258 FORCE OF ITS ASCENT. 



The surface is about 11,310 square fathoms, or 

 407,160 square feet, or 56,631,040 square inches, 

 which at three hundred weight on the square 

 inch, gives a pressure from the weight of the 

 water alone, of the vast amount of 8,794,656 

 tons. But as there were other, and probably 

 greater resistances to overcome, the force exerted 

 at that single spot must have been far greater 

 than would suffice to blow all the navies in the 

 world into the air. That spot, too, was but a 

 mere point on the surface of the globe ; so that it 

 is utterly impossible to imagine any material 

 weight, or material strength, which those powers 

 could not overcome. 



It is only under the pressure of a depth of 

 water that such a phenomena could take place, as 

 the water both supports and consolidates the 

 upper part, and so enables the crust to rise in a 

 mass, which, in the air, would burst and dis- 

 charge the melted matters in an eruption, as is 

 the case in those volcanoes that are on land. 



The second observation of Hotham Island was 

 made on the 13th^ two days after the first; and 

 the account was, the appearance of columns of 

 smoke, the hearing of a sound like that of the 

 paddle wheels of a steam- boat; and dark matter 

 rising up to a height, and then falling with force 

 in the sea : all those appearances, which we have 

 stated in nearly the words of the eye-witnesses, 

 agree in establishing the same fact ; namely, that 

 by that time the volcanic matter had reached the 

 surface, and been broken when it came in contact 

 with the air, or even when so near the surface that 

 the pressure upon it was much diminished. The 

 smoke was a sure sign that the surface was reached, 



