36 THE COMING [CH. 



its reasoning had it been published at that time. 

 It is quite possible that much of the credit now 

 justly assigned to Lyell, would have belonged to his 

 friend. Unfortunately, however, Scrope, instead of 

 seeing his work through the press, determined first 

 to make another tour in Italy. He arrived at Naples 

 just in time to witness and describe the grandest 

 eruption of Vesuvius in modern times, that of October 

 1822. What he witnessed then the blowing away 

 of the whole upper part of the mountain and the 

 formation of a vast crater 1000 feet deep made a 

 profound impression on Scrope's mind. His interest 

 thus strongly aroused concerning igneous phenomena, 

 Scrope continued his travels and observations on the 

 volcanic rocks of the peninsula of Italy and its 

 islands, and was thus led to a number of important 

 conclusions in theoretical geology, which he embodied 

 in a work, published in 1825, entitled Considerations 

 on Volcanos: the probable causes of their phenomena, 

 the laws which determine their march, the disposition 

 of their products, and their connexion with the present 

 state and past history of the globe ; leading to the 

 establishment of a New Theory of the Earth. 



It is only right to point out that, in calling this 

 book a new ' Theory of the Earth/ Scrope had no 

 intention of comparing it with Button's great 

 work, with which he was at that time altogether 

 unacquainted. Nevertheless, his conclusions, though 



