DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61277#0068
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VOLCANIC DEVASTATION.
world was about to be dissolved, and reduced into
that chaos from which it originally sprang.
Meantime, the sides of the mountain became
incapable of containing the melted substances
which rose and pressed against them. A dread-
ful noise, resembling that of the loudest thunder,
with incessant reports, like those from a nume-
rous heavy artillery, accompanied by a continued
hollow murmur, similar to that of the roaring of
the ocean during a storm, announced an eruption
at hand. In a moment, rivers of red-hot liquid
lava burst from the crater, and rushed down the
sides of the mountain with impetuous velocity,
increasing in breadth as they advanced, and form-
ing torrents of burning fire. The strongest trees
disappeared before them, like feeble blades of
grass before the scythe of the mower; groves,
gardens, villas, palaces, temples, towns, and
cities, were overwhelmed by the fiery deluge;
and within the course of twelve or twenty hours,
at the utmost, the very spot upon which they
recently stood had undergone so complete a
change as to be no longer recognized.
At length, however, the dreadful darkness
faded, and disappeared before the radiance of
day; the sun darted his morning beams; the fire
VOLCANIC DEVASTATION.
world was about to be dissolved, and reduced into
that chaos from which it originally sprang.
Meantime, the sides of the mountain became
incapable of containing the melted substances
which rose and pressed against them. A dread-
ful noise, resembling that of the loudest thunder,
with incessant reports, like those from a nume-
rous heavy artillery, accompanied by a continued
hollow murmur, similar to that of the roaring of
the ocean during a storm, announced an eruption
at hand. In a moment, rivers of red-hot liquid
lava burst from the crater, and rushed down the
sides of the mountain with impetuous velocity,
increasing in breadth as they advanced, and form-
ing torrents of burning fire. The strongest trees
disappeared before them, like feeble blades of
grass before the scythe of the mower; groves,
gardens, villas, palaces, temples, towns, and
cities, were overwhelmed by the fiery deluge;
and within the course of twelve or twenty hours,
at the utmost, the very spot upon which they
recently stood had undergone so complete a
change as to be no longer recognized.
At length, however, the dreadful darkness
faded, and disappeared before the radiance of
day; the sun darted his morning beams; the fire