Probability of Meteorolites being projected frojn the Moon. 109 



up all its waters ; it must then cease to act, until the mountain 

 is cooled down and receives a fresh surcharge of water, when it 

 mav again be brought into action by its own (ialvanic electricity. 



The eruptions of Mount Hecia are always most tremendous 

 after long frosts : when the mountain is, by the casement of ice and 

 frozen snow, hermetically sealed against the escape of hydrogen 

 through the sides and pores of the mountain, thereby adding to 

 the ordinary stock of combustible materials, the unavoidable 

 consequence of increased ignition takes place. 



That the prolongation of volcanoes depends on the support of 

 combustion thus supplied, must appear evident when we consi- 

 der the immensity of any other inflammable substance that would 

 have been necessary. 



Had the island of Sicily consisted of coal, Etna would have 

 consumed the whole long before this. 



Had Strombolo been a compound of the most oeconomical 

 combustible materials, it could not have existed even at the time 

 it is first noticed by the writers of antiquity: the continued uni- 

 formity of that volcano must be caused by its connexion with 

 the waters of the Mediterranean. Its flame I consider a mere 

 gas-light, from a grand laboratory of nature at work for 

 ages, filling up the immense cavities from whence the materials 

 composing the mountains themselves have been drawn, with per- 

 haps new and previous combinatioiis, or with the soda of the 

 waters thus deflagrated. It is not impossible that the prodigious 

 salt-rocks and mines foiuid indifferent places of the earth, may owe 

 their origin to such a cause; and may not these cavities now fillinjj 

 up, be to some remote successors of the human race, sources of 

 emolument and wealth ? Earthquakes I also conceive to be the 

 consequence of decomposition and deflagration bv these Galvanic 

 stratifications: but to what distance their influence may extend 

 it is impossible to conceive. The agitation of some lakes m 

 Scotland during the great earthquake at Lisbon must have been 

 occasioned bv connected strata. The troubling of the waters of 

 Loch-Leven during and at the precise time of the shock at In- 

 verness, must have been connected with a similar cause. 

 I remain, yours truly, 



Jan. 3, 1818. Gavin InGLIS. 



XVIII. On the Prolubilily of Meteorolites being projected, 

 from the Moon. By Mr. J. Acton, and Capel Lokft, Esq. — 

 Galvanic and Electric Experimtnts by Mr. Acton. 



To Mr, Tilloch. 



_. ' Ipswich, Jan. 8, 1818. 



Sin, — In consequence of a comn^unication I made to my re- 

 spected friend Mr. Capel Lofft relating to the meteor I observed 



oa 



