And even as they fled thin smoke broke from the great white peak, and then a faint flash of flame.

Then the volcano began to throw up its mysterious fiery inside parts.

The earth trembled; ashes and sulphur showered down; a rain of fine pumice-stone fell like snow on all the dry land.

The elephants from the forest rushed up towards the peaks; great lizards thirty yards long broke from the mountain pools and rushed down towards the sea.

The snows melted and rushed down, first in avalanches, then in roaring torrents.