VOL. XXVri.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 653 



was a great misfortune to most of the inhabitants, the greater part of whose 

 revenue consists in wines. 



It is remarkable that silver and copper were changed black by this thick 

 smoke : and though some people, who were forced to pass through the smoke, 

 in going to their houses, assured me, that it had no very ill smell with it ; yet 

 several of them were, that and the next day after, troubled with great pains in 

 their head. At this time the White Island, which seemed to be above the 

 lesser Kammeni, and could be seen from the first floor of the houses in the 

 castle of Scaro, sunk down so low, that it could not be seen from the second. 



Hitherto the sea had not been observed to boil up, nor any noise heard on the 

 Black Island : but July 3 1 , the sea was seen to emit smoke at two several places ; 

 one of which was about 30, and the other above 6o paces distant from the 

 island. In these two places, both of which were perfectly round, the water of 

 the sea looked like oil, and seemed to rise up and bubble: which it continued 

 to do for more than a month ; in which time there were a great many fishes 

 found dead on the shore, occasioned by their happening to have been too near 

 these two places. 



The night following there was heard a dull hollow noise, much like that of 

 several cannons shot off at a distance : and at the same time there was seen to 

 rise out of the midst of the funnel flames of fire, which darted very high into 

 the air, and disappeared immediately. Next day there was heard several returns 

 of the same noise, which was followed by a smoke, not white, as usual, but 

 blackish ; and which, notwithstanding a fresh north wind, rose up in a moment 

 to a prodigious height, in form of a column, and in the night time would, in 

 all probability, have appeared, as if it were all on fire. 



August the 7th, the noise altered ; and from being dull, as before, it became 

 very loud, and resembled the noise which is made when several great stones are 

 thrown all together into a very deep well : and which probably was occasioned 

 by several large pieces of rocks, which after having been raised up with the 

 island by the violence of the fire, broke off by their weight, and fell back 

 again into the subterranean caverns. What confirms me in this thought is, 

 that I saw then the ends of this island in so great a motion, that after having 

 appeared for some days, they then disappeared, and afterwards re-appeared again 

 anew. This noise, after having continued so for near a month, was followed 

 by another much louder and more extraordinary, it so nearly resembled 

 thunder. 



As the passage, which the fire had made itself by its violence through so 

 many rocks, was not, in all probability, in a straight line, and was in some 

 places narrower, and in others wider and more free ; so it is probable, that the 



