144 
AN INCIDENT IN THE PACIFIC. 
[Nature and Art, October 1, 1866. 
It seemed to be floored with stone, or rather with 
something like an asphalt pavement ; while, dis- 
tributed about, were a number of little hills, black 
in colour, and of the shape and appearance of a 
sugar-loaf, but invariably puffing jets of steam, like 
those from an engine, and often with as shrill a 
noise. Every few seconds there came the shock of 
an earthquake, more or less violent. 
The captain, who had nearly reached the bottom, 
stopped occasionally to urge me to follow him faster. 
I could see him put his hand up to his mouth to 
shout, but his voice was drowned amid the rumblings 
which appeared to issue from every side. 
“ Sal ” was a long way above me, apparently 
making his way down the slope, but very slowly 
indeed. Hastening after my companion, I managed 
to descend pretty safely, and escaped with a few 
trifling bruises. Breathless, at last I reached the 
bottom, and stood, as it appeared, on the shore of 
a lake of asphalt, that had been suddenly petrified, 
with its ripples all in motion. It was a marvellous 
sight, and I confess to a sensation almost of terror 
as I glanced around me, and felt, rather than saw, 
how large a share of the light which showed me the 
place, came from below me, rather than from above. 
It was not difficult to discover whence this illumi- 
nation proceeded. Close to me, at a distance of 
not a dozen yards, there was a great crack, with a 
chasm of about two feet in width, from which 
steamed irp a lurid whitish vapour, and the reflected 
light showed plainly enough that below was molten 
lava. 
Seeing that my companion had gone across to 
what seemed to be the most active side of the 
volcano, I set out to follow him. The rock was so 
hot that it burned through my boots as I "walked, 
and every moment my ear was startled by a report, 
varying in loudness from that of a pistol to that of 
a cannon. I had to leap from one huge piece of 
paving, so to speak, to another, across a gap that 
glowed a dull sullen red at the bottom, and emitted 
vapour which made the eyes water. Still I pressed 
on, but slowly now, for the frequency of the ex- 
plosions on every side had in them something 
appalling. I looked up overhead, the sunlight had 
faded from the peak, and the sky had a grey, cold 
look, which betokened the rapid coming on of night. 
There was no want of light where I stood, however 
but it was dull, red, and smoky, like the light from 
a huge smelting furnace, thrown out on a dark 
night. I could just make out my companion, as 
he appeared a long way in front of me ; his figure 
looked of an unearthly size, and as if his body was 
transparent, and of the colour of molten iron. Just 
then came a terrific crash and a roar, and a huge 
block of stone, at a red heat, fell within a couple of 
yards of where I stood. I saw the captain stop and 
look back, as if irresolute what to do. I knew that 
I could not possibly make myself heard, but yet, 
by an unreasoning sort of instinct, I put my hand 
to my mouth, and shouted to him with all my 
strength, to come back, for his life ! With a dull, 
heavy rumble, and a heaving of the ground, which 
almost threw me down, a sort of shudder seemed to 
pass over the part of the place on which I stood, and 
just behind me there gaped a rent in the rock of about 
four feet in width, out of which there burst, with a 
shrill scream, a column of white steam, and the red 
lava boiled up to the very brink, as if it would 
overflow. I shouted with terror. My only way 
of escape seemed barred by this phlegetlion, that 
hissed and bubbled, and leaped in little wavelets, as 
if rejoicing at my coming destruction. I forgot 
everything but the instinct of self-preservation. I 
turned, and planting my pole as securely as I could 
in a crevice of the rock, where I could see that it 
smoked, and began to redden preparatory to bursting 
into flame, I ventured on the leap. Providentially I 
reached the other side, but so close to it did I alight, 
that as the lava boiled up, a particle dropped on 
my trousers, and inflicted a most acute pain. I 
never once thought of the captain. The roar, and 
hiss, and howl of the terrible element behind me 
made me run for my life, and I fled in horror even 
from things that I had faced without shrinking, 
half an hour before. 
I cannot even now guess how I managed to get 
over some of the cracks that gaped, and bubbled up 
floods of spluttering, foaming, red-hot lava ; or how 
none of the showers of stone and cinders struck me. 
At last I had got away from that awful lake, and 
had climbed, in my terror, perhaps a hundred feet 
up the steep side of the crater. Here I was 
forced to pause from absolute exhaustion. Suddenly, 
and for the first time since the panic seized me, the 
thought of my companion flashed across my mind. 
With a shudder, I looked below me into the lurid 
atmosphere— painful for the sight to dwell upon for 
many seconds. He was there. I could make out 
his active, tall figure, now looking gigantic in that 
extraordinary atmosphere, as it came towards me. 
I watched it with my breath suspended, and my 
aching eyes starting from their sockets. I have 
read of the awful sights and sounds seen and heard 
by Arctic voyagers when the ice floes break up ; 
but I never read of, or conceived anything like 
that I now gazed upon. The noise was deafening. 
The floe of lava was parting each moment with a 
crack like a thousand cannons' roar. Huge columns 
of steam burst momentarily forth from some spot 
where an instant previously you would have sworn 
there was a solid rock, and with a yell that seemed 
to crack the drum of the ear, would rush up into 
the murky air above, and hang in a grey cloud over- 
head. The whole plain of lava which I had just 
left, seemed moving. Like blocks of ice on a great 
river, the huge pieces of crust rock that covered the 
molten sea below, heaved and crunched up against 
one another, and broke with the most awful crashing 
noise conceivable. 
I saw all this, yet I never took my eyes off my 
companion, the captain. Nearer and nearer he 
came. From floe to floe he seemed to leap, as if 
by magic — the magic of despair, I suppose. “ He’ll 
reach it ! he’ll reach it ! ” I shouted wildly, as I saw 
him within a hundred feet of the edge, and in com- 
parative safety. As I spoke, I was deafened by a 
roar, louder by far than I had heard before, followed 
