INTRODUCTIOJT. 



thofe who wiOl to render their travelling 

 ufcful to the advancement of fcience. 



Volcanic 



try which has been expofed to violent convulfions of 

 nature* It abounds with caverns, cafcades, precipices, 

 ftibterranean arches, iron mines, calcined ftones, vitri- 

 ficationsj torrefied fand, and pyrites, which. are ftriking 

 veftigea of ancient volcanoes j but, on account of their 

 antiquity, their fituation cannot now be a fee rtained, 

 nor tlieir craters diftinguiftied. The moft elevated 

 mountains in this idand arc not above 6ve hundred 

 fathom!i high, whereas in the ifle of Bourbon there are 

 peaks which rife more than fifteen hundred fathoms. 

 Thefe two iftiiids, which are diftant from each other 

 only thirty leagues, were, doubtlefs, formerly united, 

 and have been detached by fomc prodigious effort of 

 nature. We have every reafon to believe that they are 

 ftill connefled at the bottom of the fea, and that there 

 are fubterrancan palTagcs which form a communication 

 between them- 



" The earthquake, which happened at the ifle of 

 France, on the 4th of Auguft 1 786, fcems to fupport 

 this conje£ture. That morning, at thiny-five minutes 

 after fix, a cahn fucceeded a llrang breeze from the 



E«aHd 



