244 ITS FIRST APPEARANCE. 



were heard. Shocks of earthquakes had, indeed, 

 been felt by ships passing the same spot on the 28th 

 of June ; but there was then no appearance at the 

 surface of the sea. At about eleven o'clock on the 

 10th, Captain Carrao, who commanded a Sicilian 

 brig, and was then about twenty miles off Cape St. 

 Mark, observed the water, at the distance of a gun- 

 shot, in a state of agitation. A portion, more than 

 a hundred fathoms in diameter, rose up to the height 

 of sixty feet ; and discharged volumes of sulphurous 

 smoke. The elevated mass, as there is no action 

 of the atmosphere mentioned that could sustain a 

 column of water to that height, must have been 

 steam. That steam, however, from the supply of a 

 whole sea of cold water, and the powerful action of 

 the fire under it, may have had the colour and 

 apparent density of a mass of water. Indeed, the 

 external part of it must have been condensed, and 

 descending in a thick fog, which fog would be kept 

 from spreading on the surface of the sea, by the 

 wind which must have set towards it in all directions, 

 to supply the air which was constantly rarefying and 

 ascending over it. The smoke mentioned by the 

 Sicilian captain was, most probably, the hottest 

 part of the steam, because if the heated strata had 

 so broken under water as to allow volumes of real 

 smoke to escape, the solid matters would not likely 

 have reached the surface. It appears from the ob- 

 servations made by other vessels, that the immediate 

 bottom was mud, and that the depth, after the island 

 was formed, was one hundred and thirty fathoms, at 

 the distance of one mile. That was nearly three 

 hundred and thirty-eight pounds (say three hundred 

 weight) on the inch, from the mere pressure of the 

 water, without taking into the account the conden- 

 sation, the weight of the mud, and the resistance of 

 the strata, which there are no means of ascertaining; 

 but they, in all probability, exceeded the simple 

 pressure of the water. 



