File:The Azores - or Western Islands - a political, commercial and geographical account (1886) (14778502751).jpg

Identifier: azoresorwesterni00walk (find matches)
Title: The Azores : or Western Islands : a political, commercial and geographical account ...
Year: 1886 (1880s)
Authors: Walker, Walter Frederick
Subjects: Azores -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : Trubner & Co.
Contributing Library: Claire T. Carney Library, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Digitizing Sponsor: Claire T. Carney Library, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

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aking the welkin ring again. In the valley below, a dimstreak marks the course of a running brook. The views in this neighbourhood are of unsurpassedbeauty, and the number of rides and drives endless. Excur-sions may also be made to the summit of the Pico do Ferro,Pico dos Cedros, Pico do Gafanhoto, and others, dominatingthe valley and the country beyond. On the return ride from the Gruta Cagarra, a broad andnow dried-up lacustrine bed, half-a-mile in diameter, iscrossed, covered here and there with patches of wood andcopse; but the soil is too much mixed with pumice and oftoo barren a nature to admit of cultivation. It is said that the waters of this lake were lapped up bythe fiery eruption of the 2nd September, 1630. Ashes andlapilli from this outbreak fell in the island of Terceira, andwere thrown out in such quantities that 191 persons, whohad taken refuge in the neighbouring hills around theEurnas, were suffocated by the fall. A narrow ridge of loose volcanic debris, divides this
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■< ■A C ao (^ o El Si c 214 desiccated bed from the Lake of Furnas, and the site isinteresting- as indicating* where the third eru23tion of im-portance took place in this eminently volcanic region—subsequent to its first discovery by the Portuguese. Fructuoso gives the following account of this greateruption :—On the 2nd September, 1630, between nineand ten at night, in calm weather and a clear sky, the earthcommenced suddenly to tremble, and with such continuousand violent movement that the people fled terrified fromtheir dwellings. The shocks caused the clock at Ponta Delgada, in thetower in the Pra9a do Municipio, to strike so rapidly as toclosely resemble the alarm bell, everyone fearing the towerwould fall. The shocks continued thus until two oclock in themorning, when a furious eruption took place at the site ofthe now dried-up lake, destroying nearly the whole of theextensive woods around, as well as much cattle; manypeople, too, were killed, the number being estimat

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