button to main menu  Otley's Guide 1823 (5th edn 1834)

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Page 174:-
[con]clusion seems to be, that air or gas is generated in the body of the island by decomposition of the vegetable matter of which it is formed; and this gas being produced most copiously, as well as being more rarified in hot weather, the earth at length becomes so much distended therewith, as to render the mass of less weight than an equal bulk of water. The water then insinuating itself between the substratum of clay and the peat earth forming the island, bears it to the surface, where it continues for a time; till, partly by escape of the gas, partly by its absorption, and partly by its condensation consequent on a decrease of heat, the volume is reduced; and the earth gradually sinks to its former level, where it remains till a sufficient accumulation of gas again renders it buoyant.
But as the vegetable matter of which the island is principally composed, appears to have been amassed at a remote period, when the lake was of less depth than at present, receiving very little addition from the decay of plants recently grown upon the spot; it is reasonable to suppose that the process furnishing the gas cannot from the same materials be continued ad infinitum: but that there must be a time when it shall have arrived at its maximum: after which the eruptions will become less extensive or less frequent.
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