136 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



and moving-picture cameras, and time after time, 

 as the curtain of distance was raised, we felt we had 

 front row seats at the most thrilling drama in the 

 world. The current and the strong on-shore wind 

 raised a sea which made launching a boat unthink- 

 able — a bitter disappointment to me, who would 

 have been glad to take greater chances than this 

 for the opportunity of landing farther up the shore 

 and approaching as near as possible (Fig. 27). 



This was made doubly hard to resist when I 

 looked along shore to the southward and there, 

 only a few hundred yards away, saw the selfsame 

 little mangrove-guarded cove where we had landed 

 on Easter Sunday nine weeks before. The waves 

 precluded repeating our visit, so we could only 

 look with longing, and swing around for another 

 broadside view of the new glorious outburst. 



As we came closer, the amount and extent of 

 up-pouring steam increased, actually as well as 

 from the apparent change due to proximity. I 

 noticed that there were irregular repetitions in 

 its character. First a tremendous spurt of white, 

 billowy steam would rush up into the air, tumbled 

 and tossed landward by the strong wind ; this would 

 grey rather abruptly into a darker gas, then more 

 steam, and so on. Seen dimly and at intervals 

 through the steam, the high dark lava cliffs and 

 levels showed for a considerable distance the same 

 white incrustation of crystals which I had found 

 around my fumarole on the inland slope. 



Seizing a moment when the crow's-nest was 

 comparatively steady, I swung my glasses along 



