coming on deck, soon explained the phenomena.

"It's only a volcano," said he. "I knew there was one hereabouts,
but thought it was extinct. Up there and furl top-gallant-sails;
we'll likely have a breeze, and it's well to be ready."

As he spoke, a shower began to fall, which we quickly observed was
not rain, but fine ashes. As we were many miles distant from the
volcano, these must have been carried to us from it by the wind.
As the captain had predicted, a stiff breeze soon afterwards sprang
up, under the influence of which we speedily left the volcano far
behind us; but during the greater part of the night we could see
its lurid glare and hear its distant thunder. The shower did not
cease to fall for several hours, and we must have sailed under it
for nearly forty miles, perhaps farther. When we emerged from the
cloud, our decks and every part of the rigging were completely
covered with a thick coat of ashes. I was much interested in this,
and recollected that Jack had often spoken of many of the islands
of the Pacific as being volcanoes, either active or extinct, and
had said that the whole region was more or less volcanic, and that
some scientific men were of opinion that the islands of the Pacific
were nothing more or less than the mountain tops of a huge
continent which had sunk under the influence of volcanic agency.

Three days after passing the volcano, we found ourselves a few
miles to windward of an island of considerable size and luxuriant
aspect. It consisted of two mountains, which seemed to be nearly
four thousand feet high. They were separated from each other by a
broad valley, whose thick-growing trees ascended a considerable
distance up the mountain sides; and rich level plains, or meadow-