THE ATMOSPHERE TRANQUIL. 261 



and the mud it left became a gritty, sparkling dark 

 brown powder when dry. None of the stones or 

 cinders thrown out appeared to be more than half 

 a foot in diameter, and many of them much 

 smaller." 



During the whole time the wind was steady at 

 north-west, and the weather was serene, so that 

 the action, violent as it was within its range, was 

 very confined in that. Confined as it was, how- 

 ever, it brought all the elements into play. Its 

 smallness is indeed an advantage to those who 

 study it, because it comes as near to being an 

 experiment in the making of islands by the action 

 of fire, as it is possible for any thing in nature to 

 come. The internal action, when deep below the 

 water, was sensible only in the motion communi- 

 cated by the quaking earth to the water over it ; 

 and as the heat was only one degree above the 

 common temperature at twelve yards from the 

 island, one can hardly suppose that any smoke or 

 even steam could come to the surface, or be pro- 

 duced, until the solid matter had risen very nearly 

 to that. On the 28th of June, when Sir Pulteney 

 Malcolm and his companions felt the shocks, the 

 action had begun, but was going on quietly under 

 the water. It may be indeed that there is always 

 an action under that part of the Mediterranean, as 

 shoals are laid down near the place in some of the 

 charts ; and the Maltese have traditions about 

 a former island there. But Swinburne found 

 no bottom with a line of eighty fathoms, till he 

 came within twenty yards of the island, and there, 

 as has been said, it was eighteen fathoms or one 

 hundred and eight feet. That is an exceedingly 

 abrupt slope, and would meet the bottom of one 



