23 
Hubbard wished that all Dartmoor could be preserved intact for 
all time. Now that a Royal Commission had been formed to 
report upon the Historical Monuments of the country, he trusted 
that at least these most interesting prehistorical monuments 
should not be considered as falling outside its protecting influence. 
Friday, May 7th. Mr. P. E. Vizard, Vice-President, in the 
chair. 
Mr. F. W. Rudler, 1.S.0., F.G.S., Vice-President, gave a 
lecture on Volcanoes, illustrated with the lantern. The lecturer 
began by briefly referring to the Messina earthquake of Dec. 1908, 
and said that, though it had constantly been suggested that earth- 
quakes and volcanic phenomena were connected, and though both 
may possibly have a common cause, nevertheless no direct relation 
had been proved by recent observations made in Italy or Japan. 
After describing the volcanic area to the west of Southern Italy, 
and pointing out that earth disturbances take place along certain 
lines, and that the chief volcanic centres are often situated where 
two such lines cross one another, the lecturer gave a detailed 
description of Mount Etna, which is so situated, dwelling especially 
on the formation of parasitic cones which break out on the side 
of the mountain, it being easier for the lava to find egress there than 
to rise to the mountain top. This he illustrated with slides of 
the Monti Sylvestri, which resulted from the last great eruption 
of 1892, which the lecturer had himself seen and investigated. 
Attention was next directed to the Lipari or olian Islands, 
especially to Panaria, which is part of a large old volcano, situated 
at the junction of two lines of disturbance ; and to Stromboli, 
sometimes called the Fisherman’s Barometer and the lighthouse 
of the Mediterranean, since it is slightly more active with a low 
barometer, and has been continually in action for twenty centuries. 
The crater of Stromboli can be safely watched ; its action consists 
usually in the emission of successive puffs of steam which rise 
through the molten lava in the crater. Vesuvius was then de- 
scribed and the story told of its eruption in A.D. 79, generally called 
the Plinian Eruption, which destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii. 
Pompeii, some miles from the mountain, was overwhelmed by 
volcanic dust, probably in a more or lessdamp state. Herculaneum, 
which is nearer Vesuvius, was buried under stiff volcanic mud, 
and more recent lava has flowed over that. It is therefore more 
difficult to excavate than Pompeii. The lecturer then referred 
to the violent outburst of Vesuvius in 1906, with discharges, not 
