Frida °n f°H°wing mOrning? ^ waS
July 14. apprised of an approaching eruption
by subterraneous noises and shocks of the
ground, similar to those which I had heard
and felt the preceding day; but the noises
were repeated several times, and at uncertain,
though quickly recurring, intervals. I
could only compare them to the distant firing
from a fleet of ships on a rejoicing day,
when the cannon are discharged without regularity,
now singly, and now two or three
almost at the same moment. 1 was standing
at the time on the brink of the basin, but
was soon obliged to retire a few steps by
the heaving of the water in the middle,
and the consequent flowing of its agitated
surface over the margin, which happened
three separate times in about as many minutes.
A few seconds only had elapsed,
when the first jet took place, and this had
scarcely subsided before it was succeeded by
a second, and then by a third, which last
was by far the most magnificent, rising in a
body that appeared to us to reach not less
than ninety feet in height, and to be in its
lower part nearly as wide as the basin itself,