AN ISLAND IN COMMOTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 357, 20 February 1880, Page 9

AN ISLAND IN COMMOTION.

I1I 1 com the Lower Danube alarming intelligence reaches us respecting the strangely abnoimal condition of the earth's crust in those wild but lovely regions wheie the rugged Carpathians constitute the Atoumano Hunganan frontier, ahese mountainous districts were Urnb]y convulsed by the earthquake reported some days ago from Eastern Europe ; and the Island of Babagai, which lies in midDanube, off Moldavia, 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 Drenkova, has been the scene of some extraordinary phenomena, which have stricken its inhabitants with panic. During the earthquake a huge gulf was rent in the surface of the isJand, and promptly emitted an enormous column of scalding water, by which a considerable portion of Babagai was within a few hours inundated. On Sunday, the ISth instant, this destructive geyser ceased to spout as suddenly as it commenced, but when the vast gap whence it had flowed had dried up it was observed that several ragged-edged crateis had loimcel themselves rt the bottom of the drift. These craters have ever since, at brief intervals, vomited hot earth and black sand in large quantities, and apprehensions arc entertained that the island will altogether disappear, or that it will tecome the site of a peimancnt volcano. A Httle further up the river, the picturesque ruins of Golubacz Castle, an ancient fcucial fort alicc built upon the remains of a Koman stionghold, have been completely demolished by the earthquake, which has ako filled up the gloomy caves in the rocks beneath Golubacz. These caves were credited, or rather discredited, as the chief bleeding p]aces of the malignant mosquitoes that infest the Danube and its banks between Basiaseh and Imn-Severin. Their destruction, theicforc, is a legitimate souicc of exultation to the riveiine populations. Not so the development of volcanoes and boiling springs in the neighbourhood of coiiDtlcss V\ allachian and Syrian homesteads.— London Telcgrajrii.

The most cultivated city in ncodem Europe, for every form of art, liteiature, and science,, is Munich, the capital of Bavaria. Students from all quarters of globe fill its colleges, lecture halls, and art galleries. And yet Munich is the chief city of a Catholic country, and is itself the most exclusively Catholic city in the world. How docs Joseph Cook explain this 1