THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
95 
Again: 37 miles from Pantelleria to the N. E. 
and 25 miles from the town of Sciacca on the 
south coast of Sicily, is the Graham Shoal, marking 
the spot where the submarine eruption took place 
in the year 1831, resulting in the formation of 
Graham Island, which before Christmas day of 
the same year sunk beneath the waves, never yet 
to reappear. The summit of this new volcano was 
seen for many years at a depth of only 10 feet 
below the surface of the water, but subsequent- 
ly it subsided considerably, and in all proba- 
bility this year it will have undergone considerable 
change of level, owing to the volcanic phemonona 
above alluded to. Several lesser submarine 
eminences are noticeable within the 100 fathom 
contour line, which is shewn by English soundings 
made in this neighbourhood to have a diameter 
of from 10 to 15 miles. Outside this contour line, 
at distances varying from 2 to 10 miles, the deep- 
est soundings are to be met with, ranging from 
130 to 169 fathoms — these latter depths being 
nearest the shoal. 
Proceeding in the opposite direction, the 100 
fathom contour line is never more than 12 miles 
distant from the Tunisian coast, and the greatest 
depths outside this line towards Pantelleria are 
from 172 fathoms to 250 fathoms. 
In a word, generalizing: the greatest depth of 
the sea appears to be within the distance of 
only a few miles from Pantelleria; and from the 
Adventure Bank and Graham Shoal, which are 
submarine volcanoes, further off, the depth regu- 
larly diminishes in approaching land constituted 
of sedimentary strata. East of Pantelleria, in the 
direction of Malta, we find the two little volcanic 
islands of Linosa and Lampedusa, so that this is 
exclusively a volcanic region, characterized more- 
over by habitual lethargy rather than activity, a 
word scarcely applicable to any of the island 
volcanoes around Sicily, though none of them are 
by any means extinct. 
Like Ischia, Pantelleria boasts of thermo- 
mineral springs, highly mineralized, which might 
assume much therapeutic and economic impor- 
tance, yet in modern times they have never 
attracted attention, such as theRomans and Arabs 
at least gave them, if not former people, in 
centuries long ago passed into oblivion, for the 
Musselman were expelled from this island in 
the year 1147. They could not now be less known 
in Italy and elsewhere, even to scientific men, 
than if they had risen on the shores of the 
Victoria Nyanza: and that is a vast pity , espe- 
cially, as far as regards Malta , to the inhabitants 
and visitors of which , these powerful medicinal 
waters might prove an inestimable blessing in 
numerous classes of chronic ailments. 
Is it permissible that such a state of things 
as this should persist a single year longer, or 
must we have to deplore that the recent volcanic 
eruption, which may be justly considered to be a 
huge advertising arrangement in an universal lan- 
guage planned by restless old Vulcan himself to 
attract travellers and invalids to his favourite 
haunts, has been merely a mans parturiens , with 
the signal of the ridiculus mus ? 
With due respect for such a high functionary 
of the British Government I cannot too strongly 
impress upon His Excellency the Governor of 
Malta the importance of delegating one or two 
of the most capable and energetic of the medical 
men of the island to proceed to Pantelleria at the 
public expense at the proper season , and stay 
there for a few months , in order to study with 
the utmost care the curative effects of the thermo- 
mineral waters , and plan the most practical and 
efficient method of sending patients there during 
the summer; indeed , many military men who are 
suffering from a variety of chronic complaints 
incident to their rough mode of life and rapid 
transfer from one climate to another , would find 
this place very convenient as to distance , expecially 
if they could combine to obtain steam communica- 
tion occasionally with Malta. 
But in order to effect all this it would be abso- 
lutely necessary to erect some decent bathing- 
establishment on the spot, provided with the 
requisite apparatus of the most improved construc- 
tion, and that, during the bathing season, it should 
be put in charge of an experience medical man 
from Malta, in default of which necessary precau- 
tion, waters of such strength might easily prove 
fatal to many persons ignorant of the diseases 
for which the baths were intended. In this manner 
Pantelleria might become a very important thermo- 
mineral station at a few hours distance from Malta. 
This is but a very broad suggestion, but I 
feel assured that the civil and military authori- 
