Volcanos and Earthquakes. ^^ 



edge of a crater, the walls of which were gradually raised above 

 the surface of the water by the materials ejected from it. From 

 this crater vapours rose uninterruptedly with great violence, yet 

 without noise, which were succeeded by the ejection of slags, 

 sand, and ashes. The appearance of this island was also pre- 

 ceded by a noise resembling thunder, and by the elevation of a 

 mass of black coloured water to a height of eighty-two feet, 

 columns of smoke rising at the same time to a great height. 

 The accounts leave us in uncertainty respecting one of the most 

 important circumstances — whether fire rose out of the crater or 

 not. However, Hoffman and his companions are inclined to 

 the more probable opinion, that this volcano vomited no fire, 

 and that what some observers took for flames, was only the^- 

 rilli in the smoke.* Lightning, caused by the electricity ex- 

 cited by the rapid evaporation, was observed there, as it is 

 during the eruptions of Vesuvius and other igneous mountains. 

 At the end of December 1830, this island, which was 2100 feet 

 in circumference, and the highest point of which rose 210 feet 

 above the sea, shared the fate of Sahrina, and disappeared. 

 From the bottom of the sea it had risen between TOO and 900 

 feet; and from what depth below, may be conjectured from the 

 calculations previously given. 



Thus, then, the rising of islands out of the sea is a well au- 

 thenticated fact, and if we should for a moment be left in 

 doubt concerning the cause of this phenomenon, by the appear- 

 ance of steam in the presence of the sea-water, yet the evolu- 

 tion of aqueous vapour from volcanic islands, enclosed on all 

 sides by solid rock, seems to dispel such doubts. 



Examples of elevations on land in historical times are much, 

 more rare. Of these v*e are only acquainted with the elevation 

 of Monte Nuovo near Puzzuoli in 1528, which rose 400 feet in 

 about three days ; that of Monte Rosso near Caiania in Sicily, 

 in 1669, which rose to a height of 820 feet in about four weeks, 

 and that of JoruUo, which rose to a height of 1 480 feet above 

 the plain, in one day, on the 29th September 1759 + 



* Witliout exactly wishing to generalize, tliis circumstance is yet sufii- 

 cient to render us distrustful in judging of descriptious of siniilar pheno- 

 mena in which flames are so often mentioned. 



t Von Humboldt Nouv^spngiie, v. ii. p. 290. See Burkart loco cit. 

 vol. i. p. 22G. 



