SABRINA. 249 



seem that only the common matters at the bottom 

 of the sea came to the surface, even when the walls 

 of the crater attained an elevation of nearly two 

 hundred feet ; for the layers formed by the succes- 

 sive eruptions, which could easily be distinguished 

 by the salt that was left when they evaporated the 

 water, were friable and yielding to the action of the 

 waves. 



It seems to be not an unusual occurrence, in what 

 may be called volcanic seas, for small islands to rise 

 up in that manner, and afterward to disappear, prob- 

 ably by the mere action of the water. That was 

 the case with the island of Sabrina, which made its 

 appearance off the Azores in 1811, and attained 

 nearly the same dimensions as the one in question. 

 It has now disappeared and there are eighty fathoms 

 of water in the place where it stood. As those in- 

 stances are well authenticated, and as others have 

 been mentioned, it is by no means unlikely that they 

 occur frequently in the sea without producing any 

 appearance at the surface. It would be contrary to 

 the general economy of nature, in which there is 

 no thing or power out of the connexion, to sup- 

 pose that those depths of the sea, which we may 

 conclude are too far from the action of the sun and 

 atmosphere for supporting life, lie idle. They are 

 very extensive, and the power of water pressure in 

 them is vast. It therefore agrees with the analogy 

 of nature, as well as with the observed facts, that 

 in them are placed the grand laboratories of nature, 

 in which new lands are prepared; and that the 

 action of those smaller submarine volcanoes, which 

 shoot up their columns of charred and granular mat- 

 ter, to be strewed over the bed of the ocean by the 

 currents of its waters, is the process -by which the 

 strata are mixed and tempered, so as to fit them for 

 their purposes. 



The following cut will give some idea of that 

 action : 



