Part 15

THEY ARE 300 FEET HIGH AND SEVEN AND EIGHT MILES LONG NEAR CAPE HORN.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 20.--French sailing vessels making port from around Cape Horn hold the record for sighting huge icebergs. The French bark Eugenie Fautrel, from Hamburg, reported that on September 14, near Cape Horn, a berg seven miles long and 300 feet high was seen several miles distant on the port bow. Now comes the French bark Anne De Bretagne, 164 days from Cardiff, and reports that she not only saw a berg 300 feet high and eight miles long, but she had to sheer off to keep from wrecking herself against it.

It was seen on September 3, and after passing through a great mass of ice, the Bretagne suddenly came within sight of the giant, harmless enough in appearance through the soft mist, but with terribly jagged comers, and a breadth of front that made the Frenchmen quail.

KINGSTOWN COVERED WITH ASHES.

It was seen then that the volcano was in constant eruption, and there was a tremendous roar. Forked lightning played incessantly over the disturbed section. The flashes averaged from sixty to one hundred a minute.

Kingstown, which is twelve miles from the volcano, was covered with three inches of ashes and showers of stones on Thursday. The bed of the old volcano was then a lake three miles across.

ERUPTION STARTED ON MONDAY.

The eruption was first observed on Monday. Huge flames of water shot up, and the people in that district fled. There has been a continuous roar ever since.

The northern district, from Chateau Belair to Georgetown, has been completely destroyed. It is impossible to proceed beyond that point, on account of the rivers of lava. A huge hill was observed where previously there had been a valley. The whole of that part of the island is smoking.

SIXTY KILLED BY LIGHTNING.

Sixty persons are reported to have been killed by lightning while getting away.

On Tuesday and Wednesday the island was showered with ashes. Near Belair the ashes were three feet deep.

On Thursday there was a continuous shower of hot sand and water. Everything on the island was ruined by the ashes.

SOME PERSONS DYING OF THIRST.

Many persons were brought in boats from Kingstown. Some of the refugees who arrived on the coast were dying of thirst.

THE NEW JACKSONVILLE.

A FRESH CITY BUILT BEFORE THE RUINS OF THE OLD HAVE CEASED TO SMOULDER.

Before the fire that destroyed a great part of the city of Jacksonville, Fla., had ceased to burn, the city has practically been rebuilt. This statement not only describes a building operation remarkable for rapid execution, but also covers an incident unique in the experience of firemen.

Jacksonville was almost wiped out by fire on May 3 of last year. An area of 443 acres, comprising 148 blocks, was swept by the flames, and property worth at least $15,000,000 was destroyed.

The work of rebuilding on a better and more substantial scale was started within a week and has since gone on with rapidity unprecedented in Southern building operations, and now the city is in far better shape than it was before the fire.

About three weeks ago the clearing up of the last of the ruins was begun. The laborers doing the work removed three or four inches of the mass of brick and stones on top, and then found, to their surprise, that underneath the ruins were still hot.

Smoke began to rise out of the hole they had dug out, and the farther down they went the hotter became the ruins, and the thicker the smoke. At last a mass of red hot coals was found, which sprang into flame when the air reached it.

It had been necessary several times within the year for the fire department to soak this part of the ruins with water, but it had been thought for several months that the fire must be out at last.

Alongside new Jacksonville had already sprung into existence. Six months after the destruction of the city a new one already covered the greater part of the site.

Within eleven months more than 2,000 buildings were erected, fifty of them aggregating in cost $2,000,000. And the new Jacksonville is immeasurably superior to the old.

A PRAIRIE CAVERN.

AN INTERESTING HOLE IN THE GROUND WHERE CAVES WOULD NOT BE LOOKED FOR.

From the Oklahoma State Capital.