A tract
of land near the town of Port Royal, about a thousand acres in extent,
sunk down in less than one minute, and the sea immediately rolled in.
The Azore Islands are undoubtedly the peaks of the mountains of
Atlantis. They are even yet the centre of great volcanic activity. They
have suffered severely from eruptions and earthquakes. In 1808 a volcano
rose suddenly in San Jorge to the height of 3500 feet, and burnt for six
days, desolating the entire island. In 1811 a volcano rose from the sea,
near San Miguel, creating an island 300 feet high, which was named
Sambrina, but which soon sunk beneath the sea. Similar volcanic
eruptions occurred in the Azores in 1691 and 1720.
Along a great line, a mighty fracture in the surface of the globe,
stretching north and south through the Atlantic, we find a continuous
series of active or extinct volcanoes. In Iceland we have Oerafa, Hecla,
and Rauda Kamba; another in Pico, in the Azores; the peak of Teneriffe;
Fogo, in one of the Cape de Verde Islands: while of extinct volcanoes we
have several in Iceland, and two in Madeira; while Fernando de Noronha,
the island of Ascension, St. Helena, and Tristan d'Acunha are all of
volcanic origin.
Pages:
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88