1907.] AND CONTRACTION OF THE EARTH. 265 



likewise in Susa, at the White Tower, from fifteen apertures, the greatest 

 of which also burns in the daytime. The plain of Babylon throws up flame 

 from a place like a fish-pond, an acre in extent. Near Hesperium, a moun- 

 tain of the Ethiopians, the fields shine in the night-time like stars; the same 

 thing takes place in the territory of the Megalopolitani. This fire, however, 

 is internal, mild, and not burning the foliage of a dense wood which is over 

 it. There is also the crater of Nymphaeum, which is always burning, in the 

 neighbourhood of a cold fountain, and which, according to Theopompus, 

 presages direful calamities to the inhabitants of Apollonia. It is increased 

 by rain, and it throws out bitumen, which, becoming mixed with the fountain, 

 renders it unfit to be tasted ; it is, at other times, the weakest of all the 

 bitumens. But what are these compared to other wonders? Hiera, one of 

 the Eolian isles, in the middle of the sea, near Italy, together with the sea 

 itself, during the Social war, burned for several days, until expiation was 

 made, by a deputation from the senate. There is a hill in JEthiopia called 

 Beuv bxvi^a, which burns with the greatest violence, throwing out flame that 

 consumes everything, like the sun. In so many places, and with so many 

 fires, does nature burn the earth ! " 



"Chap, hi (107) — Wonders of Fire alone. 



" But since this one element is of so prolific a nature as to produce 

 itself, and to increase from the smallest spark, what must we suppose will 

 be the effect of all those funeral piles of the earth? What must be the 

 nature of that thing, which, in all parts of the world, supplies this most 

 greedy voracity without destroying itself? To these fires must be added 

 those innumerable stars and the great sun itself. There are also the fires 

 made by men, those which are innate in certain kinds of stone, those pro- 

 duced by the friction of wood, and those in the clouds, which give rise to 

 lightning. It really exceeds all other wonders, that one single day should 

 pass in which everything is not consumed, especially when we reflect that 

 concave mirrors placed opposite to the sun's rays produce a flame more 

 readily than any other kind of fire; and that numerous small but natural 

 fires abound everywhere. In Nymphseum there issues from a rock a fire 

 which is kindled by rain ; it also issues from the waters of the Scantia. This 

 indeed is a feeble flame, since it passes ofif, remaining only a short time on 

 any body to which it is applied : an ash tree, which overshadows this fiery 

 spring, remains always green. In the territory of Mutina fire issues from 

 the ground on the days that are consecrated to Vulcan. It is stated by some 

 authors, that if a burning body falls on the fields below Aricia, the ground 

 is set on fire; and that the stones in the territory of the Sabines and of the 

 Sidicini, if they be oiled, burn with flame. In Egnatia, a town of Salentinum, 

 there is a sacred stone upon which, when wood is placed, flame immediately 

 bursts forth. In the altar of Juno Lacinia, which is in the open air, the 

 ashes remain unmoved, although the winds may be blowing from all quarters. 



" It appears also that there are sudden fires both in waters and even in 

 the human body; that the whole Lake Thrasymenus was on fire; that when 

 Servius Tullius, while a child, was sleeping flame darted out from his head; 

 and Valerius Antias informs us, that the same flame appeared about L. 



