04 Volcano Adventure by Willard Price

Author:Willard Price [Price, Willard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Diving to the lost island

‘Who would have thought there could be so many volcanoes under the ocean?’

Hal was perched in the crow’s-nest with Dr Dan. From this point high up the foremast of the Lively Lady they could see spurts of steam rising from the sea. They looked like the spoutings of whales but really came from underwater craters. There was a constant rumbling sound and the smell of sulphur. Rocky islands dotted the ocean.

They are called the Volcano Islands,’ Dr Dan said. ‘You can’t see some of them because they are under the surface. We are sailing over an island right now.’

‘Sailing over an island!’

‘Yes. It poked its head above the waves in November 1904. It was a rocky island with a circumference of two miles and had a fine pumice-stone beach. These islands were Japanese at that time and Japan was very proud of her new island. But it lasted for only two years, then

sank out of sight.’

‘See that smoke on the horizon ahead? Perhaps it’s a steamer.’

‘No, I think it’s another volcano. Its name is Uracas. While some islands are sinking, that one is rising. It’s already more than a thousand feet high and still growing.’

They did not reach Uracas until late at night. The boys tumbled out of their bunks and came on deck to look at it.

Ashes were showering down on the deck. The ship was trembling from the shock of the explosions. Uracas was a thousand feet of fire, topped by a column of smoke that went up several thousand feet more.

The mountain wore a white-hot coat of flowing lava that sizzled and roared as it struck the sea. The illuminated mountain lit up the sea for miles.

The volcano was shaped just as one would imagine a volcano should be, tapering steeply up to the crater. Its perfect toboggan-slopes were kept smooth and straight by the frequent flow of lava and ashes.

Roger was puzzled. ‘What’s that at the top - snow?’

It did look as if the volcano were wearing a cap of snow. ‘White sulphur,’ said Dr Dan.

The streams of blazing lava ran down over the white cap and then over the coal-black cinder slopes to the sea. The steam that rose when the lava struck the water glowed with the light from the blazing stream so that the whole volcano seemed to be floating on a bed of fire.

The glowing column of smoke turned and twisted like the tongue of a great dragon licking the night sky. Every few minutes another explosion came, throwing up fiery gobs of lava and burning ashes into the cloud.

‘Sea captains call it the lighthouse of the Pacific,’ Dr Dan said. ‘They use it to check their bearings. It can be seen more than a hundred miles away - its column of smoke by day and its pillar of fire by night. Have you ever heard of Stromboli? It’s called the lighthouse of the Mediterranean. It stands in the sea near Naples and throws up blazing lava every ten minutes.

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