,907.] AND CONTRACTION OF THE EARTH. 255 



games in honour of Ceres, twenty-five maidens, who had mounted a tower 

 to enjoy the show exhibited in the port, were precipitated into the sea by the 

 falhng of the tower. They also record that a large fissure was made (by 

 the water) through the midst of the island of Atalanta, opposite Euboea, 

 sufficient for ships to sail in; that the course of the channel was in places as 

 broad as twenty stadia between the plains; and that a trireme being raised 

 (thereby) out of the docks, was carried over the walls." 

 Strabo's description of Vesuvius is of interest : 



" Above these places is Mount Vesuvius, which is covered with very 

 beautiful fields, excepting its summit, a great part of which is levels but 

 wholly sterile. It appears ash-coloured to the eye, cavernous hollows appear 

 formed of blackened stones, looking as if they had been subjected to the 

 action of fire. From this we may infer that the place was formerly in a 

 burning state with live craters, which however became extinguished on the 

 failing of the fuel. Perhaps this (volcano) may have been the cause of 

 the fertility of the surrounding country, the same as occurs in Catana, where 

 they say that that portion which has been covered with ashes thrown up by 

 the fires of ^tna is most excellent for the vine." (Lib. V, Cap. 4, §8; 

 p. 367 in vol. I of Bohn's Transl.). 



Again in Lib. V., Cap. 4, § 9, he continues : 



" In front of Misenum lies the island of Prochyta, which has been rent 

 from the Pithecussse. Pithecussse was peopled by a colony of Eretrians and 

 Chalcidians, which was very prosperous on account of the fertility of the 

 soil and the productive gold-mines; however, they abandoned the island on 

 account of civil dissensions, and were ultimately driven out by earthquakes, 

 and eruptions of fire, sea, and hot waters. It was on account of thes^ 

 eruptions, to which the island is subject, that the colonists sent by Hiero, 

 the king of Syracuse, abandoned the island, together with the town which 

 they had built, when it was taken possession of by the Neapolitans. This 

 explains the myth concerning Typhon, who, they say, lies beneath the island, 

 and when he turns himself, causes flames and water to rush forth, and some- 

 times even small islands to rise in the sea, containing springs of hot w^ater. 

 Pindar throws more credibility into the myth, by making it conformable to 

 the actual phenomena, for the whole strait from Cumaea to Sicily is sub- 

 igneous, and below the sea has certain galleries which form a communication 

 between (the volcanoes of the island) and those of the main-land. He shows 

 that Aetna is on this account of the nature described by all, and also the 

 Lipari Islands, with the regions around Dicsearchia, Neapolis, Baiae, and the 

 Pithecussae. And mindful hereof, (Pindar) says that Typhon lies under 

 the whole of the space. 



" * Now indeed the sea-girt shores beyond Cumse, and Sicily, press on 

 his shaggy breast.' 



" Timseus, who remarks that many paradoxical accounts were related 

 by the ancients concerning the Pithecussae, states, nevertheless, that a little 

 before his time. Mount Epomeus, in the middle of the island, being shaken 

 by an earthquake, vomited forth fire ; and that the land between it and the 

 coast was driven out into the sea. The powdered soil, after being whirled 



PROC. AMER, PHIL. SOC, XLVI. i86r, PRINTED SEPTEMBER 4, I907. 



