Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/185

OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 179 he should have no difficulty in getting out into open water, here, or in getting back again. What was more, the arm, or promontory of rock just mentioned, had a hummock near a hundred feet in height on its extremity, that an swered admirably for a land-mark. Most of this hummock must have been above water previously to the late erup tion, though it appeared to our explorer, that all the visible land, as he proceeded south, was lifted higher and on a gradually-increasing scale, as if the eruption had exerted its force at a certain point, the new crater for instance, and raised the earth to the northward of that point, on an inclined plane. This might account, in a measure, for the altitude of the Peak, which was near the great crevice that must have been left somewhere, unless materials on its op posite side had fallen to fill it up again. Most of these views were merely speculative, though the fact of the greater elevation of all the rooks, in this part of the group, over those further north, was beyond dispute. Thus the coast, here, was generally fifty or eighty feet high ; whereas, at the Reef, even now, the surface of the common rock was not much more than twenty feet above the water. The rise seemed to be gradual, moreover, which certainly fa voured this theory. As a great deal of sand and mud had been brought up by the eruption, there was no want of fresh water. Mark found even a little brook, of as perfectly sweet a stream as he had ever tasted in America, running into the little har bour where he had secured the boat. He followed this stream two miles, ere he reached its source, or sources ; for it came from at least a dozen copious springs, that poured their tribute from a bed of clean sand several miles in length, and which had every sign of having been bare for ages. In saying this, however, it is not to be supposed that the signs, as to time, were very apparent anywhere. Lava, known to have been ejected from the bowels of the earth thousands of years, has just as fresh an appearance, to the ordinary observer, as that which was thrown out ten years ago; and, had it not been for the deposits of moist mud, the remains of fish, sea-weed that was still unde- cayed, pools of salt water, and a few other peculiarities of the same sort, Mark would have been puzzled to find any