342 Volcanoes in (he Bay of Btfngul. 



seas are now abundant on mountains above 1000 feet high.* 

 On the 15th September 1751, the capital of St Domingo was 

 destroyed by an earthquake, and part of the coast, 20 leagues 

 in length, sunk down, and has ever since formed a bay of 

 tlie sea. The Lisbon earthquake, one of the most fearful on 

 record, occurred in November 1755 ; and in 1757 the Azores 

 were struck with an earthquake, during which eighteen 

 small islands arose about 200 yards from the shore : these 

 corresponded very closely with the Pondicherry explosion.! 



The volcanic region in the Bay of Bengal seems about this 

 time to have been in a state of general activity. Off the 

 coast of Arracan, lies an island called Cheduba, 15 miles in 

 length, and 17 in breadth, or of about 200 square miles in 

 area, situated in lat. 18° 50' N., and long. 90° 40' E. Its ge- 

 neral appearance is that of a fertile, well-wooded island, of 

 moderate height, and irregular outline. A band of level 

 land, covered with fragments of coral, shells, and gravel, 

 and but a little way elevated above the sea, surrounds it : 

 three distinct terraces are visible, the result of so many se- 

 parate upheavals.f-^^lB^^^- 



* Lyell's Principles, vol. i., p. 440, Ed. 1830. 

 ^; *.| -^The following extract is from Dr Thomson's paper on the Geology of 

 Bombay, Mad. Lit. Trans. It bears directly on the subject, and carries us 

 three centuries further back ; I have not considered the description specific 

 enough for the text, but see no reason to doubt the authenticity of the facts. 

 " The island of Vaypi, on the north side of (.'ochin (South Malabar coast), rose 

 from out the sea in the year 1341 ; the date of its appearance is determined by 

 its having given rise to a new era amongst the Hindoos, called Puduvepa, or 

 the new introduction. Contemporaneously with the appearance of Vaypi, the 

 waters, which, during the rainy season, were discharged from the Ghauts, 

 broke through the banks of the channel which usually confined them, over- 

 whelmed a village, and formed a lake and harbour so spacious that light ships 

 could anchor where dry land formerly prevailed," — Bartolomws Voyage to the 

 East Indies. Rome, 1796. Translation, 1800. 



X Captain B, Smith, in his admirable paper on Indian Earthquakes, published 

 in 1842, Bl. As. Trans,, vol. xii., gives an account from the "■ Gentleman's 

 Magazine," of a violent earthquake which occurred at Calcutta in 1737. 

 20,000 vessels of various sizes arc said to have been destroyed by the inunda- 

 tion which accompanied it, and 300,000 lives are said to have been lost on the 

 occasion. No volcanic phenomena, strictly so-called, seem to have attended it. 

 It took place during a furious hurricane. The earliest Indian earthquake of 

 which particulars are given, is that which accompanied the hurricane of 2fith 



