I907.] AND CONTRACTION OF THE EARTH. 253 



ones, nor that all islands can, but not continents, since extensive sinkings of 

 the land no less than small ones have been known; witness the yawning of 

 those chasms which have engulfed whole districts no less than their cities, 

 as is said to have happened to Bura, Bizone, and many other towns at the 

 time of earthquakes : and there is no more reason why one should rather 

 think Sicily to have been disjoined from the mainland of Italy than cast up 

 from the bottom of the sea by the fires of Aetna, as the Lipari and Pithe- 

 cussan Isles have been." 



In Chap. III., sections i6 and 17, we read: 



" In order to lessen surprise at such changes as we have mentioned as 

 causes of the inundations and other similar phenomena which are supposed 

 to have produced Sicily, the islands of Aeolus and the Pithecussae, it may be 

 as well to compare with these others of a similar nature, which either now 

 are, or else have been observed in other localities. A large array of such 

 facts placed at once before the eye would serve to allay our astonishment ; 

 while that which is uncommon startles our perception, and manifests our 

 general ignorance of the occurrence which takes place in nature and physical 

 existence. For instance, supposing any one should narrate the circumstances 

 concerning Thera and the Therasian Islands, situated in the strait between 

 Crete and the Cyrenaic, Thera being itself the metropolis of Cyrene ; or those 

 (in connexion with) Egypt, and many parts of Greece. For midway between 

 Thera and Therasia flames rushed forth from the sea for the space of four 

 days; causing the whole of it to boil and be all on fire; and after a little 

 an island twelve stadia in circumference, composed of the burning mass, 

 was thrown up, as if raised by machinery. After the cessation of this phe- 

 nomenon, the Rhodians, then masters of the sea, were the first who dared to 

 sail to the place, and they built there on the island a temple to the Asphalian 

 Neptune. Posidonius remarks, that during an earthquake which occurred in 

 Phoenicia, a city situated above Sidon was swallowed up, and that nearly 

 two thirds of Sidon also fell, but not suddenly, and therefore with no great 

 loss of life. That the same occurred, though in a lighter form, throughout 

 nearly the whole of Syria, and was felt even in some of the Cyclades and the 

 Island of Euboea, so that the fountains of Arethusa, a spring in Chalcis, were 

 completely obstructed, and after some time forced for themselves another 

 opening, and the whole island ceased not to experience shocks until a chasm 

 was rent open in the earth in the plain of Lelanto, from which poured a river 

 of burning mud. 



'* 17. Many writers have recorded similar occurrences, but it will suffice 

 to narrate those which have been collected by Demetrius of Skepsis. 



"Apropos of that passage of Homer: 



" * And now they reach'd the running rivulets clear. 

 Where from Scamandar's dizzy flood arise 

 Two fountains, tepid one, from which a smoke 

 Issues voluminous as from a fire. 

 The other, even in summer heats, like hail 

 For cold, or snow, or crvstal stream frost-bound : ' " 



