7 



the sea. This new land, of which captain Til- 

 lard hastened to take possession in the name 

 of the British government, calling it Sabrina 

 island, was nine hundred toises in diameter. It 

 has again, it seems, been swallowed up by the 

 ocean. This is the third time, that submarine 

 volcanoes have presented this extraordinary spec- 

 tacle near the island of St. Michael; and, as if 

 the eruptions of these volcanoes were subject to 

 a regular period, owing to a certain accumula- 

 tion of elastic fluids, the island raised up has 

 appeared at intervals of ninety-one or ninety- 

 two years *. It is to be regretted, that, not- 

 withstanding the proximity of the spot, no Eu- 

 ropean government, or learned society, has sent 

 natural philosophers and geologists to the 

 Azores, to investigate a phenomenon, which 

 would throw so much light on the history of 

 volcanoes, and on that of the globe in general. 



At the time of the appearance of the new 

 island of Sabrina, the smaller West India islands, 

 situate eight hundred leagues to the south-west 

 of the Azores, experienced frequent earthquakes. 



* Matte Brun, Geogra. Univ. vol. iii, p. 177—180. There 

 remains however some doubt, respecting the eruption of 

 1628, which some place in 1638. The rising always hap- 

 pened near the island of St. Michael, though not identically 

 on the same spot. It is remarkable, that the small island of 

 1720 reached the same elevation as the island of Sabrina in 

 1811. See above, vol, i, chap, i, p. 95. 



