[footnote] *[I am indebted to the kindness of Professor E. Forbes for the following interesting account of the island of Santorino, and the adjacent islands of Neokaimeni and Microkaimeni. "The aspect of the bay is that of a great crater filled with water, Thera and Therasia forming its walls, and the other islands being after-productions in its center. We sounded with 250 fathoms of line in the middle of the bay, between Therasia and the main islands, but got no bottom. Both these islands appear to be similarly formed of successive strata of volcanic ashes, which, being of the most vivid and variegated colors, present a striking contrast to the black and cindery aspect of the central isles. Neokaimeni, the last-formed island, is a great heap of obsidian and scoriae. So, also, is the greater mass, Microkaimeni, which rises up in a conical form, and has a cavity or crater. On one side of this island, however, a section is exposed, and cliffs of fine pumiceous ash appear stratified in the greater islands. In the main island, the volcanic strata abut against the limestone mass of Mount St. Elias in such a way as to lead to the inference that they were deposited in a sea bottom in which the present mountain rose as a submarine mass of rock. The people at Santorino assured us that subterranean noises are not unfrequently heard, especially during calms and south winds, when they say the water of parts of the bay becomes the color of sulphur. My own impression is, that this group of islands, constitutes a crater of elevation, of which the outer ones are the remains of the walls, while the central group are of later origin, and consist partly of upheaved sea bottoms and partly of erupted matter -- erupted, however, beneath the surface of the water."] -- Tr. It combines within itself p 242 the history of all islands of elevation. For upward of 2000 years, as far as history and tradition certify, it would appear as if nature were striving to form a volcano in the midst of the crater of elevation."*