LESSONS IN GEOLOGY. 



Keclutu 



rui.klo.-tah 



An ji'.,'unj 



t'-;,-l i .'.ill 



,11 !.. .-v.Mi 



icherf-lee 



stfo-klo 



fata 



C.Vli 

 Si'cto 



j4n./li ahn-glee 



Anglo ahn-glo 



Ci'luiiii* gloo-tee-nai 



10. alia, 



Pronounced, 



/(alum. 

 . 



Ontglia 

 Fami>;lia 

 Jnvoijlta 



PagUt 



Veglia 



fiylie 



Uoglie 



Guy !ii) 



Vaglio 



Vglio 



Giglio 



Loglio 



Lujlio 



Ra.jlv 



Fgli 



Tijli 



Sogti 



to-v.ilil-lyah 



o-iii 1-lyuh 



f.i]i-,::il-iy.ih 



in-v61-]yuh 



ah-gool-lyah 



pdhl-lyoi 



Tail-lyoi 



fil-lyoi 



mul-lyai 



gool-lyai 



viihl-lyo 



vrl-ly o 



jfl-lyo 



161-lyo 



lool-lyo 



rahl-lyee 



vM-lyee 



tQ-lyee 



sol-lyee 



foul-lyee 



QTeleps, 



K. .niiuii.r. 



English uum. 



10UU. 



Vor.i 



Thecla (a woman's name). 



Ski.-s. [weight). 



Shekel (a Hebrew coin and 



Egla, a uame. 



Englishmen. 



Englishman. 



Glue, birdlime. 



Give, QUo, Gli. 



English. 



Table-cloth, towel. 

 Oueglia, a town in Sardinia. 

 Family. 

 Wrapper. 



Straws. 



Vigils, evening parties. 



Daughters. 



Wife. 



Obelisks. 



Siovo, I sift. 



An old man. 



Lily. 



Cockle-weed. 



July. 



Bays. 



Old men. 



Linden-trees. 



Thrones. 



Was to him. 



In the previous pronouncing table, the reader will have re- 

 marked that two vowels, when i is the first, may come together 

 in one syllable without constituting a diphthong. The reason 

 of this is, that in such cases the i is not heard, or scarcely per- 

 ceptibly touched in more measured enunciation, and only serves 

 the purposes of an auxiliary letter, to denote to the eye that 

 the preceding consonants c, g, or gl, in such combinations as da, 

 do, du, eia.,gia, gio, gin, eta.,glia, glio, gliu, etc., are to have what 

 may be termed the squeezed sound. The letter i is not heard, 

 or scarcely heard, and why should it form a diphthong simply 

 because in juxtaposition with another vowel ? The same obser- 

 vation is applicable to such combinations as sda, sdo, sdu, etc., 

 pronounced shah, sho, shoo, etc. In all these cases a diphthong 

 is seen, but not heard, or scarcely heard. And even three vowels 

 in combination, when i is the first, may meet in one syllable 

 without constituting triphthongs ; because in such cases as well, 

 i is preceded by the letters c, g, and gl, not being pronounced, 

 and only serving to denote the squeezed sound of these conso- 

 nants. For example : libricduolo (pronounced Iee-brit-tchoo6-lc), 

 a small book ; muricduolo (moo-rit-tchoo6-lo), a small wall ; 

 uomicduolo (ood-mit-tchood-lo), a little man ; giuoco ( joo6-ko), a 

 game ; figliuolo (fil-lyoo6-lo), a child, son ; cavigliuolo (kah-vil- 

 Iyoo6-lo), a little peg or pin. In these examples, the three vowel 

 combinations, or, more correctly speaking, associations, are 

 diphthongs, and not triphthongs ; and it is only by confusion of 

 signs written for the eye, with literal representations of sound, 

 that grammarians have been led to class them as triphthongs. 

 In taking this view, I venture to differ from many authorities ; 

 but I think I have shown reason for so doing. 



I have now explained the elements of Italian pronunciation. 

 Exceptions, philosophical reasons, delicacies, and refinements, I 

 shall on future occasions explain in " additional remarks " on 

 pronunciation ; and any necessary further remarks that may be 

 considered elementary, I shall likewise add from time to time. 



