ntain, in full eruption, was hurling forth a mass of
burning stones and melting rocks. It seemed to be rising and falling
beneath the successive blasts as if it were breathing; the things
which were cast out reached a great height in the air; amid the jets
of flame, torrents of lava were flowing down the side of the mountain;
here creeping between steaming rocks, there falling in cascades amid
the purple vapor: and lower down a thousand streams united in one
large river, which ran boiling into the sea.

[Illustration: "The mountain was in full eruption."]

The volcano seemed to have but a single crater, whence arose a column
of fire, lighted by transverse rays; one would have said that part of
the magnificence of the phenomenon was due to electricity. Above the
flames floated an immense cloud of smoke, red below, black above. It
rose with great majesty, and unrolled into huge layers.

The sky at a considerable height had an ashy hue; the darkness, which
was so marked during the tempest, and of which the doctor could give
no satisfactory explanation, evidently came from the ashes, which
completely hid the sun. He remembered a similar fact that took place
in 1812, at the Barbadoes, which at noon was plunged into total
darkness by the mass of cinders thrown from the crater of Isle St.
Vincent.

This enormous volcano, jutting up in mid-ocean, was about six thousand
feet high, very nearly the altitude of Hecla. A line from the summit
to the base would form with the horizon an angle of about eleven
degrees. It seemed to rise from the bosom of the waves as the launch
approached it. There was no trace of vegetation. There was no shore;
it ran down steep to the sea.

"Shall we be able to land?" said the doctor.

"The wind is carrying us there," answered Altamont.

"But I can't see any beach on which we could set foot."

"So it seems from here," answered Johnson; "but we shall find some
place for our boat; that is all we need."

"Let us go on, then!" answered Clawbonny, sadly.

The doctor had no eyes for the strange continent which was rising
before him. The land of the Pole was there, but not the man who had
discovered it. Five hundred feet from the rocks the sea was boiling
under the action of subterraneous fires. The island was from eight to
ten miles in circumference, no more; and, according to their
calculation, it was very near the Pole, if indeed the axis of the
world did not pass exactly through it. As they dr