280 Notice of Active and Extinct Volcanos. 



ference, and had risen twenty or thirty feet above the level of 

 the waters. 



" The following 1 is an extract from the account he has transmit- 

 ted to us of the circumstances attending this event. 



" On the 23d of May 1707, the commencement of a new 

 island between great and little Cammeni, was perceived from 

 Scaro, and from all that side of Santorino. It was at first taken 

 for the wreck of a ship, but those who visited the spot under 

 that impression, found that it was a mass of rocks, which rose 

 from the bottom of the water. Some, whose curiosity got the 

 better of their fear, had the hardihood to land upon it, and found 

 the surface covered with a white and very soft stone; but, what 

 was very remarkable, a large quantity of fresh oysters, which 

 are rarely seen about Santorino, were found adhering to the rock 

 newly thrown up. Whilst in the act of collecting them, they 

 were frightened away by feeling the ground shake violently. 



" Between this and the month of July the island was observed 

 to grow gradually larger, for though many of the rocks which 

 were added to it sunk again into the waters, a sufficient number 

 remained to add considerably to its volume. 



" In July the appearances were more awful, as all at once 

 there arose, at a distance of about sixty paces from the island al- 

 ready thrown up, a chain of black and calcined rocks, soon fol- 

 lowed by a torrent of black smoke, which from the odour that it 

 spread around, from its effect on the natives in producing head- 

 ache and vomiting, and from its blackening silver and copper ves- 

 sels, seems to have consisted of sulphuretted hydrogen. 



" Some days afterwards the neighboring waters grew hot, and 

 many dead fish were thrown upon the shore. A frightful subter- 

 rannean noise was at the same time heard, long streams of fire 

 rose from the ground, and stones continued to be thrown out, un- 

 til the rocks became joined to the White Island originally exis- 

 ting. 



" Showers of ashes and pumice extended over the sea, even to 

 the coasts of Asia Minor and the Dardanelles, and destroyed all 

 the productions of the earth in Santorino. 



" These, and similar frightful appearances continued round 

 the island for nearly a year, after which nothing remained of 

 them but a dense smoke. 



" On the 15th July, 1708, the same observer had the courage 

 to attempt visiting the island, but when his boat approached 

 within five hundred paces of it, the boiling heat of the water deter- 

 red him from proceeding. He made another trial, but was driven 

 back by a cloud of smoke and cinders that proceeded from the 

 principal crater. This was followed by ejections of red-hot 

 stones, from which he very narrowly escaped. The mariners 



