From The Extreme Eastern Bend Of
This Belt At Banda, We Pass Onwards For 1,000 Miles Over A Non-
Volcanic district to the volcanoes observed by Dampier, in 1699,
on the north-eastern coast of New Guinea, and can
There trace
another volcanic belt through New Britain, New Ireland, and the
Solomon Islands, to the eastern limits of the Archipelago.
In the whole region occupied by this vast line of volcanoes, and
for a considerable breadth on each side of it, earthquakes are of
continual recurrence, slight shocks being felt at intervals of
every few weeks or months, while more severe ones, shaking down
whole villages, and doing more or less injury to life and
property, are sure to happen, in one part or another of this
district, almost every year. On many of the islands the years of
the great earthquakes form the chronological epochs of the native
inhabitants, by the aid of which the ages of their children are
remembered, and the dates of many important events are
determined.
I can only briefly allude to the many fearful eruptions that have
taken place in this region. In the amount of injury to life and
property, and in the magnitude of their effects, they have not
been surpassed by any upon record. Forty villages were destroyed
by the eruption of Papandayang in Java, in 1772, when the whole
mountain was blown up by repeated explosions, and a large lake
left in its place. By the great eruption of Tomboro in Sumbawa,
in 1815, 12,000 people were destroyed, and the ashes darkened the
air and fell thickly upon the earth and sea for 300 miles around.
Even quite recently, since I left the country, a mountain which
had been quiescent for more than 200 years suddenly burst into
activity.
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