DOMAIN XII. VOLCANIC. 



thus raised by subterraneous fires, in the yeaf 

 1720. 



" This happened in the beginning of December, 

 1720. In the night, a violent earthquake was felt 

 on the island of Tercera ; and the next morning 

 the top of a new island appeared, which ejected a 

 huge column of smoke. The pilot of a ship, who 

 attempted to approach it, sounded on one side of 

 the new formed island, with a line of sixty fathoms, 

 but could find no bottom. On the opposite side, 

 the sea was deeply tinged with various colours, 

 white, blue, and green, and was very shallow. 

 This island was larger on its first appearance than 

 at some distance of time after ; and at length sunk 

 in such a manner as to be now only just above the 

 level of the sea. 



" Upon this extraordinary production of nature^ 

 the narrator remarks as follows : 



' What can be more surprising than to see fire 

 not only break out of the bowels of the earth, but 

 also to make itself a passage through the waters 

 of the sea ! What can be more extraordinary, or 

 foreign to our common notions of things, than to 

 see the bottom of the sea rise up into a mountain 

 above the water, and become so firm an island as 

 to be able to resist the violence of the greatest 

 storms ! I know that subterraneous fires, when 



