THE VOLCANO
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On April nineteenth Mother woke me up at one thirty in the morning saying there was a fire way off to the south and west of us and that the mate and the captain thought it must be a volcano in eruption. Far away in the sky there was a faint pink glow, and we were all very much excited.
The next morning we left Tower Island because the harbor would be dangerous in case of a tidal wave or any disturbance from an earthquake. Towards evening after trawling and fishing all day around Tower and Bindloe Islands, we started for the direction of North Albemarle. We could see the glow for seventy miles or more.
Later that night as we got nearer, the red glowed much more and the great bank of [[42]]clouds over it was all pink like a very bright sunset. By three in the morning we were within ten miles of it and we could see flames and juts of smoke.
The First View of the Volcano on Albemarle.
In the morning Uncle Will and John Tee Van went ashore. They had a hard time finding a landing place for the shore was all steep lava cliffs against which the surf broke. But finally they went into a little protected cove, and from there started off for the nearest smoking place they saw. For a time we could see them as they climbed over the terribly rough lava flows, older ones that had been coming down for centuries. But soon we lost sight of them.
There was a lot of pumice which is a very light stone, kind of pale gray or whitish in color. It comes from the volcanoes, like the lava. Sometimes when you step into it you sink right up to your knees. It is so light it floats on the water. It is fine for cleaning stains off your hands. [[43]]