the hot, frothy lava scum obtained admittance into the shell, and,
while cooling itself, so as to retain the form of an internal cast,
burnt the shell, causing it to fall away as quicklime; but how a sea
shell, if such it really was, got on to the top of this lofty volcanic
pile has yet to be solved.*
The ejection of lava appears to have occurred more in the form
of bubbling up and overflowing, while the cinders were thrown
to a considerable height. The former, in many places, is twisted
into almost all imaginable tortuous shapes, by a fresh flow running
over the half-consolidated one which preceded it, and pushing
or curling up the frothy scum into the fibrous forms which the
scoriae still retains. On the western side of the cone, low down in
the valley adjoining New Ground, the thin flows of lava down the
face of the cone, at an angle of 30°, are easily traced.
Leaving High Knoll, and proceeding westward along the line of
upheaving force, across the plains and ridges called New Ground,
Bock Cottage, Friar’s Eidge, High Point, Horse Pasture, High
Hill, and Bottleys, on this side of Manatee Bay, we see evidences of
a disturbance in the strata at each point. The high sharp division
between two ravines, called Friar’s Eidge, exhibits a striking
illustration of shattering and squeezing up of very compact lavas,
the lateral pressure having been so great as to cause a sort of
columnar structure to appear, while the angle of inclination of the
lava-beds northwards is changed from 5° and 6°, to 10° and 12°.
Much crumbling away of the rocks at this point has occurred,
through the extreme narrowness of the ridge, and on its very crest
there still remains a pile of stones about twelve or fourteen feet in
height. Worn, weather-beaten, and lichen-covered, it has stood for
many years until it has assumed, when viewed from a distance, a
most strikingly correct resemblance to a cloaked and hooded figure,
giving rise to the following legendary story:—
“The place where the Friar now stands was supposed once to have
been the site of a Eoman Catholic Chapel, adjoining which was the
residence of the officiating priest, a monk of the Franciscan order,
who was considered as an example of Christian piety and humility,
his life being passed in the performance of acts of charity and
* I still have this specimen paeked away with others, and hope to get it carefully
examined.