the
action of this mud volcano becomes more violent, the explosions are
louder, and the mud is thrown to a greater height.