54() DOMAIN XII. VOLCANIC. 



rowed toward that part of the island where they 

 perceived neither fire nor smoke ; but when they 

 got within a hundred yards of it, the great furnace 

 discharged itself with its usual fury, and the wind 

 blew upon them a thick smoke and a shower of 

 ashes, which obliged them to quit their design. 

 Having retired a little, they let down a plummet, 

 with a line ninety-five fathoms long, but it was 

 too short to reach the bottom. On their return 

 to Santorini, they observed that the heat of the 

 water had melted most of the pitch from their 

 boat, which was therefore grown very leaky. 



" From this time until the 15th of August, 

 when our author left Santorini, the fire, smoke, . 

 and noise, remained very moderate ; and by the 

 accounts that he received from that place for se- 

 veral years after, it appears that the island still in- 

 creased, but that the fire and subterraneous noises 

 were much abated; and as the travellers who 

 have since visited the Levant give no account of 

 its burning, it has doubtless long since ceased. 



" Strange as this account may appear, it is al- 

 lowed to be unquestionably true ; and indeed, this 

 is not the only instance, in modern times, of 

 islands risen from the bottom of the sea; we have 

 an account of one such in the Philosophical 

 Transactions, yoL v. page 197, near the Azores, 



