520 DOMAIN XII. VOLCANIC. 



abysses. He introduces this new system by the 

 theory of that great astronomer and geometrician 

 Laplace, that this earth, and the other planetary 

 bodies, have been formed by the concretion of an 

 aeriform fluid, which emanated from the sun. The 

 account, given by Dolomieu, of the singular per- 

 petual volcano of Stromboli, furnishes our inge- 

 nious author with his chief arguments in favour of 

 this hypothesis. 



Stromboli. " The volcano of Stromboli is one of the most 

 curious and important in the illustration of vol- 

 canic phenomena. It is in one of the isles of 

 Eolus, on the north of Sicily; and Dolomieu's 

 description is very interesting. This volcano was 

 already noted in the days of Pliny ; and its erup- 

 tions, from time immemorial, arise every eight 

 minutes, so that it would seem that nature there 

 displays every moment the concretion of gases 

 into stoney matter, as a chemist shews it in his 

 laboratory. 



* The inflamed crater,' says Dolomieu, * is in 

 the north-west part of the isle, on the side of the 

 mountain. I saw it dart, during the night, at re- 

 gular intervals of seven or eight minutes, ignited 

 stones, which rose to the height of more than a 

 hundred feet, forming radii a little divergent, but 

 of which the greater quantity fell back into the 

 crater ; while others rolled even to the sea. Each 



