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In the event of such a cessation of the volcanic eruption, whilst the comet was still at so great a distance from the sun, they would indeed be at a loss to find a substitute for what alone had served to render life endurable at a temperature of 60 degrees below zero.

Thus we baptized our friendship and in a fresh bottle drank to its eternal continuance. He then became Carlo Magno again and declared that I was padrone of the theatre, and that if I did not come every night to see him act, and to supper afterwards, there would be an eruption of Mount Etna and he would never speak to me again.

We have seen that there is almost conclusive evidence that man was a witness to the later volcanic outbursts of the Vivarais, and as these craters seem to be of somewhat earlier date than those of the Puy de Dôme group, we cannot doubt that they were in active eruption when human beings inhabited the country, and not improbably within what is known as the Historic Period.

As I look back, I am reminded of the state of mind of Kipling's newspapermen who witnessed a volcanic eruption at sea, in which unbelievable deep-sea creatures were expelled to the surface, among them an enormous white serpent, blind and smelling of musk, whose death throes thrashed the sea into a fury.

"Oh, my dear fellow! too horrid for words; he ought to be hanged!" "The man's dreadful," pursued the voice, shriller than ever; "nothing but a volcanic eruption would cure him." Shelton turned in alarm to look at the authors of these statements. They were two men of letters talking of a third. "'C'est un grand naif, vous savez," said the second speaker.

The smallest one of all, Stromboli, is almost always burning. At Vesuvius, the eruptions are rarer than formerly, though still more frequent than those of Etna and the Peak of Teneriffe. The colossal summits of the Andes, Cotopaxi and Tungurahua, scarcely have an eruption once in a century.

It is usually rather abundant, in keeping with the wide-spread character of the infection, and is especially noticeable on the chest and abdomen, the face, palms, and soles. It is apt to appear in the scalp in the severer forms. The eruption may consist of almost anything, from faint pink spots to small lumps and nodules, pimples and pustules, or large ulcerating or crusted sores.

The concussion of the air reached to an unprecedented distance and the clouds of floating dust encircled the earth, producing striking phenomena of which an account is given at the end of this chapter. The rapidity with which the effects of the Krakatoa eruption made themselves evident in all parts of the earth is perhaps the most remarkable outcome of this extraordinary event.

At the end of from forty-eight to sixty hours, an eruption of pimples appears on the face, forehead, forearms and wrists, whence it extends to the body and the lower limbs.

The hermit made the nearest approach to a laugh which Nigel had yet seen, as he left the cave to undertake some of the preparations above referred to. See The Eruption of Krakatoa and Subsequent Phenomena page 11.