84 Mr Forbes's Physical Notices of the Bay of Naples, 



1811, off the Island of St Michael, one of the Azores. During 

 the preceding year, and that spring, earthquakes had been 

 frequent and severe, and in February, a shoal was formed by 

 a submarine eruption at two miles from shore. But on the 13th 

 of June, another explosion took place at two miles and a half 

 beyond the first, by which an island 300 feet high was formed, 

 having a crater 500 feet in diameter. It was discovered by the 

 crew of the frigate Sabrina, and thence took that appropriate 

 name. The action of the waves, however, soon undermined its 

 loosely aggregated structure, and in a few weeks it sunk into 

 the ocean. Some time since, there were eighty fathoms of 

 water above where it stood. Its site had previously been oc- 

 cupied by islands formed in 1691 and 1720, which had suc- 

 cessively disappeared. In 1638, an island had also been formed 

 off St MichaePs, and this year was rather remarkable for the 

 occurrence of volcanic explosions. Not only this island was 

 elevated, but we have already noticed that an eruption of 

 pumice took place at the Island of Santorini, and the Peak, 

 a very lofty volcanic mountain in the Island of Timor, one of 

 the Moluccas, had its top blown off by an explosion the same 

 year, and replaced by a lake. 



These illustrations will not, I think, be considered out of place 

 in the discussion of the history and features of the Monte Nuovo. 

 The phenomena are of the most real, as well as of the deepest 

 and most enchaining interest ; they must be generalized, and 

 not studied individually; they must be treasured as the oracles 

 of nature's modes of action, sparingly distributed, and worthy 

 of all our care in the skilful combination and refined analysis 

 of them. The late date of geological science has prevented 

 the acquisition of much information from occurrences so rare, 

 that their epochs are not so much dated by years as by cen- 

 turies ; and from the length of time which has elapsed since 

 any very striking event of the kind occurred in Europe, we are 

 authorized by the doctrine of chances to suppose, that the 

 period of some irregular exercise of volcanic agency is not very 

 distant. Breislak has remarked, that for a long period every 

 second century has produced some convulsion in the Bay of 

 Naples; the eruption of the Solfatara in the 12th; of Monte 

 Epomeo in Ischia, in the 14th; of the Monte Nuovo in the 



