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-land, spread round the base of
the mountains, except at the point immediately opposite the large
valley, where a river seemed to carry the trees, as it were, along with
it down to the white, sandy shore. The mountain tops, unlike those of
our Coral Island, were sharp, needle-shaped, and bare, while their
sides were more rugged and grand in outline than anything I had yet
seen in those seas. Bloody Bill was beside me when the island first
hove in sight.
"Ha!" he exclaimed, "I know that island well.
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