22 On Volcanos and Earthquakes. 
Portugal, France, Hamburg, the coast of England, and even 
to the north of Scotland. However, a fact observed by 
Captain Affleck, of the Advice man-of-war, then at Antigua, 
and recorded in the cigars Transactions, vol. 49, surpasses 
in wonder even all this 
“ On the first of November last, you had a remarkable flux 
and reflux of the sea at agen and other parts of the coast, 
which was agitated in like m Yr, AT THE SAME TIME, on t the 
coast of America, and all these “islands.” 
If by the words “same time” is meant the same hour, it 
is in fact three hours later, on account of the difference of 
longitude, and the distance between ee of explosion 
across the Atlantic to the Antilles, being about four thousand 
miles, and will givea velocity of two thousand and forty feet 
2 a. Prcond of time. This velocity cannot be that of a wave 
water ; it must be, it can be, but a velocity of percussion 
in an elastic fluid or gas of a greater density than atmosphe- 
ric air. This fact, and similar ones, will enable us one da 
to give not only a mathematical decionsiitios of the exist- 
ence of such a fluid under the sea, but also to calculate ex- 
actly its density. 
t us proceed in our investigation. 
Earthquake in Calabria, 1638, 
{n Goldsmith’s History of the Earth, is an account of that 
great convulsion of nature, translated from the celebrated 
Father Kircher, from which we extract the two following 
observations : 
zis The Gulph of Charybdis, which we approached, seemed 
w rled round in such a manner as to form a yast hollow, verg- 
gtoa point in the centre.’ 
“And afterwards : 
« The sea itself seemed to wear a very unusual appearance. 
Those who have seen a lake in a violent shower of rain, covered 
all over with bubbles, will thd some idea of its agitation; 
my surprise was still increased by the calmness and 
the weather; not a aes 2 i ite Pe 3 and serenity of 
"The rushing of the sea into a subterranean mc cannot 
be better demonstrated than by the first observation, and the 
ejection of gases through its water, than by the second. 
* 
soy Nes agit, ET Sig DL Pali ga alee ae OMNI BE Pe = ‘ mean 
‘ Wie tes 
ores ae a coer Se ee oe ae RMA ene ee ee 
