THE EARTH. 109 



historians, and modern travellers, give us such 

 accounts as we can have no room to doubt of. 

 Seneca assures us, that in his time the island of 

 Therasia appeared unexpectedly to some mari- 

 ners, as they were employed in another pursuit. 

 Pliny assures us, that thirteen islands in the 

 Mediterranean appeared at once emerging from 

 the water ; the cause of which he ascribes rather 

 to the retiring of the sea in those parts, than to 

 any subterraneous elevation. However, he men- 

 tions the island of Hiera, near that of Therasia, 

 as formed by subterraneous explosions ; and adds 

 to his list several others, formed in the same man- 

 ner. In one of which he relates that fish in great 

 abundance were found, and that all those who 

 eat of them died shortly after* 



" On the twenty-fourth of May, * in the year 

 1707, a slight earthquake was perceived at San- 

 torin ; and the day following, at sun-rising, an 

 object was seen by the inhabitants of that island, 

 at two or three miles distance at sea, which ap- 

 peared like a floating rock. Some persons, de- 

 sirous either of gain, or incited by curiosity, 

 "went there, and found, even while they stood 

 upon this rock, that it seemed to rise beneath 

 their feet. They perceived also that its surface 

 was covered with pumice-stones and oysters, 

 which it had raised from the bottom. Every day 

 after, until the fourteenth of June, this rock 

 seemed considerably to increase ; and then was 

 found to be half a mile round, and about thirty 



* Hist, del Acad. an. 1708, p. 23. 



