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PLUTO'S KINGDOM.

the sea. However, in the last days of February, 1812, the entire island sank into the sea, and disappeared without leaving a vestige behind.

In July, 1818, violent spoutings and jettings of steam and water were observed at a spot some thirty miles to the south-west of Sicily, where the sea was known to be 600 feet deep. On the 18th of the month a small island made its appearance, with a burning crater in the centre of it, ejecting ashes, cinders, and thick volumes of smoke, and covering the sea around with floating cinders, and shoals of dead fishes.

The new island rose gradually to an elevation of nearly 200 feet above the sea; it measured about three miles round at the base. The crater, in its centre, constituted a basin 600 feet in diameter, full of dingy red water, boiling.

After having continued above the sea for nearly three months, the island, now generally known in the books by the name of "Graham Island" sank gradually back into the sea; towards the end of October it was again nearly on a level with the surface of the water; it disappeared eventually altogether, leaving behind, however, a most dangerous reef of hard volcanic rock, just eleven feet under water, encompassed by shoals, consisting of cinders and sand.

Another volcanic island rose on the coast of Iceland, during the tremendous eruption of Skaptaar Jokul, in 1783. This island also, which was called Nyöe, sank afterwards down again into the sea.