Smith. — Volcanic Activity in Stcjiday Island in 1814. 49 



that on the south seems rather inviting to vessels in want 

 of temporary accommodation, with a safe anchorage. Cap- 

 tain Barnes has subsequently fallen in with the ' King 

 George' (Captain Jones, of this port), and, on relating the 

 above circumstance, received information from him that the 

 ' King George ' had been there shortly before the ' Jeffer- 

 son,' and that he (Captain Jones) had himself also sounded 

 between and within the heads, and could find no soundings 

 at all with a common lead-line in those places where Captain 

 Barnes had found a depth of only 40 fathoms. The idea that 

 suggested itself, from comparing Captain Jones's information 

 with Captain Barnes's own observation, is that this eruptive 

 pile was probably in the act of growing out of the abyss 

 when the latter was there and got soundings at 45 fathoms, 

 the depth diminishing as he went nearer in. The visible 

 extent of its surface, added to the vast height to which it 

 must necessarily have arisen, must fill the mind with astonish- 

 ment. That Vesuvius might have sprung originally from the 

 like cause is not impossible. Its first eruption took place in 

 the first century of the Christian era ; and we do not find any- 

 thing more remarkable in what is recorded of those that have 

 since taken place than the throwing-up a mountain in one 

 night, in the year 1583, three miles in circumference and 

 a quarter of a mile high ; while the island reported to have 

 been thrown up in the bay of Sunday Island may be con- 

 siderably larger, as its summit is three miles round, and 

 it appears to have a gradual and not a steep ascent. — Sydney 

 Gazette, 17th September, 1814. 



"In reference to the above account, it might be as well 

 to mention that, until Lyell's researches into geology were 

 made, no distinction was made between mountains of up- 

 heaval and deposition. It was not understood that a volcano 

 could be formed by ejecta, and built up with that material ; 

 hence the comparison of Vesuvius with the Sunday Island 

 incident, which seems to have been largely a local terrestrial 

 upheaval, probably bursting into eruption when the crust of 

 the earth was relieved of the superincumbent weight of water. 

 — W. D. Campbell, F.G.S." 



