44 LANDSCAPE AND IMAGINATION 



of volcanic eruptivity, suggested that somehow they 

 were due to wind imprisoned within the earth, and led 

 to the myth which represented the god of the winds as 

 having his home in the same subterranean caverns. 



It has often occurred to me that one phenomenon, 

 connecting the meteorological conditions of the atmos- 

 phere with the volcanic activity of the iEolian Islands, 

 which must have early attracted attention, would not 

 improbably react on mythological beliefs in that part of 

 the Mediterranean basin. Though continually in a 

 state of eruption, Stromboli is said to be more especially 

 active when atmospheric pressure is low. Its clouds of 

 steam and discharges of stones are most marked before 

 or during stormy weather, and are consequently more 

 conspicuous in winter and spring than in summer and 

 autumn. Since the days of Polybius and Strabo, the 

 fishermen of the region have regarded the cloud-cap 

 of that volcanic cone as a trustworthy indication of 

 the kind of weather to be expected. 



In Roman times, this increase of subterranean ex- 

 citement in the early part of the year appears to have 

 received a supernatural interpretation. It was looked 

 on as evidence that at that season Vulcan and his 

 Cyclops were specially busy over their furnaces, forging 

 the thunderbolts that the Father of Gods and men 

 was to use during the ensuing summer. Thus Horace, 

 when joyously enumerating to his friend L. Sextius 

 the signs that winter is giving way to spring — the 

 disappearance of ice and hoar-frost, the coming of 

 the balmy west wind, the release of the cattle from 

 their stalls and of the farmer from his fireside, the 

 advent of the goddess of love, and the dances of the 



