the lofty volcanoes vomiting forth flames and smoke with furious
explosions; vast stones were hurled up into the air from the craters;
streams of molten lava rolled down, and at intervals there fell great
showers of ashes. The shores on either side were precipitous and
rugged beyond all description, looking like fiery lava streams which
had been arrested by the flood, and cooled into gloomy, overhanging
cliffs. The lava rock was of a deep, dull slate-color, which at a
distance looked black; and the blackness which thus succeeded to
the whiteness of the snow behind us seemed like the funeral pall of
nature. Through scenes like these we drifted on, and the volcanoes on
either side of the channel towered on high with their fiery floods of
lava, their incessant explosions, their fierce outbursts of flames,
and overhead there rolled a dense black canopy of smoke--altogether
forming a terrific approach to that unknown and awful pathway upon
which we were going. So we passed this dread portal, and then there
lay before us--what? Was it a land of life or a land of death? Who
could say?

It was evening when we passed through. Night came on, and the darkness
was illuminated by the fiery glow of the volcanic flames. Worn out
with fatigue, we fell asleep. So the night passed, and the current
bore us on until, at length, the morning came. We awoke, and now, for
the first time in many days, we saw the face of the sun. The clouds
had at last broken, the sky was clear, and behind us the sun was
shining. That sight told us all. It showed us where we were going.

I pointed to the sun.

"Look there," said I. "There is the sun in the northern sky--behind
us. We have been drifting steadily toward the south."