Volccmoes in the different regicns of the Earth. 225 



begun to rise in the progress of intellect, and in the cultivation 

 of generous feelings, might, however, reform this imperfect man- 

 ner of studying nature. Among the Sporadcs, trachyte rocks 

 have risen from the bottom of the sea, and formed islands, like 

 that among the Azores, which, in the space of three centuries, 

 has shewn itself at nearly equal intervals. Between Epidaurus 

 and Trezene, near Methone, in the Peleponnesus, there occurs 

 a Monte Nuovo, which was described by Strabo, and has been 

 seen again by Dodwell. It is higher than the Monte Nuovo of 

 the Phlegrean Fields, near Baiae, perhaps even higher than the 

 new Volcano of Jorullo, in the Plains of Mexico, which I found 

 surrounded with many thousands of small basaltic cones, that 

 had issued from the ground, and were still smoking. In the 

 basin of the Mediterranean, not only does the volcanic fire es- 

 cape from permanent craters of isolated mountains^ which have 

 a constant communication with the interior of the earth, as 

 Stromboli, Vesuvius, and Etna ; but at Ischia, on Mount Epo- 

 raee ; and, according to the accounts of the ancients, in the Plains 

 of Lelantis, near Chalcis, lavas have flowed from fissures which 

 have suddenly opened at the surface of the ground. 



Independently of these phenomena which belong to historical 

 times, to the limited domain of sure tradition, the shores of the 

 Mediterranean contain numerous remains of more ancient effects 

 of the action of fire. The south of France, in Auvergne, dis- 

 plays a particular and entire system of volcanoes, arranged in 

 series, of trachytic domes, alternating with cones perforated with 

 craters, from which torrents of lava have flowed in narrow 

 stripes. The Plain of Lombardy, which, smooth as the surface 

 of the waters, forms the most remote gulf of the Adriatic Sea, 

 surrounds the trachyte of the Euganean Hills, in which there 

 rise domes of granular trachyte, obsidian, and perlite, forming 

 three masses proceeding from each other, which have forced 

 their way through the Juraic limestone, filled with flints, but 

 which have never run in narrow torrents. Similar evidences of 

 ancient revolutions of the earth occur in various parts of the 

 Continent of Greece and of Asia Minor, a country which will 

 one day present rich materials for geological research, when 

 light shall have returned to those countries whence it began tor 



JULY SEPTEMBER 1828. f 



