240 COSMOS. 



Santorino is the most important of all the islands of eruption 

 belonging to volcanic chains.* " It combines within* itself the 



markable degree with Aristotle's account (Meteor., ii. 8, 17-19,) of the 

 upheaval of islands of eruption : " The heaving of the earth does not 

 cease till the wind (civ e /toe) which occasions the shocks has made its 

 escape into the crust of the earth. It is not long ago since this actually 

 happened at Heraclea in Pontus, and a similar event formerly occurred 

 at Hiera, one of the ^Eolian Islands. A portion of the earth swelled 

 tip, and with loud noise rose into the form of a hill, till the mighty 

 urging blast (-viv^a) found an outlet, and ejected sparks and ashe"s 

 which covered the neighbourhood of Lipari, and even extended to 

 several Italian cities." In this description, the vesicular distension of 

 the earth's crust (a stage at which many trachytic mountains have 

 remained) is very well distinguished from the eruption itself. Strabo, 

 lib. i. p. 59 (Casaub.), likewise describes the phenomenon as it occurred 

 at Methone ; near the town, in the Bay of Hermione, there arose a 

 flaming eruption ; a fiery mountain, seven (]) stadia in height, was then 

 thrown up, which during the day was inaccessible from its heat and sul- 

 phureous stench, but at night evolved an agreeable odour (?), and was so 

 hot that the sea boiled for a distance of five stadia, and was turbid for 

 full twenty stadia, and also was filled with detached masses of rock. 

 Regarding the present mineralogical character of the peninsula of 

 Methana, see Fiedler, Reise durch Griechenland, th. i. s. 257-263. 



* [I am indebted to the kindness of Professor E. Forbes for the 

 following interesting account of the Island of Santorino, and the adja- 

 cent islands of Neokaimeni and Microkaimeni. " The aspect of the bay 

 is that of a great crater filled with water, Thera and Therasia forming its 

 walls, and the other islands being after-productions in its centre. We 

 sounded with 250 fathoms of line, in the middle of the bay, between 

 Therasia and the main islands, but got no bottom. Both these islands 

 appear to be similarly formed of successive strata o volcanic ashes, 

 which being of the most vivid and variegated colours, present a striking 

 contrast to the black and cindery aspect of the central isles. Neokai- 

 meni, the last formed island, is a great heap of obsidian and scoriae. 

 So also is the greater mass, Microkaimeni, which rises up in a conical 

 form, and has a cavity or crater. On one side of this island, however, 

 a section is exposed, and cliffs of fine pumiceous ash appear stratified 

 in the greater islands. In the main island the volcanic strata abut 

 against the limestone mass of Mount St. Elias, in such a way as to lead 

 to the inference, that they were deposited in a sea bottom in which the 

 present mountain rose as a submarine mass of rock. The people at 

 Santorino assured us that subterranean noises are not unfrequently 

 heard, especially during calms and south winds, when they say the 

 water of parts of the bay becomes the colour of sulphur. My own im- 

 pression is, that this group of islands constitutes a crater of elevation, 

 of which the outer ones are the remains of the walls, whilst the central 

 group are of later origin, and consist partly of upheaved sea-bottoms, 

 and partly of erupted matter, erupted, however, beneath the surface 

 of the water."] Tr. 



