58 



SUBMAEINE VOLCANOS. 



[Ch. XXVII. 



C^' 



and other animals. Tlie Dutch, painter Payen determined 

 to travel from thence to the volcano^ and he found that the 

 quantity of the ashes diminished as he approached the base 



of the mountain. He alludes to the altered form of the 

 mountain after the 12th, but does not describe the new semi- 

 circular gulf on its side. 



The official accounts state that 114 villages were destroyed, 

 and above 4,000 persons killed.^ 



Submarine volcanos. — Although we have every reason to 

 believe that volcanic eruptions as well as earthquakes are 

 common in the bed of the sea, it was not to be expected that 

 many opportunities would occur to scientific observers of 

 witnessing the phenomena. The crews of vessels have some- 

 times reported that they have seen in different places sul- 

 phurous smoke, flame, jets of water, and steam, rising up 

 from the sea, or they have observed the waters greatly dis- 

 coloured, and in a state of violent agitation as if boiling. 

 New shoals have also been encountered, or a reef of rocks 

 just emerging above the surface, where previously there was 

 always supposed to have been deep water. On some few 

 occasions the gradual formation of an island by submarine 

 eruption has been observed, as that of Sabrina, in the year 

 1811, off St. Michael's in the Azores. The throwing up of 

 ashes in that case, and the formation of a cone about 300 

 feet in height, with a crater in the centre, closely resembled 

 the phenomena usually accompanying a volcanic eruption on 

 land. Sabrina was soon washed away by the waves. Pre- 

 vious eruptions in the same part of the sea were recorded 

 to have happened in 1691 and 1720. The rise of Nyoe, 

 also, a small island off the coast of Iceland, in 1783, has 

 already been alluded to ; and another volcanic isle was pro- 

 duced by an eruption near Eeikiavig, on the same coast, in 

 June, 1830.t 



Graham Island.X 1831. — We have still more recent and 



* Van dcr Boon Mescli, de Incendiis 

 Montiiim Javse, &c. Lugd. Eat. 1826 ; 

 and Official Eeport of the President, 

 Baron Van der Capellen ; also, Von 

 Bncli, lies Canar., p. 424. 



t Joiirn. de Geol. tome i. 



J In a former edition, I selected the 

 name of Sciacca out of seven wliicli had 

 been proposed; but the Eoyal and 

 Geographical Societies have nowadoptea 



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