ut 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, according 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 themselves of the fatal facts by
further observation. Everything, however, went to confirm the existence
of the dire catastrophe. These internal fires had wrought a new
convulsion, and the labours and hopes of years had vanished in a moment.
The crust of the earth had again been broken; and this time it was to
destroy, instead of to create. The lead gave fearful confirmation of the
nature of the disaster, the soundings answering accurately to the known
formation 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 surrounded 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 was ascertained, but the mountain had also sunk into the
ocean. In one place, soundings were had in ten fathoms water, and here
the vessel was anchored. Next day, when the ship was again got under
way, the anchor brought up with it, a portion of the skeleton of a goat.
It had doubtless fallen upo