PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 
IX. Some Account of a new V olcano in the Mediterranean. By John Davy, 
M.D. F.R.S., Assistant Inspector of Army Hospitals. 
Read December 22, 1831. 
In this communication I shall have the honour of laying before the Royal 
Society the information I have been able to collect respecting the volcano, 
which, three months ago, made its appearance off the southern shore of Sicily. 
The first intelligence of its breaking out was brought to Malta, on the 16th 
of July, by a merchant vessel, the master of which stated, that on the 13th of 
that month, when passing between Sicily and the island Pantallaria, he wit- 
nessed columns of smoke rising from the sea, accompanied with a great noise, 
about twenty-five miles to the southward of Schiacca. The correctness of this 
report was confirmed by that of others, and all doubts that might exist re- 
specting the nature of the phenomena were soon removed by the arrival in 
port of Captain Swinburne commanding His Majesty’s sloop Rapid. 
From the interesting statement of this officer, which was published in the 
Malta Gazette, it appears that on the 19th of July, when he succeeded in 
approaching very near the volcano, its crater was raised only a few feet above 
the level of the sea ; that it was then in great activity, emitting vast volumes 
of steam, ashes, and cinders, without flame or red-hot matter ; and that there 
was a constant flux and reflux of the sea by a breach in its side. Captain 
Swinburne remarks, that when passing the same spot nearly a month before, 
namely on the 28th of June, several shocks of an earthquake were felt; so there 
can be no doubt that the cause which produced the eruption was then in 
operation. 
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MDCCCXXXII. 
