176 THE OCEAN 
SuspMARINE VOLCANO. 
again forming themselves into festoons of white fea- 
thery smoke, in the most fanciful manner imaginable, 
intermixed with the finest particles of falling ashes, 
which at one time assumed the appearance of innu- 
merable plumes of black and white ostrich feathers 
surmounting each other; at another, that of the 
light wavy branches of a weeping willow. : 
“During these bursts, the most vivid flashes of 
lightning continually issued from the densest part of 
the volcano; and the cloud of smoke now ascend- 
ing to an altitude much above the highest point to 
which the ashes were projected, rolled off in large 
masses of fleecy clouds, gradually expanding them- 
‘selves before the wind in a direction nearly hori- 
