hurled miles high into the air,
till caught by the current of the anti-trade winds.

KINGSLEY'S VISIT TO SAINT VINCENT

From Charles Kingsley's "At Last" we extract, from the account of the
visit of the author to St. Vincent, some interesting matter concerning
the 1812 eruption and its effect on the mountain; also its influence
upon distant Barbados, as just stated.

"The strangest fact about this eruption was, that the mountain did not
make use of its old crater. The original vent must have become so jammed
and consolidated, in the few years between 1785 and 1812, that it could
not be reopened, even by a steam force the vastness of which may be
guessed at from the vastness of the area which it had shaken for
two years. So, when the eruption was over, it was found that the old
crater-lake, incredible as it may seem, remained undisturbed, so far
as has been ascertained; but close to it, and separated only by a
knife-edge of rock some 700 feet in height, and so narrow that, as I
was assured by one who had seen it, it is dangerous to crawl along it,
a second crater, nearly as large as the first, had been blasted out, the
bottom of which, in like manner, was afterward filled with water.

"I regretted much that I could not visit it. Three points I longed
to ascertain carefully--the relative heights of the water in the two
craters; the height and nature of the spot where the lava stream issued;
and, lastly, if possible, the actual causes of the locally famous
Rabacca, or 'Dry River,' one of the largest streams in the island,
which was swallowed up during the eruption, at a short distance from its
source, leaving its bed an arid gully to this day. But it could not be,
and I owe what little I know of the summit of the soufriere principally
to a most intelligent and gentleman-like young Wesleyan minister, whose
name has escaped me. He described vividly, as we stood together on the
deck, looking up at the volcano, the awful beauty of the twin lakes, and
of the clouds which, for months together, whirl in and out of the cups
in fantastic shapes before the eddies of the trade wind.

BLACK SUNDAY AT BARBADOS

"The day after the explosion, 'Black Sunday,' gave a proof of, though no
measure of, the enormous force which had been exerted. Eighty miles to
windward lies Barbados. All Saturday a heavy cannonading had been heard
to the eastward. The English and French fleets were surely engaged. The
soldiers were called out; th