No. YL-^District of the Bay of Baja. 87 



Avernus undoubtedly is, would produce the pestilential effects 

 described, and under the confinement of the bushy and damp 

 forests, which at one time shrouded the now peaceful banks 

 of the lake, might easily be accumulated in noxious strata. ^ 

 M. Bory St Vincent informs us, on the testimony of an older 

 writer, that in an eruption in the Island of Lancerote, about a 

 century ago, vast streams of deleterious vapour were emitted, 

 destructive of animal life, and he observed seven or eight birds 

 approaching one of the streams, fall as if " asphixies,'"* — a case 

 remarkably in point ; and Sir William Hamilton tells us, that 

 during eruptions of Vesuvius, he has picked up dead birds 

 frequently on the mountain. It is impossible to suppose that, 

 without some foundation in truth, the ancients could have 

 given the appellation which signifies " without birds," (from 

 the Greek word 'Aosvog.). Such etymologies, however they may 

 be interlarded with fables, ought not to lose their due weight in 

 the interpretation of natural facts ; and the Roman poets, while 

 they appeal to the original derivation of the name, obviously 

 give us to understand that the cause still existed. Thus Lu- 

 cretius : 



Principio, quod Averna vocantur, nomen id ab re 

 Impositum est, quia sunt avibus coutraria cunctis 

 E regione ea quod loca cum adveuere volantes, 

 Reniigii oblitae pennarum vela remittunt 

 Praecipitesque caduntmolli cervice profusse 

 In terram, si forte ita fert natura locorum 



Aut in aquain. — ■ 



De Rerum Nat. vi. 740. 



Respecting the change which we now observe, the classic 

 writers have not left us in the dark. When the Julian port was 

 made, the dark overhanging woods of Avernus were cut down, 

 and the purifying waves of the sea admitted by a canal into 

 its once impure and Stygian waters. Thus transformed, Aver- 

 nus bore no longer its original character, and the change which 

 was wrought upon the character of the lake was expressed by 

 the prodigies which are recorded to have happened. The 

 Gods, we are informed, did not look with indifference upon 

 these sacrilegious alterations ; and the statues placed among 

 the once sacred groves, gave symptoms of terror and super- 



