A FIERY GRAVE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3267, 21 December 1881, Page 4

A FIERY GRAVE.

The Westphalian papers give an accouut of a terrible catastrophe which occurred in the northwestern part of that province on the 18th ult. There has been for some time in operation in the neighborhood of Solingen, not far from Barmen, a strange phenomenon. A part of the soil of a hilly heath became excessively hot—so much so that some people living close by availed themselves of the heat for domestic purposes. The explanation suggested that some inflammable subterranean gns, or perhaps petroleum, had been accidentally set on fire. Some water had been brought to the spot by an artificial channel ; but its contact with the burning soil only had produced violent explosions, which seemed to shatter all the ground around. About a week or two ago some persons drove out in a carriage from Ramsehied toinspect the spot. When they arrived at a distance of about a quarter of an English mile, they heard a strange rumbling noise, which so terrified the horses that they had to alight and send the carriage back some distance. They walked on discussing the likelikood of any danger, when suddenly a space of the hillside, about 100 metres square, opened, disclosing a gulf of liquid fire, throwing up flames. The Louse where the family mentioned above lived was at once surrounded by the flames, and was, before their eyes swallowed up in the fiery liquid caldron at their feet, apparently feeding the flames. It is known that several persons were in the house ; none were saved, but ib has not been ascertained how many perished in the flames. —London Times.