134 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



gas and smoke from the same craters and fumaroles 

 which we discovered two months before. They 

 hung in a dense, sickly cloud around the flanks of 

 Mount Whiton, lower and yellower than the clean 

 cloud wreaths which formed around the summit. 

 During the two nights of observation of our former 

 visit we had seen several new vents of lava light 

 break out lower and lower on the slopes. And now 

 the god or goddess of Great Desires had granted 

 what must have been a powerful longing in our 

 minds ( I can answer for it in my constantly recur- 

 ring thoughts) and after an interval of more than 

 two months we were favored by being on the exact 

 spot at the right hour; at last the living lava had 

 reached the sea and we were the only witnesses in 

 the world. 



The Captain had first noticed the white ascend- 

 ing masses in the distance at six-thirty and thought 

 it might possibly be spray thrown up over the 

 rocky tip of Cape Marshall. Half an hour later, 

 when he knew this could not be so, he trumpeted for 

 us, and, bucking a strong head wind and a two- 

 knot current, we steamed steadily ahead. I climbed 

 to the rolling crow's-nest and in a wind which al- 

 most pinned my eyelids open or shut, I watched 

 the puffing masses of white grow larger. For the 

 first hour there was little change, and I utilized 

 the advantage of my position as from an airplane, 

 to watch the surface life of this deep blue water 

 five miles off the coast of Albemarle. 



Two or three large rays came flapping along — 

 not the full-grown giant devilfish, but half-grown 



