243 



Azores* ; on carefully reading the minute and 

 ingenuous narrative, which the Jesuit Bourguig- 

 non gave of the slow appearance of the islet of 

 the little Kameni, near Santorino ; we find, that 

 these extraordinary eruptions are generally pre- 

 ceded by a swelling of the softened crust of the 

 Globe, Rocks appear above the waters before 

 the flames force their way, and lava can issue 

 from the crater ; we must distinguish between 

 the nucleus raised up, and the mass of lavas and 

 scoriae, which successively increase it's dimen- 

 sions. 



It is true, in all the revolutions of this kind, 

 which have taken place since the time that their 

 history has been written, the perpendicular 

 height of the stony nucleus appears never to 



* Sabrina island. See the letter of Captain Tillard to Sir 

 Joseph Banks, Philos. Trans, for 1812, p. 152. At Sabrina 

 island, near St. Michael's, the crater opened at the foot of a 

 solid rock, of almost a cubical form. This rock, terminated 

 by a small elevated plain perfectly even, is more than two 

 hundred toises in breadth. It's formation was anterior to that 

 of the crater, into which, a few days after it's opening, the sea 

 made an irruption. At Kameni, the smoke was not even 

 visible till twenty-six days after the appearance of the raised 

 rocks. Phil. Trans, vol. xxvi, p. 69 and 200 ; vol. xxvii, p. 

 353. All these phenomena, on which Mr. Hawkins collect- 

 ed very valuable observations during his abode at Santorino, 

 are unfavorable to the idea commonly entertained of the ori- 

 gin of volcanic mountains, which ascribes them to a progres- 

 sive accumulation of liquified matter, and the diffusion of la- 

 vas issuing from a central mouth. 



K 2 



