We were sailing along the east coast of Albemarle Island for we wanted
to know if the volcano we had seen in eruption on Easter Sunday, nearly
two months before, was still in eruption. We were almost there,
practically on the Equator, and we recognized the columns of smoke half
way up the side of the mountain.
Suddenly a yell came from the bridge and the Mate blew the foghorn
(which is the way we are called to hurry to see something) and when we
came running out we saw a high funnel of bright white smoke rising
right out of the sea down at the end of a point, a few miles ahead of
us. It couldn’t be spray for it was too enormously high and kept right
in one place.
Uncle Will thought for a long time it must be a geyser or small volcano
right at the water’s edge. And everybody watched it through glasses and
climbed up into the crows-nest for a better view. But when we came
along closer we could easily see it was a great field of hot lava which
had reached the sea and was pouring into the cold water. For a while
before we reached there we could see a streak of dull green in the
water, quite distinct from the dark indigo blue, making a very clear
line between the two. And the temperature of the water went up from the
normal 74 degrees which we had had right along, to 99 degrees, and even
that was a quarter of a mile away from the shore.
Luckily, the strong on-shore wind made it possible for us to go very
close and not run any danger of getting in poisonous gases or smoke,
for there were great clouds of smoke.
The shore rocks were black, there were two colors in the water, green
close to shore and blue out beyond, and these big masses of very white
steamy smoke. And then as we came closer we could see huge openings at
the end of the lava flow, like pipes emptying red hot lava out into the
water. It looked like bright blood.
All day till dark, we circled around and kept passing near it, keeping
about a quarter of a mile from shore. There were high waves and a
strong breeze and the smoke was blowing steadily up the mountain side
so that by sunset time we couldn’t see the little cones up on the
higher slopes from which the whole flow had come down.
But after dark we could tell just the line the stream had flowed down,
a rather zigzag course, and right over the place to which Uncle Will
and John had climbed two months earlier. There were great hot patches
which glowed red in the dark and little specks of hot fiery places all
along the slopes. And then at the bottom right at the shore, these
great huge open hot red streams spilling out into the sea. Once or
twice it would break out in bigger flows or whole big chunks would fall
off into the water, and then it would shoot out and throw boiling lava
into the air, way up, like blasting or skyrockets.
Through the glasses we could see several birds which had flown too near
and their bodies were floating along in the water. Once we saw a poor
sea lion throw himself straight up into the air five times and then
flop down dead right near the terrible stream. A great big octopus
floated by, just about dead. And we watched a whole wave so full of
fish it looked black, swimming as fast as they possibly could straight
out to the cold water. Once too, we saw a shark in a kind of daze,
swimming along, and probably not knowing why the water was so suddenly
growing hotter and hotter.
Shorty took some fine pictures of the whole thing, the smoke spurting
up in the air, the pieces of rock crunching off and exploding into the
water, and the great streams of melted rock.
The last thing at night when we left, we saw six big outlets or hot
glowing spouts dimmer and dimmer as we turned eastward. Next morning we
left the Galápagos Islands for Panama.
(A Little Song Written by Don Dickerman for
David’s Birthday Party)