1826.} Br. Bauheny on Volcanos, 221 



"To me, I confess, the united effect of the silence and soli- 

 tude of the spot, the depth of the internal cavity, its precipitous 

 and overhanging sides, and the dense sulphureous smoke, 

 which, issuing from all the crevices, throws a gloom over every 

 object, proved more impressive than the reiterated explosions 

 of Stromboli, contemplated at a distance, and in open day." 

 P. 193. 



This lecture concludes by an account of the volcanic forma- 

 tions of Sicily, which are divided, like most of the rest, into 

 those of ante-diluvial and post-diluvial origin. 



The former are chiefly found in the Val de Note, but our 

 author observes, that there are certain rocks in the vicinity of 

 Mount Etna, that were probably formed antecedently to the 

 mountain at whose foot they lie. The Cyclopean Islands, for 

 instance, (with which every classical reader is acquainted, as the 

 rocks which Polyphemus is described by Homer, as hurling 

 against the bark, in which Ulysses and his crew were taking 

 their flight,) '' though now detached, must at one period have 

 formed a connected stratum, for they are covered with a bed of 

 marl, which seems evidently to have been continuous from the 

 one to the other of these islands. This circumstance, and their 

 general compactness, prove that these formatioris took place 



under the surface of water Nothing of this. 



kind is indicated by the structure of Etna. This mighty and 

 imposing mountain, which rises in solitary grandeur to the height 

 ^f above 10,000 feet, and embraces a circumference of 180 

 miles, is entirely composed of lavas, which, whatever subordinate 

 differences may exist between them, all possess the appearance 

 of having been ejected above the surface of water, and not under 

 pressure. 



** In the structure of this mountain, every thing wears alike 

 the character of vastness. The products of the eruptions of 

 Vesuvius may be said almost to sink into insignificance, when 

 compared with these coulees, some of which are four or five 

 miles in breadth, 15 in length, and from 50 to 100 feet in thick- 

 ness, and the changes made upon the coast by them, is so consi- 

 derable, that the natural boundaries between the sea and land 

 may be said almost to depend upon the movements of the 

 volcano. 



" The height, too, of Etna is so great that the lava frequently 

 finds less resistance in piercing the flanks of the mountain, than 

 in rising to its summit, and has in this manner formed a number 

 of minor cones, many of which possess their respective craters, 

 and have given rise to considerable streams of lava. 



" Hence, an ancient poet has very happily termed this volcano 

 the parent of Sicilian mountains, an expression strictly applicable 

 to the relation which it bears to the hills in its immediate neigh- 



