Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/464

224 THE CRATER; On landing, and examining more minutely, this awful catastrophe was fully confirmed. No part of Vulcan s Peak remained above water but its rocky summit, and its venerable deposit, of guano. All the rest was submerged ; and when soundings were made, the plain, that spot which had almost as much of Heaven as of earth about it, ac cording to the unenlightened minds of its inhabitants, was found to be nearly a hundred fathoms deep in the ocean ! It is scarcely possible to describe the sickening awe which came over the party, when they had assured them selves of the fatal facts by further observation. Everything, however, went to confirm the existence of the dire catas- tropho. These internal fires had wrought a new convul sion, ai,d the labours and hopes of years had vanished in a monicii*. The crust of the earth had again been broken; and this iiuie it was to destroy, instead of to create. The lead gave feairul confirmation of the nature of the disaster, the soundings answering accurately to the known forma tion of the land in the neighbourhood of the Peak. But, in the Peak itself, it was not possible to be mistaken: there it was in its familiar outline, just as it had stood in its more elevated position, when it crowned its charming mountain, and overlooked the whole of that enchanting plain which had so lately stretched beneath. It might be said to resemble, in this respect, that sublime rock, which is recognised as a part of the " everlasting hills," in Cole s series of noble landscapes that is called " the March of Empire ;" ever the same amid the changes of time, and civilization, and decay, there it was the apex of the Peak ; naked, storm-beaten, and familiar to the eye, though sur rounded no longer by the many delightful objects which had once been seen in its neighbourhood. Saddened, and chastened in spirit, by these proofs of what had befallen the colony, the party returned to the ship. That night they remained near the little islet ; next day they edged away in the direction of the place where the volcano had formerly risen up out of the waves. After running the proper distance, the ship was hove-to, and her people sounded; two hundred fathoms of line were out, but no bottom was found. Then the Rancocus bore up for the island which had borne her own name. The spot