DQMAIN XII. VOLCANIC. 271 



volcanoes that are still active on that third 

 part of our planet which consists of land, 

 is it not most rational to suppose that many 

 may have become extinct? Strabo informs 

 us, that Vesuvius had been a volcano at a 

 remote period ; while its first eruption is 

 commonly ascribed to the reign of Titus, 

 near a century after the time of that author*. 

 The volcanoes of Auvergne seem to have 

 been relumed for a short period, in the 

 time of Sidonius Apollinaris, whose cul- 

 mina can scarcely be applied except to the 

 summits of mountains ; for the tops of 



* Lib. v. This remarkable passage may be thus translated : 



* c Here arises the mountain of Vesuvius, inhabited through all its 

 delicious fields, the summit alone excepted, which spreads into a 

 barren plain, displaying ashes and deep caverns formed of burnt 

 rock, as the colour indicates, and abrasions by fire -, whence it may 

 be conjectured that this mountain was formerly in a state of effla- 

 gration and presented fiery craters, which became extinguished 

 when the materials were exhausted." He proceeds to state, that 

 the fields near Etna were equally fertile. The streets of Hercu- 

 laneum were pave,d with lava. 



See also, Strabo, lib. i. p. 158. edit. Siebenkees, for a volcano, 

 soon extinct, near Methone, which ejected a hill near a mile in 

 height, and rocks like towers. 



Pindar describes Etna, which is unmentioned by Homer, a proof 

 that his geographical knowledge did not extend as far as Sicily, and 

 that the received interpretations are false. 



