of the other islands, when streams of molten lava and showers of ashes and scoriæ are ejected from chasms that open up in uncertain places. These eruptions drive all into the sea, or cause them to take shelter in the numerous caverns with which the islands abound. The red-hot lava and ashes cause terrible conflagrations in our forests, and many of those who are physically incapacitated from living in the water have been smoked or roasted to death in their subterranean retreats. In short, life on land is attended by so many discomforts and dangers that the country would long ago have been depopulated, were it not for the safe asylum afforded by our sub-aqueous abode."
I was much struck by the perfect stillness of the air, which seldom stirred the surface of the water sufficiently to cause the slightest ripple. It was owing to this glass-like smoothness of the surface that external objects were so distinctly observed through the circular opening I before described, and that such a perfect reflection of the bottom of the sea was seen from below.
I had read that even in tropical regions certain winds, which we call trade-winds, prevailed and a steady breeze blew almost constantly in one direction or another. To my inquiry whether this portion of the globe was not subject to these winds, the Instructor replied:—
"This region is situated precisely in the angle between the north-east and south-east trade-winds, and is quite exempt from their influence. We are occasionally visited by terrific cyclones or circular hurricanes, and then the surface of our inland sea is agitated to a considerable degree; but the agitation
