70 Account of the Formation of the Island of Salrina. 



On Sunday morning early, accompanied by some friends, I rode 

 to the west end of the island to observe this phaenomenon, and 

 was much gratified at seeing one of the most awful and sublime 

 spectacles that nature can present to human observation. I 

 took my station on the brink of a steep precipice, impending over 

 the sea-shore, at the nearest possible distance from the volcana, 

 which was raging with immense fury, throwing up stoiies and 

 sand to a height of upwards of a thousand feet above the level 

 of the sea, attended with a hollow thundering noise like a distant 

 cannonade, and accompanied with some smart shocks of earth- 

 quakes. The mephitic vapour was at times so strong, as to af- 

 fect the breathing, even to danger of suffocation, as the wind 

 blew direct on shore from the N.N.W. The sea was agitated 

 around the volcano, to a considerable distance, and boiling like 

 an immense cauldron, the diameter of which appeared to be about 

 500 feet; the stones (some of which were apparently above a 

 ton weight), being thrown up nearly perpendicular several hun- 

 dred yards, fell with tremendous noise in every direction about 

 the volcano, and kept the sea in a continual foam. The appear- 

 ance of the clouds, rising in a spiral form, and spreading several 

 leagues to the southward, attracted particular notice, from the 

 water-spouta which formed from the black denser clouds, and 

 drew up the water in a variety of directions — at one time I 

 counted eleven water-spouts in full action ; occasionally the 

 clouds burst over us with Ught rain, charged with ashes and small 

 scoria drawn up from the volcano ; the smell of sulphur was so 

 strong as greatly to incommode the inhabitants of Ponta Delgada, 

 a distance of nearly twenty miles. On Tuesday the 1 Sth of June, 

 I returned to the same spot, accompanied by Captain Tillard, of 

 His Majesty ship Sabrina, Mr. Nicholes purser of that ship, and 

 a Portuguese gentleman; and on our arrival at half-past ten, we 

 discovered the mouth of a crater several feet above the surface 

 of the sea; the quantity of sand and ashes thrown up from the 

 centre of the crater formed an embankment as it fell, which 

 kept out the sea, except in one place, where an embouchure of 

 about thirty feet wide was discernible; the sea rushed into this 

 part with incredible fury at every interval of the eruption, which 

 subsided only for a few minutes, returning with redoubled force j 

 in less than three hours the crater had increased in height above 

 the level of the sea nearly sixty feet: having a pocket-compass, 

 we took the bearings of the volcano, and having measured a base 

 line of 800 feet, we found the distance from the spot of obser- 

 vation to be 5100 feet, or nearly an English mile. About one 

 P.M. a most tremendous explosion took place, which lasted 

 nearly twenty minutes, and darkened the atmosphere for several 

 miles around ; the flashes of lightning were very vivid, and pro- 

 duced 



