60 CELESTIAL, ETC., PHENOMENA. 



Aristotle s seismic records are among the best made by 

 ancient writers. Heraclea Pontica, referred to by him, was 

 a Greek colony on the western part of the coast of 

 Bithynia. The Lipari Isles were repeatedly affected by 

 seismic disturbances in ancient, just as in modern, times, 

 but the one recorded by Aristotle was more than usually 

 destructive. His description is vivid and interesting, and 

 seems to refer to a great eruption of a viscous lava. The 

 eruption seems to have been similar in many respects to 

 that in the trachytic district of Methana, described by 

 Strabo. At Methana, a hill nearly a mile in height was 

 raised up, and the force of the eruption was so great that 

 blocks of stone as large as towers were ejected.* The 

 earthquake at Sipylus, situated in a mountain of that name 

 in Lydia, was long remembered by the Ancients, for Sipylus 

 is said to have been totally destroyed. 



Aristotle s record of an earthquake in the Lygian region 

 is not clear. Von Humboldt says that the region referred 

 to is now called La Crau, at the mouth of the Bhone, and 

 that the rounded quartz blocks of that region were supposed 

 by Aristotle to have been ejected from a fissure, during an 

 earthquake. I 



Besides the phenomena already discussed, Aristotle 

 incidently refers to several matters of minor importance, such 

 as, for example, the weight of air and the existence of red snow. 



In his De Ccelo, iv. c. 4, 3116, he says that a bladder, 

 when inflated, is heavier than when it is empty. This passage 

 suggests that Aristotle actually tried the experiment, but this 

 is all that can be said, for he gives no further information. 



Red snow was known to him, for, in H. A. v. c. 17, s. 12, 

 he says that animals are produced in some things which 

 seem least liable to putrefaction, such as snow which has 

 lain for a long time ; such snow, he adds, is reddish, and, for 

 this reason, the larvse of the animals in the snow are red 

 and hairy. 



The snow to which Aristotle refers was probably seen by 

 him in Macedonia. The redness of snow is caused, as is 

 well-known, by the presence of red unicellular plants, 

 Protococcus nivalis. It will be noticed that Aristotle did 

 not consider that the colour of the snow was due to the 

 colour of the animals which he believed were present, but 

 that the colour of these was due to the redness of the snow. 



* Geogr. i. c. o, s. 18. f Cosmos, Bohn s Library, vol. i. p. 102. 



