INFLUENCE OF VOLCANOES 41 



large tract of land was flooded ; possibly even an 

 attempt to account for the lake itself. 



But there was one physical feature which, more 

 than any other, must have impressed the imagination 

 of the dwellers by the Mediterranean shores ; and 

 that was furnished by the volcanic phenomena so 

 characteristic of the great depression between Europe 

 and Africa. Among the islands of the iEgean sea, 

 some were continually smoking ; others retained, in 

 their cindery cones and ashy slopes, the memorials 

 of subterranean fires not long extinguished. From 

 time to time actual eruptions broke forth, with their 

 accompaniments of convulsion and terror. We know 

 from geological evidence that one of the most violent 

 volcanic explosions which have affected the Mediter- 

 ranean basin took place where now is the island of 

 Santorin, after the original site was inhabited by a 

 civilised people. 1 A conical volcanic mountain — an 

 eastern Vesuvius or Etna — stood on that site, but in 

 some prehistoric age it was blown into the air, as 

 happened at Krakatoa in August, 1883, only portions 

 of the base of the cone being left to form the present 

 semi-circular ring of islands. Whether this stupen- 

 dous catastrophe occurred after the Hellenic race 

 appeared in the iEgean area has not been determined. 

 But the tradition of it may have lingered in the 

 district, down to the time when, about two hundred 

 years B.C., a new volcano rose from the sea in the 

 centre of this group of islands. Another marked 

 eruption occurred in the year 46 B.C. Even in our 

 own day, this ancient vent has shown renewed activity, 



1 Fouque, Santorin et ses Eruptions, chap. iii. 



