The wonders of the world : $b a complete museum, descriptive and pictorial, of the wonderful phenomena and results of nature, science and artAbbott, John Loraine
Science
The wonders of the world : $b a complete museum, descriptive and pictorial, of the wonderful phenomena and results of nature, science and art
Abbott, John Loraine
Curiosities and wonders
Having thus spoken of the Azores, we now pass to some similar phenomena
in the Grecian archipelago. Before entering, however, on the details
which are here furnished on this curious and most interesting subject,
it may not be improper to observe, that the island of Acroteri, of great
celebrity in ancient history, appears to have its surface composed of
pumice-stone, incrusted by a surface of fertile earth; and that it is
represented by the ancients as having risen, during a violent
earthquake, from the sea. Four neighboring islands are described as
having a similar origin, notwithstanding the sea is in that part of the
archipelago of such a depth as to be unfathomable by any sounding line.
These arose at different times: the first long before the commencement
of the Christian era; the second in the first century; the third in the
eighth; and the fourth in 1573.
We now proceed to a phenomenon of a similar nature, belonging to the
same cluster of islands, which being of a more recent date, we are
enabled to enter into all its particulars. They are such as can not fail
to interest and surprise.
On the twenty-second of May, 1707, a severe earthquake was felt at
Stanchio, an island of the archipelago; and on the ensuing morning a
party of seamen, discovering not far off what they believed to be a
wreck, rapidly rowed toward it; but finding rocks and earth instead of
the remains of a ship, hastened back, and spread the news of what they
had seen, in Santorini, another of these islands. However great the
apprehensions of the inhabitants were at the first sight, their surprise
soon abated, and in a few days, seeing no appearance of fire or smoke,
some of them ventured to land on the new island. Their curiosity led
them from rock to rock, where they found a kind of white stone, which
yielded to the knife like bread, and nearly resembled that substance in
color and consistence. They also found many oysters sticking to the
rocks: but while they were employed in collecting them, the island moved
and shook under their feet, on which they ran with precipitation to
their boats. Amid these motions and tremblings the island increased, not
only in hight, but in length and breadth: still occasionally, while it
was raised and extended on the one side, it sunk and diminished on the
other. One person observed a rock to rise out of the sea, forty or fifty
paces from the island, which, having been thus visible for four days,
sunk, and appeared no more: several others appeared and disappeared
alternately, till at length they remained fixed and unmoved. In the mean
time the color of the surrounding sea was changed: at first it was of a
light green, then reddish, and afterward of a pale yellow, accompanied
by a noisome stench, which spread itself over a part of the island of
Santorini.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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