most frightful eruptions take place sometimes in this, sometimes in one or several of the other islands, when streams of molten lava and showers of ashes and scoriæ are ejected from chasms that open up in uncertain places. These eruptions drive all into the sea, or cause them to take shelter in the numerous caverns with which the islands abound. The red-hot lava and ashes cause terrible conflagrations in our forests, and many of those who are physically incapacitated from living in the water have been smoked or roasted to death in their subterranean retreats. In short, life on land is attended by so many discomforts and dangers that the country would long ago have been depopulated, were it not for the safe asylum afforded by our sub-aqueous abode."
I was much struck by the perfect stillness of the air, which seldom stirred the surface of the water sufficiently to cause the slightest ripple. It was owing to this glass-like smoothness of the surface that external objects were so distinctly observed through the circular opening I before described, and that such a perfect reflection of the bottom of the sea was seen from below.
I had read that even in tropical regions certain winds, which we call trade-winds, prevailed and a steady breeze blew almost constantly in one direction or another. To my inquiry whether this portion of the globe was not subject to these winds, the Instructor replied:—
"This region is situated precisely in the angle between the north-east and south-east trade-winds, and is quite exempt from their influence. We are occasionally visited by terrific cyclones or circular hurricanes, and then the surface of our inland sea is agitated to a considerable degree; but the agitation does not extend to any great depth, so that when we are four or five fathoms below the surface we are not aware of the slightest movement of the water, and would only know that a hurricane is raging above by the circumstance that then the mirror above us is broken into fragments, and where the sky is seen when it is calm through the circular opening, nothing but a patch of broken light is visible. But these hurricanes are of short duration, and occur at rare intervals, so that they do not interfere in the slightest degree with the avocations nor even with the amusements of the inhabitants of the watery depths.
It was some weeks before I could trust myself to stay altogether beneath the water, and to sleep there; but at last I accomplished even this most difficult feat. To do this at first, I had to lie down on my back, in a sort of niche among the corals lined with soft sponges, with an air-tube between my lips and a spring-compressor on my nose to prevent me drawing the water in by my nostrils. I practised regular breathing, which gradually seemed to come quite naturally and to be performed without conscious effort, nor was it interrupted when unconsciousness overtook me and I slept soundly. I was soon able to dispense with the nose-clip, the muscles of the nostrils acting automatically and closing the nasal orifices completely.
When I had thoroughly mastered this difficulty, my Instructor pronounced me qualified by aquatic accomplishments for admission as a citizen of this remarkable community.
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