were sacrificed in this week of horrors; and from the reeling
mountains, the uplifted ocean, and the fiery inundation, the terrified
survivors fled into Hilo, each with a tale of woe and loss. The number
of shocks of earthquake counted was 2,000 in two weeks, an average of
140 a day; but on the other side of the island the number was
incalculable.

Since that time there have been several eruptions of these great
Hawaiian volcanoes, but none so destructive to life and property. Only
two years ago the crater of Mauna Loa was in eruption for some weeks,
and travelers journeyed to the vicinity from all over the world to see
the grand display of Nature's power in the fountains of lava and the
blazing rivers flowing down the mountain side. The spectacle could be
viewed perfectly at night from ships at sea, and from places of safety
on shore.

Across the North Pacific, from Kamschatka to Alaska, is a continuous
chain of craters in the Aleutian islands, forming almost a bridge over
the ocean, and from Alaska down the western coasts of the two Americas
is a string of the mightiest volcanoes in existence. Iceland is a
seething caldron under its eternal snows, and in a hundred places
where some great, jagged cone of a volcano rises, seemingly dead and
lifeless, only a fire-brand in the hand of nature may be needed to
awaken it to a fury like that of which its vast lava beds, pinnacles,
and craters are so eloquent.

The world's record for the extent of an eruption probably belongs to
the great volcano Skaptan Jokul, in Iceland. This eruption began on
June 11, 1783, having been preceded by violent earthquakes. A torrent
of lava welled up into the crater, overflowed it, and ran down the
sides of the cone into the channel of the Skapta river, completely
drying it up. The river had occupied a rocky gorge, from 400 to 600
feet deep, and averaging 200 feet wide. This gorge was filled, a deep
lake was filled, and the rock, still at white heat, flowed on into
subterranean caverns. Tremendous explosions followed, throwing
boulders to enormous heights. A week after the first eruption another
stream of lava followed the first, debouched over a precipice into the
channel of another river, and finally, at the end of two years, the
lava had spread over the plains below in great lakes twelve to fifteen
miles wide and a hundred feet deep. Twenty villages were destroyed by
fire, and out of 50,000 inhabitants nearly 9,000 perished, either from