I all a dream.

    t sun inguisarsDid wander . . .

    —Byron, “Darkness”

    IN 1815 on t mountainnamed tambora exploded spectacularly, killing a s blast andassociated tsunamis. It  volcanic explosion in ten timest St.  to sixty tom bombs.

    Ne travel terribly fast in times ran a small story—actually a letter from a merc—seven monter t. But by time tambora’seffects . ty-six cubic miles of smoky as, and grit mospo cool.

    Sunsets  blearily colorful, an effect memorably captured by tist J. M.

    . turner, ly ted under anoppressive, dusky pall. It  inspired the Byron lines above.

    Spring never came and summer never summer. Crops everyed typy-five teen o Deats continued until June andalmost no planted seed ock died or o be prematurelyslaug  certainly t for farmers inmodern times. Yet globally temperature fell by only about 1.5 degrees Fa. Eartural tat, as scientists e instrument.

    teentury le Ice Age, as it ted all kinds of ry events—frost fairs on ting races along Dutc are mostly impossible no y ury geologists for beingsloo realize t t balmy compared  muc fair.

    t t. tteredic reindeer in tranded in improbable places—and ten came up ive but not terriblyplausible explanations. One Frencuralist named de Luc, trying to explain eboulders o rest one flanks of tains, suggestedt per t of apopgun. term for a displaced boulder is an erratic, but in teentury to apply more often to to the rocks.

    t Britis Arted t if James ton, ted Szerland