?8 HISTORY OF 



sulphur, and rivers of melted metal. Whole 

 clouds of smoke and ashes, with rocks of enor- 

 mous size, are discharged to many miles distance ; 

 so that the force of the most powerful artillery is 

 but as a breeze agitating a feather in comparison. 

 In the deluge of fire and melted matter which 

 runs down the sides of the mountain, whole 

 cities are sometimes swallowed up and consumed. 

 Those rivers of liquid fire are sometimes two 

 hundred feet deep ; and, when they harden, fre- 

 quently form considerable hills. Nor is the danger 

 of these confined to the eruption only ; but the 

 force of the internal fire struggling for vent, fre- 

 quently produces earthquakes through the whole 

 region where the volcano is situated. So dreadful 

 have been these appearances, that men's terrors 

 have added new horrors to the scene, and they 

 have regarded as prodigies, what we know to be 

 the result of natural causes. Some philosophers 

 have considered them as vents communicating 

 with the fires of the centre, and the ignorant as 

 the mouths of hell itself. Astonishment produces 

 fear, and fear superstition; the inhabitants of 

 Iceland believe the bellowings of Hecla are no- 

 thing else but the cries of the damned, and that 

 its eruptions are contrived to increase their tor- 

 tures. 



But if we regard this astonishing scene of ter- 

 ror with a more tranquil and inquisitive eye, we 

 shall find that these conflagrations are produced 

 by very obvious and natural causes. We have 

 already been apprized of the various mineral sub- 

 stances in the bosom of the earth, and their apt- 



