The second fiber being set on fire, it would burn till it reached the first.

This catching fire in its turn, would break, and the mass of iron would fall on the nitro-glycerine.

This apparatus being then arranged, the engineer, after having sent his companions to a distance, filled the hole, so that the nitro-glycerine was on a level with the opening; then he threw a few drops of it on the surface of the rock, above which the mass of iron was already suspended.
This done, Harding lit the end of the sulphured fiber, and leaving the place, he returned with his companions to the Chimneys.
The fiber was intended to burn five and twenty minutes, and, in fact, five and twenty minutes afterwards a most tremendous explosion was heard.

The island appeared to tremble to its very foundation.

Stones were projected in the air as if by the eruption of a volcano.