VOL. LX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 7 



within, and the guide assured them he had seen greater quantities on Etna at 

 Other times. In their way back to Catania, the guide showed him a little hill 

 covered with vines, which belonged to the Jesuits, and, as is well attested, was 

 undermined by the lava in the year 1669, and transported half a mile from the 

 place where it stood, without having damaged the vines. In great eruptions 

 of Etna, the same sort of lightning, as described in his account of the last 

 eruption of Vesuvius, has been frequently seen to issue from the smoke of its 

 great crater. Till the year 252 of Christ, the chronological accounts of the 

 eruptions of Etna are very imperfect ; but as the veil of St. Agatha was in that 

 year first opposed to check the violence of the torrents of lava, and has ever since 

 been produced at the time of great eruptions, the miracles attributed to its influ- 

 ence having been carefully recorded by the priests, have at least preserved the 

 dates of such eruptions. The relics of St. Januarius have rendered the same 

 service to the lovers of natural history, by recording the great eruptions of Ve- 

 suvius. 



On their return from Messina to Naples, they were becalmed 3 days in the 

 midst of the Lipari Islands, by which they had an opportunity of seeing that they 

 have all been evidently formed by explosion ; one of them, called Vulcano, is in 

 the same state as the Solfaterra; Stromboli is a volcano, existing in all its force, 

 and, in its form of course, is the most pyramidal of all the Lipari Islands ; they 

 saw it throw up red hot stones from its crater frequently, and some small streams 

 of lava issued from its side, and ran into the sea. This volcano differs from 

 Etna and Vesuvius, by its continually emitting fire, and seldom any lava : not- 

 withstanding its continual explosions, this island is inhabited, on one side, by 

 about a hundred families. 



//. On the Inhabitants of the Coast of Patagonia. By Philip Carteret, Esq., 

 Captain of the Swallow Sloop, p. 20. 



Capt. Carteret sailed in company with Capt. Willis on this expedition. Capt. 

 C. describes these Patagonians as the finest set of men he ever saw ; their height 

 in general from 6 feet to 6 feet 5 inches ; though some few were 6 feet 7 inches ; 

 but none above that. Other particulars of these people may be seen in Dr. 

 Hawksworth's account of the voyages made to Patagonia. 



///. On a Camelopardalis found about the Cape of Good Hope. By Captain 



Carteret, p. 27. 



The accompanying drawing is of a camelopardalis, (fig. l, pi. l) as it was 



taken from life, of one near the Cape of Good Hope. From its scarcity, Capt. 



C. believes none have been seen in Europe since Julius Caesar's time, when he 



thinks there were two of them at Rome. The present governor of the Cape of 



