488 



THE AZORES. 



[1831 



shock of an earthquake broke them in pieces, and then united them in 

 a solid mass, which now forms one of the small islands that lie on the 

 north-west of the Azores." 



In the thirty-second volume of " Philosophical Transactions" we 

 are informed, that " In 1720, another island, amid fire and smoke, which 

 roared like thunder, appeared between St. Michael's and Tercera, on 

 the night of the 20th of November. The bursting out of the flames 

 was attended by an earthquake, which shattered many of the houses in 

 Tercera ; and, for many leagues round the island, astonishing quanti 

 $ies of pumice-stone and half-broiled fish, were found floating on the 

 sea." It appears, however, that this island has since disappeared. 

 Another terrible earthquake occurred on the 9th of July, 1757, which 

 shook the whole group of islands to their very foundations, and pro- 

 duced a new progeny of eighteen small islands, a short distance from 

 the north coast of St. George's ; which also disappeared in a few 

 months. 



The seventh volume of the Christian Observer contains a particular 

 account of a new volcano which made its appearance in the island of 

 St. George, on the 1st of May, 1808. " The fire burst out in a ditch 

 in the midst of fertile pastures, three leagues south-east of Vellas, and 

 immediately formed a crater, in size about twenty-four acres. It raged 

 with great fury for two days, and the cinders which it threw up, being 

 propelled by a strong north-east wind, covered the ground from one to 

 four feet in depth, for half a league in breadth, and three leagues in 

 length ; and then passing a channel about five leagues wide, were 

 driven upon the east point of Pico. The fire had nearly subsided on 

 the evening of the 2d, when a smaller crater opened a league nearer 

 Vellas. Its mouth was only about fifty yards in circumference. The fire 

 seemed struggling for vent, and the force with which a pale blue flame 

 issued forth resembled a powerful steam-engine multiplied a hundred- 

 fold. The whole island was convulsed ; earthquakes were frequent, 

 and horrid bellowings were occasionally heard from the bowels of the 

 earth ! 



" This was followed by twelve or fifteen small volcanoes, which 

 broke out in the neighbouring field ; but they all subsided on the 11th, 

 when the large volcano, which had lain dormant for nine days, burst 

 forth with more tremendous force, and continued to rage until the 5th 

 of June, when it began to fail, and a few days after it entirely ceased.* 

 Its horrid belchings were distinctly heard at twelve leagues' distance, 

 and the immense quantity of lava which it vomited overwhelmed in its 

 course farms, cattle, cornfields, and vineyards, and swept the town of 

 Ursulina from its foundation ! Though it gave timely notice of its 

 approach, many of the inhabitants, by remaining too long in its vicinity, 

 endeavouring to save their effects, were so dreadfully scalded by flashes 

 of steam (which, without injuring their clothes, took off, not only their 

 skin, but their very flesh), that several of them died upon the spot. 

 About sixty suffered in this miserable manner, and so great was the 

 anxiety and consternation which seized upon the people, that they en- 



* The elevation of the crater is about three thousand five hundred feet,>nd its distance from the 

 soa about four miles. 



