AN ISLAND BELCHING OUT HOT WATER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1185, 3 February 1880, Page 2

AN ISLAND BELCHING OUT HOT WATER.

From the Lower Danube alarming Intelligence reaches lis respecting the s.traugely abnormal • condition of the eai'th'3 crust in those wild but lovely regions where the rugged- Carpathians constitute the Roumano-Hungarian frontier.; These mountainous districts were terribly convulsed by tho earthquake r§» ported some days ago from Eastern Europe ; and the Island of Babagai, which lies in mid-Danube, off Moldova, not far from the Iron Gates, and in close proximity to the tumultuous rapids that agitate the breast of the great river from Orsova ,to Drenkdva, has been the scene of some ; extraordinary phenomena, which ha.vo stricken its inhabitants with panic, During the earthquake a huge gulf was rent in the surface af the island, 1 and promptly emitted an immense column of scalding-water,, by. which a considerable portion of Babagai was within a few hours inundated.: Oil Sunday, the'lßth instant, this destructive geyser ceased to sprout as suddenly as it" commenced, but when the vast gap whence it had flowod was dried up it was observed thq|; several ragged-edged craters hqd formed themselves at the bottom of the drift, These craters have ever since, at brief intervals, vomited hot earth and black sand in large quantities, and .apprehensions are entertained that either the island will altogether disappear, or that it will become the site of a permanent volcano. A little further up the river, the pio 3 turesque ruins of Golubacz Castle,' at} ancient feudal fortalice bu jit upoij the remains of a jß.cmarj stronghold, have been completely' demolished by the earthquake, which has also filled up the gloomy caves in the rocks beneath Galubacz. These caves were credited, or rather discredited, as the chief breeding places of. the . malignant mosquitos that infest the Danube and its banks betweon Basiasoh and Turnd-Severin. Their destruction, therefore, is a legitimate source of exultation to the riverain populations. Not so the development of volcanoes and boiling springs in the neighborhood of countless Wallachian and Servian homesteads.—London Telegraph, Oct. 28.