NOTES TO PRECEDING SECTION. 



123 



no one would venture down into the Sierra from the pla- 

 teaus where corn abounded. 



The ancients were also acquainted with noises without 

 earth(iuakes (Arist. Meteor, ii. ; Plin. ii. 80). The strang-e 

 uoise which was heard from March 1822 to Septcinl)er 1824, 

 in the Dalmatian island Mcleda (4 miles from Ragusa),and 

 on which Partsch has thrown so much light, was accompa- 

 nied by shocks from lime to time. 



ifts (p. 64.) —Drake, Nat. and Stat. View of Cincinnati, 

 p. 232—238 ; Mitchell, in the Transactions of the Lit. and 

 Philos. Soc. of New York, toI. i. p. 281—308. In the Pied- 

 montese county of Pignerol, glasses of water which were 

 filled to the brim continued for hours in incessant motion. 



i"'9 (p. fi4.)— In Spanish they say: "rocas que hacen pu- 

 ente." With this phenomenon of non-transmission through 

 superior strata, is connected the remarkable fact that, in 

 the beginning of the present century, shocks of an earth- 

 quake were felt in the deep silver mines of Marienberg, in 

 the Saxon Erzgebirge, which were not perceived at ail on 

 the surface. The miners rushed up in alarm. Contrari- 

 wise, the people at work in the mines of Falun and Pers- 

 berg felt nothing of the smart shocks (Nov. 1823) which 

 threw all the inhabitants above ground into a state of great 

 alarm. 



160 (p. 64.) — Sir Alex. Burnes, Travels into Bokhara, vol. 

 1. p. 18 ; and Wathen, Mem. on the Usbek State, Journal 

 of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, vol. iii. p. 337. 



161 (p. 64.)— Philos. Transact, vol. xlix. p. 414. 



162 (p. 65.) — On the frequency of earthquakes in Cash- 

 mir, vide Troyer's Uebersetzung des alien Radjatarangini, 

 Tol. ii. p. 279 ; and the Reise von Carl v. Hiigel, Bd. ii. S. 184. 



16;3 (p. 65.) — Strabo, lib. i. p. 100, Casaub. That the 

 phrase itrj^ov Sianvpov Ttorafjiov does not mean mud, but 

 lava, appears plainly from Strabo, lib. vi. p. 412. Vide Wal- 

 ter iiber Abnahme der vulkanischen Thfttigkeit in histor- 

 ischen Zeiten, 1844, S. 25. 



164 (p. 66). — Bischoff's comprehensive work, WSrmelehre 

 des inneren Erdkorpers. 



165 (p. 66.)— On the Artesian fire-springs (Ho-tsing) in 

 China, and the ancient use of portable gas, in bamboo tui)es, 

 in the city of Khiung-tscheu, vide Klaproth, in my Asie 

 centrale, t. ii. p. 519—530. 



166 (p. 66.) — Boussingault (Annales de Chimie, t. Iii. p. 

 181) observed no escape of hydrochloric acid in the vol- 

 canoes of New Granada, whilst Monticelli found this acid 

 in enormous quantities during the eruption of Vesuvius of 

 1813. 



167 (p. 66.) — Humboldt, Recueil d'Observ. astronomiques, 

 t. i. p. 311 (Nivellement barom6trique de la Cordill^re des 

 Andes. No. 206). 



168 (p. 66.) — Adolph Brongniart, in the Annales des Sci- 

 ences natu relies, t. xv. p. 225. 



169 (p. 66.)— Bischoff, op. cit. 324, Anm. 2. 



170 (p. 66.) — Humboldt, Asie centr. t. i. p. 43. 



171 (p. 66.)— On the Theory of the Isothermal lines, see 

 the clever papers of KupfFer in Poggend. Ann. Bd. xv. S. 

 184, and Bd. xxxii. S. 270 ; in the Voyage dans I'Oural, p. 

 382—398 ; and in the Edinb. Journ. of Science, new series, 

 vol. iv. p. 355. See also KSmtz, Lehrb. der Meteor. Bd. 

 ii. S. 217 ; and on the ascent of the Chthonisothermal lines 

 in mountainous countries, Bischoff, S. 174 — 198. 



172 (p. 66.) — Leop. V. Buch in Poggend. Ann. Bd. iii. S. 

