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family, leaving such small ones as Nisita, Solfatara, Monte-Nuova, 

 Avernus, Lucrinus, and others, to follow in their course, just as in 

 ourselves a number of small boils commonly follow in the wake and 

 around the site of a large one ; between Naples and Florence many a 

 huge crater is passed, from which has flowed abundance of lava. Rome 

 itself is in the crater of a volcano which was near the sea shore. The 

 Appian way is along a bed of lava coming down from the Alban hills. 

 An Umbrian urn has been found under a similar current running in a 

 different direction. Here we see a current only a few yards broad, and 

 there, another a mile wide and some ten or twelve in height ; then 

 we think of the huge Kilhaurea, in the Sandwich Isles, that has just 

 been ejecting a stream five miles broad and sixty long, filling up valleys 

 in its course, and still flowing on, while its sister volcano, Manua Loa, 

 some 6000 feet lower, goes simmering on as if nothing unusual was 

 taking place ; and whence comes all that mass of molten rock, and what 

 is to take its place ? Is it simply an overboiling of porous matter like 

 the scum which rises in a saucepan, or is it a material ejected by some 

 mighty power? If so, what is the mundane gunpowder fired in that 

 terrific cannon or mortar of our globe, which hurls stones of vast size to 

 distances far exceeding that to which the heaviest ordnance can throw a 

 shot ? Has water anything to do with it ? Is an eruption a sort of 

 boiler explosion ? And have the drying wells really anything to do 

 with the phenomena ? Can we not see in the account given by Pliny 

 of the eruption that destroyed Pompeii, i.e. that a fir tree seemed to 

 shoot up from the mountain and then spread out, the same phenomena 

 which is presented by the smoke from a cannon when fired at a great 

 elevation, and may we not thence infer how very long has been the bore 

 of the earth's ordnance, and how tremendous the power of its gun- 

 powder? * * ="■ ^' * * * 



I have already taken up too much of your time to pursue this subject 

 farther. Let me, in conclusion, urge upon the society the room there 

 is for more extensive operations. For the first time, our secretary has 

 been able to announce that he has been promised a paper for every 

 evening during the session. By the operation of the new law, a certain 

 fixed time will now be given to the essay for the evening, and any 

 discussion that may arise upon it. There is no wish on the part of the 

 council to prevent members introducing subjects of ephemeral interest 

 to the society unannounced ; but it is their desire to curtail as much as 

 possible those desultory observations which often weary tlie patience of 

 those who have come with a specific object. For myself, I can only 

 say, that I have always considered the meetings of our society as a 

 valuable nursery ground, in which are planted the seed or saplings of 



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