134 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIOJfS. [aNNO 1786. 



the islands of Procita, Ischia, Ventotiene, Palmarole, Ponza, and Zannone, to 

 be the outline of a new portion of land, intended by nature to be added to the 

 neighbouring continent ; and the Lipari islands, all of which are volcanic, may 

 be considered in the same light with respect to a future intended addition of ter- 

 ritory to the island of Sicily. The more opportunities I have of examining 

 this volcanic country, the more I am convinced of the truth of what I have 

 already ventured to advance, which is, that volcanos should be considered in a 

 creative rather than a destructive light. Many new discoveries have been made 

 of late years, particularly in the South-Seas, of islands which owe their birth to 

 volcanic explosions ; and some indeed where the volcanic fire still operates. I 

 am led to believe, that on further examination, most of the elevated islands at a 

 considerable distance from the continent would be found to have a volcanic origin ; 

 as the low and flat islands appear in general to have been formed of the spoils 

 of sea productions, such as corals, madrepores, &c. 



Postscript. — The earth is not yet so perfectly quiet in Calabria and at Messina, 

 as to encourage the inhabitants to begin to re-build their houses, and they con- 

 tinue to live in wooden barracks. There has however been no earthquake of 

 consequence during these last 3 months. My conjecture, that the volcanic 

 matter, which was supposed to have occasioned the late earthquakes, had vented 

 itself at the bottom of the sea between Calabria and Sicily, seems to have been 

 verified; for the pilot of one of his Sicilian Majesty's sciabecques, having some 

 time after the earthquakes cast anchor off the point of Palizzi, where he had often 

 anchored in 25 fathom water, found no bottom till he came to 65 fathom, and 

 having sounded for 2 miles out at sea towards the point of Spartivento in Cala- 

 bria, he still found the same considerable alteration in the depth of the sea. The 

 inhabitants of Palizzi also declare, that during the great earthquake of the 5th 

 of February, 1783, the sea had frothed and boiled up tremendously of}' their 

 point. 



XIX. Of a new Electrical Fish.* By Lieutenant IVilliam Paterson. p. 38'2 

 While at the island of Johanna, one of the Comora islands, in his way to 

 the East-Indies, Mr. P. met with an electrical fish, which has hitherto escaped 

 the observation of naturalists, and seems in many respects to differ from the 

 electrical fishes already described. The fish is 7 inches long, 2 inches and a half 

 broad, has a long projecting mouth, and seems to be of the genus tetrodon. 

 The back of the fish is a dark brown colour, the belly part of sea-green, the 

 sides yellow, and the fins and tail of a sandy green. The body is interspersed 



* This fish is the Tetrodon Eleetricus of the Gmelinian edition of the Systema Natura of Lin- 

 naeus, viz. Tetrodon maculis rubris, viridibus et albis, supra fuscus, subtus thalassinus, ad latera flavus, 

 pinnis viridibus. -» 



