24 On Volcanos and Earthquakes, 



ting the circumstance of the retreat of the sea from the shore, 

 which happened in both those great eruptions, and not iu 

 this, &c." 



The water of the sea not retiring from the coast in this 

 eruption seems to be an anomaly. Whether the suction or 

 aspiration was performed too siowly, or too far from the 

 shore to be observed, or whether it did not take place at all 

 from the sea, still we are in no apprehension of seeing an 

 eruption without the presence of water ; for, in the same re- 

 lation, a few lines lower, we read : 



" The water at the great fountain at Torre del Greco began 



to decrease some days before the eruption It was necessary in 



all the other wells of the town and its neighbourhood to lengthea 

 the ropes daily to reach the water, and some of the wells became 

 quite dry " 



" Subterranean noises were heard at Resina for two days be- 

 fore the eruption. Soon after the beginning of it, ashes fell 

 thick at the foot of the mountain.. ..and though there were not at 

 that time any clouds in the air, the ashes were wet, accompanied 

 with large drops of water, which were to the taste very salt 



" After some time, the lava ran in abundance, freely and with 



great velocity The frequent falling of the huge stones and 



scoriae, which were thrown up to an incredible height, from some 

 of the new mouths, one of which, having been since measured, 

 was ten feet high, and thirty-five in circumference, &.c. 



" It is impossible that any description can give an idea of this 

 fiery scene, or of the horrid noises that attended this great ope- 

 ration of nature. It was a mixture of the loudest thunder with 

 incessant reports, like those from a numerous heavy artillery, 

 accompanied by a continual hollow murmur, like that of the 

 roaring of the ocean during a violent storm; and, added to these, 

 was another blowing noise, which brought to my mind that noise 

 which is produced by the action of enormous bellows at the fur- 

 nace of the Carron iron foundery in Scotland, and which it per- 

 fectly resembled, &c." 



If this last paragraph had been written with the direct in- 

 tention of supporting our theory, could Sir Wm. Hamilton 

 have made use of other expressions ? 



We will here recapitulate in a few words the whole of the 

 hypothesis. We have endeavored to establish — that the sur- 

 face of <he earth, as deep as four miles and seven-eighths, is 

 the domam of water ; that it cannot penetrate deeper, as it 



