VOL. XXVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 657 



the air, and fall again over the whole island, making in the night-time as fine 

 a spectacle as was ever seen in artificial fire-works. Besides this, several great 

 rocks, joining to the island, which before were even with the water, have been 

 raised much higher ; and the noise, smoke, and boiling of the sea, increase so 

 much, that though the inhabitants of Santorini have been so long accustomed 

 to see all these things, yet they could not help being more afraid than before. 

 And certainly not without reason ; for the subterraneous noise was more violent 

 than ever, and continued several days together without intermission; and in 

 the space of a quarter of an hour the mine discharged itself 5 or 6 times ; the 

 noise of which, with the great quantity of stones it threw into the air, the 

 shocks it gave the houses, and the fire which now appeared in open day, very 

 much surpasses all that I have before said of it. 



April the 15th was remarkable above all other days, for the great number 

 and violence of the claps; by one of which nearly 100 large stones were mounted 

 up all at once into the air, and fell again at above two miles distance in the sea. 

 Though I was then about three miles off from the New Island, I observed one, 

 of a vast size, which did not rise so high as the rest, but was driven farther, 

 in a straight line, like a cannon ball. 



From April 15 to May 23, which was a year from the birth of this New 

 Island, what is above described, continued the same; and I did not observe any 

 thing more in particular, unless it were that the island increased in height and 

 not in length ; and that one furious clap beat down at once all the top of it; 

 which by means of the ashes and stones of all sizes that fell on it day and 

 night, was not only repaired, but raised much higher than it was before. All 

 circumstances began to abate afterwards: the smoke decreased; the subterrane- 

 ous noise was not so violent ; and the claps, though they were very frequent, 

 were not however so loud, because the funnels, which gave a passage to the 

 fire and smoke, were then much larger than before. 



Hitherto I had only seen this island at a distance; for fear the same should 

 happen to me, as to Pliny, when he went to see Mount Vesuvius ; and least I 

 should be suffocated, as he was, with the flames, or overwhelmed with the 

 stones which this New Island threw out on every side. But seeing that there 

 was then no danger, I went with others to visit, but could not approach close 

 to it, for the heat and sulphureous smell; and so satisfied ourselves with viewing 

 only the space that was between this New Island and the Lesser Kammeni ; 

 which I found to be broader than I imagined, and judged that a galley might 

 pass through the narrowest place of it. After this, we went on shore on the 

 Great Kammeni, that we might from thence view nearer, and without any 

 danger, the whole burning island, and especially that side of it which we 



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