The remark that these explanations only contain the ele- 

 mentary principles of Italian pronunciation, will serve to show 

 bhe student really desirous of acquiring a knowledge, and not 

 a smattering, of Italian, the importance and necessity of fol- 

 lowing me closely and carefully throughout. The pace may be 

 tiresome, but, if taken now, will spare much labour for the 

 future. The ingenious reader cannot fail to have noted that 

 the tables I have given are not expanded examples of words, 

 but systematic exercises, illustrating in natural order all vocal 

 combinations, and thus giving an insight, from the very first, 

 into the structure of the language. 



It may bo here seasonably remarked, that many persons in 

 England learn Italian for musical purposes only. The /tern 

 of pronunciation here given will be of peculiar advantage to 

 them ; for in tinging Italian airs, and in reading the toon* of 

 Italian operas, nothing it no puzzling a* the necessity of giving 

 to one note what to the eye seems two, and sometime* even 

 three syllables ; and nothing is so hideous as to hear Mozart's 

 or Bossini's musio distorted by a failure to vibrate doable con- 

 sonanta, by the neglect of the two e't and the two o't, by hard 

 enunciation of the yn and gl, by improper syllabic distribution 

 of vowels and diphthongs, etc. 



Two more tables will finish my lessons on pronunciation, and 

 satisfactorily initiate the student into the difficulties of this 

 part of the language. In the concluding table I shall give 

 a general mirror of the pronunciation, to which the student who 

 may have a doubt as to the proper pronunciation of a word 

 may always refer, and thus obviate the necessity of constantly 

 imitating the pronunciation of words by signs throughout the 

 grammar. 



I have already explained the importance of mastering the 

 difficulty to foreigners of giving the proper vibrated sound to 

 double consonants. 



LESSONS IN GEOLOGY. VII. 



EARTHQUAKES AND ALTERATIONS IN LEVEL. 

 THE next phase of igneous action which we shall consider divides 

 itself into two divisions. 



(1) Earthquakes proper, that is, when the hind is shaken by 

 a series of upheavals and corresponding subsidences; and (2) 

 the gradual change of level which the land undergoes, whereby 

 those rocks which are formed on the bed of the ocean by 

 aqueous action are elevated so as to become dry land, and 

 again, those parts already above the ocean level are depressed, 

 so that, in process of time, another layer of stratified rock is 

 deposited on the submerged surface. 



These two classes of action are most closely allied. In all 

 probability, an earthquake is one of the results of the great 

 igneous action which produces a change of level ; that is to say, 

 when the fluctuations of the temperature of the earth's crust 

 cause the rooks to expand or contract, a corresponding altera- 

 tion of level takes place in the surface immediately above 

 the locality, which experiences a change in its temperature. 

 When this process is rapid which seems to be the exception 

 and not the rule and if, by any means, water finds access 

 to the heated region below, a large generation of steam is the 

 result, and a sudden shock is imparted by the explosion to the 

 rocks in the neighbourhood. This is propagated on all sides 

 From the centre of disturbance in a wave, which reaches the 

 surface, and as it rolls wider and wider from its centre, causes 

 all the phenomena exhibited in an earthquake, gradually do* 

 creasing in its power until it becomes imperceptible. 



Mr. Robert Mallet, C.E., of Dublin, very satisfactorily 

 accounted for the earthquake motion on this supposition, fol- 

 lowing out tho theory on mechanical grounds. The earthquake 

 in South Italy in 1857 afforded him an opportunity of testing 

 the truth of his conclusions, and he found observation fully 

 supported his anticipations. A reference to the diagram (Fig. 

 11) will enable the reader to comprehend the process of earth- 

 quake disturbances. 



F F is tho surface of the earth, c is the point, it may be 

 many miles beneath, where the explosion which caused the dis- 

 turbance occurred. The shock would be transmitted upon all 

 sides of c in a spherical wave. The lines do not represent a 

 succession of waves which can only take place when there are a 

 succession of shocks, but the same wave in various positions. 

 E c is the seismic-vertical. The effect of the earthquake in the 

 mmediate neighbourhood of E will be a vertical rising and 

 ailing, as if the ground had received a blow just beneath the 

 surface. By tho records of many earthquakes this motion 

 appears to have been constantly experienced. The mode in 

 which the wave passes along the surface is shown at F (Fig. 12), 

 where it appears as a ripple running along the ground. The 

 effect which this wave has on the objects built on the surface 

 will bo evident by considering the behaviour of the pillar at 

 F while the wave is passing beneath it. In the diagram the 

 )illar is thrown out of its perpendicular by the advance of the 

 ore-slc-io of the wave. If it cannot bear this disturbance, it 



