the dust of it.' So
he quieted his household and his negroes, lighted his candles, and went
to his scientific books, in that delight, mingled with an awe not the
less deep, because it is rational and self-possessed, with which he,
like the other men of science, looked at the wonders of this wondrous
world."

CHAPTER XXX.

Submarine Volcanoes and their Work of Island Building.

In November, 1867, a volcano suddenly began to show signs of activity
beneath the deep sea of the Pacific Ocean. There are some islands nearly
two thousands miles to the east of Australia called the Navigator's
Group, in which there had been no history of an eruption, nor had such
an event been handed down by tradition. Most of the islands in the
Pacific Ocean are old volcanoes, or are made up of rocks cast forth from
extinct burning mountains. They rise up like peaks through the
great depths of the ocean, and the top, which just appears above the
sea-level, is generally encircled by a growth of coral. Hence they are
termed coral islands. These islands every now and then rise higher than
the sea-level, owing to some deep upheaving force, and then the coral is
lifted up above the water, and become a solid rock. But occasionally the
reverse of this takes place, and the islands begin to sink into the
sea, owing to a force which causes the base of the submarine mountain
to become depressed. Sometimes they disappear. All this shows that some
great disturbing forces are in action at the bottom of the sea, and just
within the earth's crust, and that they are of a volcanic nature.

For some time before the eruption in question, earthquakes shook the
surrounding islands of the Navigator's Group, and caused great alarm,
and when the trembling of the earth was very great, the sea began to be
agitated near one of the islands, and vast circles of disturbed water
were formed. Soon the water began to be forced upwards, and dead fish
were seen floating about. After a while, steam rushed forth, and jets of
mud and volcanic sand. Moreover, when the steam began to rush up out of
the water, the violence of the general agitation of the land and of the
surface of the sea increased.

AN ERUPTION DESCRIBED

When the eruption was at its height vast columns of mud and masses of
stone rushed into the air to a height of 2,000 feet, and the fearful
crash of masses of rock hurled upwards and coming in collision with
others which were falling attested the great