NOTES. CXXX1X 



of a more southerly West-Indian volcano, that of the island of St. Vincent. The 

 dreadful subterranean noise resembling thunder or the sound of a heavy cannonade, 

 caused by a violent eruption of the last-named volcano on the 30th of April 

 1812, was heard in the wide grassy plains (the Llanos) of Calabozo and on the 

 banks of the Rio Apure, 192 geographical miles to the west of its confluence 

 with the Orinoco. (Humboldt, Voy. t. ii. p. 14.) The volcano of St. Vincent 

 had not sent forth any lava between 1718 and 1812; on the 30th of April, a 

 stream of lava flowed from the summit-crater, and in the course of four hours 

 reached the sea-shore. It is a very curious fact, and one that was confirmed to 

 me by very intelligent persons engaged in coasting navigation, that the noise was 

 heard with much greater strength far out at sea than in the immediate vicinity 

 of the island. 



The volcano of the island of Santa Lucia, which is- commonly termed a Sol- 

 fatara, is only between twelve and eighteen hundred feet high. There are in 

 the crater several small basins which are periodically filled with boiling water. 

 In 1766, an eruption of scoriae and ashes is said to have been observed, which is, 

 indeed, an unusual phenomenon for a Solfutara; for although it appears, from 

 very well carried out investigations by James Forbes and Poulett Scrope, that 

 there can scarcely be a doubt as to the fact of an eruption of the Solfatara of 

 Pozzuoli in 1 198, yet we might be inclined to regard this occurrence as a lateral 

 effect of the neighbouring principal volcano, Vesuvius. (See Forbes, in the 

 Edinb. Journal of Science, vol. i. p. 128; and Poulett Scrope, in the Transact, 

 of the Geol. Soc. 2nd series, vol. ii. p. 346.) Lancerote, Hawaii, and the Sunda 

 isles present to us analogous examples of eruptions, situated at extreme distances 

 from the summit-craters which are the proper seats of the volcanic activity. In 

 the great eruptions of Vesuvius in 1794, 1822, 1850. and 1855, the Solfatara 

 of Pozzuoli has remained undisturbed (Julius Schmidt, Ueber die Eruption des 

 Vesuvs im Mai 1855, S. 156); although Strabo (liv. v. p. 245), long before 

 the breaking out of Vesuvius, speaks, although vaguely, of fire also in the 

 region of Dicsearchia (Dicsearchia received in Hannibal's time, from the Eomans 

 who colonised there, the name of Puteoli. Strabo adds, " Some think that, 

 on account of the bad smell of the water, the whole district, as far as Baiae and 

 Kymsea, is called so, because it is full of sulphur, fire, and warm water. Some 

 think that for this reason also Kymaea, Cumanus Ager, was also called Phlegra;" 

 and afterwards Strabo speaks of fire and water being poured forth, irpoxoas rov 



TTVpbs KO.I TOV uSdTOs). 



The modern volcanic activity of the island of Martinique in the Montagne 

 Pelet (4706 feet high according to Dupuget), Vauclin, and the Pitons du Carbet 

 is still more doubtful. The great outbursts of vapour of January 22, 1792, 



