266 SEE-TEMPERATURE, SECULAR COOLING |Apri) 20, 



Marcius, when he was pronouncing the funeral oration over the Scipios, 

 who were killed in Spain; and exhorting the soldiers to avenge their death. 

 I shall presently mention more facts of this nature, and in a more distinct 

 manner; in this place these wonders are mixed up with other subjects. But 

 my mind, having carried me beyond the mere interpretation of nature, is 

 anxious to lead, as it were by the hand, the thoughts of my readers over the 

 whole globe." 



In Book III., Chapter 14, Pliny discusses the volcanoes in the 



^olian Islands. Book iv., Chapter 6, contains an account of Achaia, 



in which Pliny mentions the destruction of Helike and Bura, and the 



towns in which the people who escaped the inundation of the sea 



afterwards took refuge. After enumerating the cities of Achaia he 



adds : 



" Throughout the whole of this region, as though nature had been de- 

 sirous to compensate for the inroads of the sea, seventy-six mountains raise 

 their lofty heads." (Book iv., Chap. 10.) 



Pliny has the following remarks on the island of Delos (Lib. IV., 



Chap. 22, pp. 318-319) : 



" This island long floated on the waves, and, as tradition says, was the 

 only one that had never experienced an earthquake, down to the time of 

 M. Varro; Mucianus however has informed us, that it has been twice so 

 visited. Aristotle states that this island received its name from the fact of 

 its having so suddenly made its appearance on emerging from the sea ; 

 Aglaosthenes, however, gives it the name of Cynthia, and others of Ortygia, 

 Asteria, Lagia, Chlamydia, Cynthus, and from the circumstance of fire hav- 

 ing been first discovered here, Pyrpile. Its circumference is five miles only; 

 Mount Cynthus here raises his head." 



The reader will see from these accounts that Pliny follows Aris- 

 totle and Strabo. They all hold that earthquakes are due to the 

 efiforts of elastic vapors to escape through the ground and dififuse 

 themselves in the atmosphere. In Chapter 82 (80), Book II., Pliny 

 remarks : " Maritime districts are more especially subject to shocks." 

 Whether this is an independent observation, or he merely followed 

 the sagacious remarks of Aristotle, whose remarkable theory we have 

 translated in section 19, the statement is equally interesting and 

 true. 



If then earthquakes are especially frequent in maritine districts, 

 and are due to efforts of elastic vapors seeking to diffuse them- 

 selves in the atmosphere, may it not be justly said that although 

 they did not have a satisfactory explanation of the penetration of 

 the vapors into the earth, the leading philosophers of Greece and 



