about two o'clock in the morning
But during the night of the 23rd , in consequence of the lava attaining the level of the first stratum of the volcano , the hat-shaped cone which formed over the latter disappeared . A frightful sound was heard . The colonists at first thought the island was rent asunder , and rushed out of Granite House . This occurred about two o'clock in the morning . The sky appeared on fire . The superior cone , a mass of rock a thousand feet in height , and weighing thousands of millions of pounds , had been thrown down upon the island , making it tremble to its foundation . Fortunately , this cone inclined to the north , and had fallen upon the plain of sand and tufa stretching between the volcano and the sea .