Star.
London, England, 1831-09-16 00:00:00

The island appeared about 160 feet high, pre-
senting a various aspect as the bearing by compass
altered ; but in general that of two longitudinal
hills connected by intermediate low land, sending
up smoke or vapour in abundance. On the west-
ern and highest part we observed the Union Flag
of England waving majestically over this new and
appalling scene of danger and desolation. At 10
a. in. the boats were lowered down and manned ;
and, in pursuance of previously concerted arrange-
ments with the Commander-in-chief, all officers,
impelled by curiosity or science, desirous of wit-
nessing the phenomenon, took their places in them
accordingly.
We pushed off from the ship, made sail, and
landed in a little bay on the North-east side of this
sombre lonely isle. A boat from the St. Vincent
preceded us a few yards, and the bowman, an offi-
cer, prepared to be first ashore, touched the ground
with the boat hook, laid his weight upon it, pushed
it down the second time firmly, with a kind of ap-
parent misgiving of terrestrial stability, and jumped
upon the beach. We were all on shore in an in-
stant, scampering up the hill to the flag staff,
through a dense oppressive vapour of carbaretted
hydrogen gas. The flag staff is on the highest
point of the island, bearing the name of Lieutenant
Coleman, of his Majesty's cutter Hind, and from it
we had a bird's eye view of the wonderful scene.
In the centre of the island, to the eastward of
us, was a circular basin, of about ninety feet in
diameter, of boiling salt water, of a dingy red co-
lour, from the peroxide of iron in solution. The
active ebullition from the centre, and emission of
steam from the whole surface, were evident to
every• one. From the summit where we stood this
basin appeared like a funnel a quarter full, the
bank shelving down in the same imaginary pro-
portion. The vapour here was oppressive to most
of us, affecting the digestive more than the respi-
ratory organs, producing nausea and faintness,
without any sense or feeling of suffocation. The
pulse was not affected in the least ; mine was 86,
accelerated by the exertion of quickly ascending
the hill, breathing a highly rarefied atmosphere,
not a little augmented by the internal caloric emit-
ted copiously in vapour from the earth, as well as
the heat of a scorching sirocco sun, which was ex-
tremely fervent this day.
On the S.W. side of the Island, adjoining the
principal crater, with a terrific ebullition and agi-
tation of the sea, evidently the commencement of a
new crater, with constant ascension of dense white
steam impregnated with the oarburetted hydrogen
gas, which blackened the silver and watches in the
pockets of the observers. That this vapour was
not impregnated with sulpur I infer, first, from the
absence of that peculiar fetor, and its not affecting
the lunge ; secondly, from the colour of the water
in the crater, which, by coining in contact with
sulphuretted hydrogen gas, would hare been
changed to a protoxide, and been black in place of
red. This last chemical test 1 consider conclusive
on this point; but it has been the custom to speak
of sulphureous smoke, which, by-the-bye, may
have been ejected in actual combustion during the
violence of previous eruptions, but certainly not
now, in form of gas.
On our descent, passing the margin of the
crater, where it was not more than twenty feet to
the boiling surface, I threw off my jacket, and
jumped down, to the astonishment of all present,
anxious alike to procure something from the caul-
dron and try the temperature of the water. I
plunged my hand into the margin, but quickly
withdrew it, finding it about 190 of Fahrenheit;
the reduction of 22 degrees being easily explained
on reflecting on the extended surface becoming ex-
posed to the atmosphere in a basin, as before men-
tioned, of 270 feet in circumference. The water
was excessively salt, owing to the continued eva-
poration, since the direct communication with the
sea has been closed, probably by the last eruption,
and appears aomethin lower than the sea, leaving
evident marks of decrease ou the coloured masses
of scoria around the margin.
The island is about a mile in circumference,
nearly round, or perhaps an imperfect spheroid,
indented at the ends, where the great crater was at
different periods connected with the sea. It is
about one hundred and fifty or sixty feet high.—
The substance of which the island is composed is
chiefly ashes, the pulverised remains of coal de-
prived of its bitumen, iron scoria, and a kind of
ferruginous clay or oxided earth. The scoria oc-i
curs in irregular masses, some compact, dense, and
sonorous ; others light, friable, and amorphous,
with metallic lustre, slightly magnetic, barely
moving the load-stone. I only procured one native
stone, a piece of limestone about two pounds weight