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hissing uoise heard by the Captain and his crew in 

 the above account^ was due to the sinking around the 

 vent and the dying away gradually in all directions 

 outwards. 



The Captain having not heard any thundering- 

 noise which might have supposed the existence of a 

 crater in action, and having not reported whether the 

 sea was in state of convulsion or ebullition, but simply 

 saying that the water was very highly heated, we can 

 very reasonably infer that the strange phenomenon 

 observed by him and his crew was the subsidence of 

 a sub-marine volcano after cessation of eruption. I 

 will now cite a case of emission of lava through long 

 distances, occurred in the eruption of Skaptar Jokul 

 (Iceland) in 1873 : '' Lava was emitted consecutively 

 " at several points on a linear range of 200 miles. No 

 " doubt an underground fissure of this length at 

 " least was injected with lava by that eruption, and 

 " remains now as a dyke traversing the substrata." 

 (A dyke is a rib of rock composed of hardened lava.) 

 In such violent sub-aerial paroxysms which tear open 

 our earth and the wonderful phenomena which they 

 exhibit to our eyes, we admire with awe and trembling 

 the Almighty Power of the Architect of the Universe 

 who looketh on the Earth and it trembleth; who tou- 

 cheth the hills and they smoke. 



Jas. J. Anderson. 



" Bel Air, " 20th February 1878. 



