What do you see there ?" "I see a peninsula looking like a thigh bone with the knee bone at the end of it." "A very fair comparison, my lad.

Now do you see anything upon that knee bone ?" "Yes; a mountain rising out of the sea." "Right.

That is Snaefell." "That Snaefell ?" "It is.

It is a mountain five thousand feet high, one of the most remarkable in the world, if its crater leads down to the centre of the earth." "But that is impossible," I said shrugging my shoulders, and disgusted at such a ridiculous supposition.
"Impossible ?" said the Professor severely; "and why, pray ?" "Because this crater is evidently filled with lava and burning rocks, and therefore--" "But suppose it is an extinct volcano ?" "Extinct ?" "Yes; the number of active volcanoes on the surface of the globe is at the present time only about three hundred.

But there is a very much larger number of extinct ones.