Feb.J 



VOLCANIC ERUPTION 



193 



Had it been " the crack of doom" that aroused them, my men could 

 not have been sooner on deck, where they stood gazing like " sheeted 

 spectres," speechless and bewildered with astonishment and dismay. 

 The heavens appeared to be in one blaze of fire, intermingled with 

 millions of falling stars and meteors ; while the flames shot upward 

 from the peak of Narborough to the height of at least two thousand 

 feet in the air. All hands soon became sensible of the cause of the 

 startling phenomenon, and on recovering from their first panic could 

 contemplate its progress with some degree of composure. 



But the most splendid and interesting scene of this spectacle was 

 yet to be exhibited. At about half-past four o'clock, A. M., the boil- 

 ing contents of the tremendous caldron had swollen to the brim, and 

 poured over the edge of the crater in a cataract of liquid fire. A river 

 of melted lava was now seen rushing down the side of the mountain, 

 pursuing a serpentine course to the sea, a distance of about three miles 

 from the blazing orifice of the volcano. This dazzling stream de- 

 scended in a gully, one-fourth of a mile in width, presenting the 

 appearance of a tremendous torrent of melted iron running from the 

 furnace. Although the mountain was steep, and the gully capacious, 

 the flaming river could not descend with sufficient rapidity to prevent 

 its overflowing its banks in certain places, and forming new rivers, which 

 branched out in almost every direction, each rushing downward as if 

 eager to cool its temperament in the deep caverns of the neighbouring 

 ocean. The demon of fire seemed rushing to the embraces of Nep- 

 tune ; and dreadful indeed was the uproar occasioned by their meet- 

 ing. The ocean boiled, and roared, and bellowed, as if a civil war 

 had broken out in the Tartarean gulf. 



At three, A. M., I ascertained the temperature of the water, by 

 Fahrenheit's thermometer, to be 61°, while that of the air was 71°. At 

 eleven, A. M., the air was 113°, and the water 100°, the eruption still 

 continuing with unabated fury. The Tartar's anchorage was about 

 ten miles to the northward of the mountain, and the heat was so great 

 that the melted pitch was running from the vessel's seams, and the tar 

 dropping from the rigging. 



In order to give the reader a correct idea of our situation, it will be 

 necessary to remind him of the relative position of these two islands. 

 Albemarle Island is the most extensive of the whole Gallapagos group, 

 being about ninety miles in length from north to south, narrow and 

 nearly straight on its eastern shore ; but on the western side it hollows 

 in from Christopher's Point on the south, to Cape Berkley on the 

 north ; and within this space lies the island of Narborough, its eastern 

 point approaching nearest to Albemarle. The Tartar lay in a cove of 

 Banks's Bay, on the western shore of Albemarle, directly opposite the 

 north-east point of Narborough ; and this cove could be approached 

 from the north-west through Banks's Bay, or from the south-west 

 through Elizabeth Bay. 



Our situation was every hour becoming more critical and alarming. 

 Not a breath of air was stirring to fill a sail, had we attempted to 

 escape ; so that we were compelled to remain idle and unwilling spec- 

 tators of a pyrotechnic exhibition which evinced no indications of even 



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