THE EAETH. 95 



A traveller, whom these appearances could not avoid affect- 

 ing, speaks of them in this manner .^ " What can be more sur. 

 jirising than to see fire not only break out of the bowels of the 

 earth, but also to make itself a passage through the waters of the 

 sea ! ^Vhat can be more extraordinary, or foreign to our common 

 notions of things, than to see the bottom of the sea rise up into a 

 mountain above the water, and to become so firm an island as to be 

 able to resist the violence of the greatest storms. I know that sub- 

 terraneous 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 

 tea should not be able to penetrate and extinguish those fires ; 

 that after hasang made so many passages, they should retain 

 force enough to raise the earth ; and, in fine, after ha\ing been 

 extinguished, that the mass of earth should not fa.l 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 ^tna, Vesuvius, or any other volcano." 



Such are his sentiments : however, there are few of these 

 appearances any way more extraordinary than those attending 

 volcanoes and earthquakes in general. We are not more to be 

 surprised 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 volcanoes 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, -i. chasm is opened in it, and then the water 

 I ressing in, extinguishes the volcano before it has time to pro- 

 then, that he fell into the greatest consternation, when, as he expresses hlra. 

 self, he saw the waves on tire. The following year, the Danish governraen 

 directed, that all ships bound to Iceland should examine the new-formed 

 island ; but so entirely had it Tanished, that none of them either saw or could 

 discover the smallest trace of it. However, towards the end of the next year, 

 n Danish ship of war, of 64 guns, was wrecked on this rock ; which is nov» 

 no longer visible, but remains a most dangerous rock nearly level with the 

 surface of the water. 



3 PhU. Trans, vol v. p. 197. 



