112 HISTORY OF 



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 pent in a narrow passage, are able to 

 raise up a mass of earth as large as an island. 

 But that this should be done in so regular and 

 exact a manner that the water of the sea should 

 not be able to penetrate and extinguish those 

 fires ; that, after having made so many passages, 

 they should retain force enough to raise the earth ; 

 and, in fine, after having been extinguished, that 

 the mass of earth should not fall down, or sink 

 again with its own weight, but still remain in a 

 manner suspended over the great arch below! 

 This is what to me seems more surprising than 

 any thing that has been related of Mount ^Etna, 

 Vesuvius, or any other volcano." 



Such are his sentiments : however, there are 

 few of these appearances any way more extraor- 

 dinary than those attending volcanoes and earth- 

 quakes in general. We are not more to be sur- 

 prised that inflammable substances should be 

 found beneath the bottom of the sea, than at 

 similar depths at land. These have all the force 

 of fire giving expansion to air, and tending to 

 raise the earth at the bottom of the sea, till it at 

 length heaves above water. These marine volca- 

 noes are not so frequent ; for, if we may judge 

 of the usual procedure of nature, it must very 

 often happen, that before the bottom of the sea 

 is elevated above the surface, a chasm is opened 

 in it, and then the water pressing in, extinguishes 



