Pliny mentions also the formation of Aspronisi, or the White Island, by explosion, in the time of Vespasian. It is known, likewise, that in the year 1628, one of the islands of the Azores, near the island of St. Michael, rose up from the bottom of the sea, which was in that place 160 fathoms deep; and that this island, which was raised in fifteen days, is three leagues long, a league and a half broad, and rises three hundred and sixty feet above water.
Father Goree, in his account of the formation of the new island in the Archipelago, mentions two distinct matters that entered into the composition of this island, the one black, the other white. Aspronisi, probably from its very name, is composed of the white matter, which if, upon examination, it proves to be a _tufa_, as I strongly suspect, I should think myself still more grounded in my conjectures; though I must confess, as it is, I have scarcely a doubt left with respect to the country I have been describing having been thrown up in a long series of ages by various explosions from subterraneous fire. Surely there are at present many existing Volcanos in the known world; and the memory of many others have been handed down to us by history. May there not therefore have been many others, of such ancient dates as to be out of the reach of history[43]?
Such wonderful operations of Nature are certainly intended by all-wise Providence for some great purpose. They are not confined to any one part of the globe, for there are Volcanos existing in the four quarters of it. We see the great fertility of the soil thrown up by explosion, in part of the country I have described, which on that account was called by the ancients _Campania Felix_. The same circumstance is evident in Sicily, justly esteemed one of the most fertile spots in the world, and the granary of Italy. May not subterraneous fire be considered as the great plough (if I may be allowed the expression), which Nature makes use of to turn up the bowels of the earth, and afford us fresh fields to work upon, whilst we are exhausting those we are actually in possession of, by the frequent crops we draw from them? Would it not be found, upon enquiry, that many precious minerals must have remained far out of our reach, had it not been for such operations of Nature? It is evidently so in this country. But such great enquiries would lead me far indeed. I will only add a reflection, which my little experience in this branch of natural history furnishes me with. It is, that we are apt to judge of the great operations of Nature on too confined a plan. When first I came to Naples, my whole attention, with respect to natural history, was confined to Mount Vesuvius, and the wonderful phænomena attending a burning mountain: but, in proportion as I began to perceive the evident marks of the same operation having been carried on in the different parts above described, and likewise in Sicily in a greater degree, I looked upon Mount Vesuvius only as a spot on which Nature was at present active; and thought myself fortunate in having an opportunity of seeing the manner in which one of her great operations (an operation, I believe, much less out of her common course than is generally imagined) was effected.