Page:The fairy tales of science.djvu/349

place in the neighbourhood. During the latter half of 1810, several minor shocks had been felt; but on the 31st of January and 1st of February, 1811, the convulsion reached the highest point, when sulphureous vapours were seen to rise out of the sea, about two miles from the coast, and spread in all directions; jets of flame attended the rising of these vapours, which was speedily followed by columns of volcanic ashes, and other erupted materials; in about eight days this eruption terminated, when it was found that the bottom of the sea, previously from 300 to 500 feet deep in this spot, had been lifted up nearly to a level with the surface of the water. About four months after, on the 13th of June, 1811, another eruption took place about two miles and a half from the scene of the former, which reached its greatest violence on the 17th of June, columns of ashes and smoke being whirled up many hundred feet high above the sea. At the close of the eruption an island became visible, which gradually rose to a height of three hundred feet above the sea. Captain Tillard, of the Sabrina, visited the island, which he found rather too hot to walk on, and gave it the name of his vessel. It presented at one end a conical hill, and at the other a deep crater, which sent forth jets of flames, though it was under water at full tide. The continued eruptions of hot stones, sand, and ashes, from the crater, raised the conical hill at the one side of the island eventually six hundred feet above