Isle of 

 Bourbon. 



DOMAIN XII. VOLCANIC. 523 



the electric fluid is a principal agent in volcanoes, 

 because the eruptions are more frequent and vio- 

 lent in winter, and in stormy weather. He con- 

 cludes that volcanoes, like springs, are emanations 

 of fluids constantly reproduced. 



Ferrara has simply observed that Stromboli 

 ejects in a year, what a volcano, subject to violent 

 eruptions, would explode in a day. He regards 

 it merely as a volcano of an uncommon construc- 

 tion. 



A volcano in the isle of Bourbon sometimes 

 rivals Stromboli in singularity, a gerbe or sheaf 

 arising, like what is called a Chinese tree in arti- 

 ficial fireworks, and resembling tumultuous waves 

 of fire, darted to the height of more than a hun- 

 dred and twenty feet, and dashing against each 

 other with a sanguine light, visible even at noon- 

 day. The summit presents glassy drosses ; and 

 the crater is lined with fragments of greyish lava 

 much scorified*. 



The history of submarine volcanoes might be Submarine 

 illustrated by the details w r hich we have concern- 

 ing the new isles which have appeared near San- 

 torin, in the Grecian archipelago. 



In his history of volcanoes, Ordinaire has given 

 the following account of these phenomena. 



* Bory, Voy. 1804, 3 vol. 8vo. ii. 231. 



