NATURAL HISTOEY. 



4Bi 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



A Narrative of the Eruption 

 OF A Volcano in the Sea off 

 THE Island of St. Michael. 

 By S. Tillurd, Esq. Captain in 

 the Royal ]\'avy. Fliilos. Trans. 



APPROACHING the island of 

 St. Michael's, on Sunday the 

 12th of June, 1811, in his majesty's 

 sloop Sabrina, under my command, 

 we occasionally observed, rising in 

 the horizon, two or three columns 

 jof smoke, such as would have been 

 occasioned by an action between 

 two ships, to which cause we 

 universally attributed its origin. 

 This opinion was, however, in a 

 *ery short time changed, from the 

 smoke increasing and ascending in 

 much larger bodies than could 

 possibly have been produced by 

 such an event ; and having heard 

 an account prior to our sailing 

 from Lisbon, that in the preceding 

 January or February a volcano had 

 burst out within the sea near St. 

 Michael's, we immediately con- 

 cluded, that tiie smoke we saw 

 proceeded from this cause, and on 

 our anchoring the next morning in 

 the road of Ponta del Gada, we 

 found this conjecture correct as to 

 the cause, but not to the time ; 

 the eruption of January having 

 totally subsided, and the present 



one having only burst forth tw® 

 days prior to our approach, and 

 about three miles distant from the 

 one before alluded to. 



Desirous of examining as nn.- 

 nutely as possible a contention so 

 extraordinary between two such 

 powerful ^elements, 1 set off from 

 the city of Ponta del Gada on the 

 morning of the 14th, in company 

 with Mr. Read, the consul general 

 of the Azores, and two other gen- 

 tlemen. After riding about twenty 

 miles across the N. W. end of the 

 island of St. Michael's, w£ came to 

 the edge of a cljtf, whence the 

 volcano burst suddenly upon our 

 view in the most terrific and awful 

 grandeur. Jt was only a short 

 mile from the base of the cliif, 

 which was nearly perpendicular, 

 and formed the margin of the sea; 

 this cliff being as nearly as I could 

 judo-efrom three to four hundred 

 feet' high. To give you an ade^ 

 quale idea of the scene by descrip- 

 tion is far beyond my powers ; but 

 for your satisfaction 1 shall at,, 

 tempt it. 



Imagine an immense ^jody of 

 smoke rising from the M-a, the 

 surface of which was marked by 

 the silvery ripling of the waves, 

 occasioned by the light and steady 

 breezes incidental to tho&e climates 



in 



