SUBMAK1NE VOLCANOES. 



sublime than anything I ever imagined to exist, even in the ideal 

 visions of unearthly things. Its surface had all the agitation of 

 the ocean ; billow after billow tossed its monstrous bosom into the 

 air, and occasionally those from different directions burst with 

 such violence, as in the concussion to dash the fiery spray forty or 

 fifty feet high. It was at once the most splendid and tearful of 

 spectacles." 



135. The manner in which the liquefied matter is driven 

 upwards through the superjacent crust of the earth, and ejected 

 from the crater is illustrated in fig. 56, where F F represents 



the fluid nucleus of the globe, and F c the passage along which 

 the fluid matter has burst its way through the successive strata 

 to the crater from which it issues. 



136. It sometimes happens that the passage, through which 

 it is thus forced in the first instance becomes obstructed, so 



103 



