Chap. 111.] IGNEOUS PH^NOMEIs^A. 141 



litani. This fire, however, is internaP, mild, and not burn- 

 ing 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 Apollonian 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 JEoHan 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 hiU in 

 -Ethiopia called Qewi' oxf?^a', which burns with the greatest 

 violence, throwing out flame that consumes everything, Hke 

 the sun^. In so many places, and with so many fires, does 

 nature burn the earth ! 



CHAP, 111. (107.) WOl^DEES OF FIEE ALONE. 



Eut 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 eflect of all those funeral piles 



^ " Intemus." " In interiore nemore abditus." Hardouin in Lemaire, 

 i. 455. 



2 If tliis account be not altogetlier fabulous, the appearance here de- 

 scribed may be, perhaps, referred to the combustion of an inflammable 

 gas which does not acquire a very high temperature. 



^ We have an account of this place in Strabo, vh. 310. Our author has 

 already referred to it in the 96th chapter of this book, as a pool or lake, 

 containing floating islands ; and he agam speaks of it in the next chapter. 



* We have an account of this volcano m jEhan, Yar. Hist. xiii. 16. 

 It would appear, however, that it had ceased to emit flame previous to 

 the calamitous events of which it was supposed to be the harbmger. 



», Tliis circumstance is mentioned by Dion Cassius, xh. 174. We may 

 conceive that a sudden influx of water might force up an imusually large 

 quantity of the bitumen. 



•^ We have a full account of this circumstance in Strabo, vi. 277. 



' " Currum deorum Latme hcet interpretari." Hardouin in Lemaire, 

 i. 456. 



* " torrentesqnc solis ardoribus flammas egerit ;" perhaps the author 

 may mean, that the fires of tlie volcano assist those of the sun in parch- 

 ing the surface of the ground. 



