THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 1^5 



ceeded from that cause, and on our anchoring the 

 next morning in the road of Ponta del Gada, we 

 found this conjecture correct as to the cause, but 

 not as to the time; the eruption of January having 

 totally subsided, and the present one having only 

 burst forth two days prior to our approach, and 

 about three miles distant from the one before al- 

 luded to." 



The Captain having proceeded to a cliff on the 

 island of St. Michael's, about three or four hundred 

 feet high, from which the eruption was scarcely a 

 mile distant, proceeds to describe its appearance : 

 "Imagine an immense body of smoke rising from 

 the sea, the surface of which was marked by the 

 silvery rippling of the waves. In a quiescent state, 

 it had the appearance of a circular cloud revolving 

 on the water, like a horizontal wheel, in various and 

 irregular involutions, expanding itself gradually on 

 the lee side; when suddenly, a column of the 

 blackest cinders, ashes, and stones, would shoot up 

 in the form of a spire, at an angle of from ten to 

 twenty degrees from a perpendicular line, the angle 

 of inclination being universally to windward; this 

 was rapidly succeeded by a second, third, and fourth 

 shower, each acquiring greater velocity, and over- 

 topping the other, till they had attained an altitude 

 as much above the level of our eye as the sea was 

 below it. 



"As the impetus with which the several columns 

 were severally propelled diminished, and their as- 

 cending motion had nearly ceased, they broke into 

 various branches resembling a group of pines : these 



