260 LECTURE XXI. 



weight when compressed, a pint of it weighing 

 twelve ounces and three-quarters. 



Along the coast of Sumbawa and the adjoin- 

 ing islands, the sea suddenly rose to the height 

 of from two to twelve feet, a great wave rushing 

 up the estuaries, and then suddenly subsiding. 

 Every vessel was driven from its anchorage* 

 The town, called Tomboro, on the west side of 

 Sumbawa, was overflowed by the sea, which 

 encroached upon the shore so that the water 

 remained permanently eighteen feet deep in 

 places where there was land before. The shore 

 over which these volcanic effects extended was 

 1000 English miles in circumference. In the 

 Island of Amboyna, the ground opened and 

 threw out water, and then closed again. Sir 

 Stamford Raffles was Governor of Java when 

 these catastrophes happened, and he furnished 

 the above particulars from authentic sources of 

 information. 



Let us now inquire into the terrible effects of 

 earthquakes. In the year 1783 Mount Etna, in 

 Sicily, threw out a very considerable quantity of 

 vapour, which was succeeded by violent shocks 

 of earthquakes. Towns and numerous houses 

 were destroyed, and buried their inhabitants in 