 405. 



173 (p. 66.) — On the temperature of the drops of rain in 

 Cumana, which falls to 2230 c. (721° F.) when the tem- 

 perature of the air shortly before had been 30°— 310C. (86° 

 — 87-8° F.), and sinks during the rain to23-40C. (751° F.), 

 vide my Relat. Hist. t. ii. p. 22. The rain-drops as they 

 fall change the temperature they had on their production, 

 which depends on the height of the clouds whence they 

 come, and the heating of these on their upper surface by 

 the sun's rays. After the rain-drops, on their first forma- 

 tion, by reason of the latent caloric of the vapour becoming 

 sensible, have acquired a higher temperature than the sur- 

 rounding medium, they still rise somewhat in temperature, 

 whilst, as they fall through lower, warmer, and moister 

 strata of air, vapour continues to be preci pitated upon them, 

 and they increase in size (Bischoff, Warmelehre, S. 73 1 ; 

 but this rise is compensated by evaporation. Cooling of the 

 air by rain is effected (setting aside what probably belongs 

 to the electrical processes attending thunderstorms) by the 

 drops, which are themselves of lower temperature, in con- 

 sequence of the place of their formation, and farther bring 

 down a portion of the hig:her colder air ; and then by moist" 

 ening the ground and giving occasion to evaporation. Such 

 are the usual relations of the phenomenon. When, in rare 

 cases, the rain-drops are warmer than the lower strata of 

 the atmosphere (Humboldt, Relat. Hist. t. iii. p. 513), the 

 reason may perhaps be sought for in superior warmer cur- 

 rents, or in a higher temperature acquired by extended and 

 not very dense clouds ex{)0sed to the action of the rays of 

 the sun. How, for the rest, the phenomena of suj^plenient- 

 ary rainbows (explained by the interferences of light) are 

 connected with the size of the falling drops and their in- | 



crease, and how an optical phenomenon, when rightly ob» 

 served, may enlighten us in regard to a meteorological prf>- 

 cess, according to diversity of zone, has been shown with 

 great acuteuess by .\rago, in the Annuaire for 1836, p. 300. 

 !''< (p. 66.)— Boussingault's careful experiments satisfy 

 me that in the tropics the temperature of the ground a very 

 short way below the surface corresponds exactly with the 

 mean temperature of the air. I have pleasure in quoting 

 the following table : 



The doubt about the temperature of the earth within the 

 tropics, which 1 have perhaps myself contributed to raiso 

 by my observations in the Cave of Caripe (Cueva del Gua- 

 charo), are resolved by the consideration that I compared 

 the presumed mean temperature of the air of the convent 

 of Caripe (18 5°), not with the temperature of the air of the 

 cavern (18-70), l)ut with the temperature of the subterra- 

 nean stream (16-80) ; I have, however, said, that it was 

 very possible that mountain water from a great height 

 might be mixed with the water of the cavern (Relat. hist, 

 t. iii. 146-194). 



175 (p. 67.) — Boussingault, in Annales de Chimie, t. Iii. 

 p. 181. The spring of Chaudes Aigues in Auvergne, is only 

 80O C. It is also to be observed that, whilst the aguas ca- 

 lientes de las Trincheras burst out from a granite rock, 

 split into regular blocks, and far from all volcanoes, and 

 have fully a temperature of 97° C, the whole of the springs 

 that rise on the tlanks of still active volcanoes, Pasto, Coto- 

 paxi, and Tunguragua, only show a temperature of from 

 360 to 540. 



176 (p. 67.) — The Cassotis, or spring of St. Nicholas, and 

 the Castalia, foot of the Phaedriadae (Pausauias, x. 24, 25, 

 and X. 8, 9) ; the Pirene, Aciocorinth (in Strabo. p. 379) } 

 the Erasinos-spring, Mount Chaim, South from Argos (in 

 Herodotus, vii 67, and Pausanias, ii. 24, 7) ; the spring of 

 Aedepsos, Culxea, some of which have a temperature of 31o, 

 others one of from 620 to 75° (in Strabo, p. 60 and 447, 

 Athenaeus, ii. 3, 73) ; the hot springs of Thermopylae, fool 

 of Oeta, 650 (in Pausan. x. 21, 2) ; all from MS. notices by 

 Professor Curlius. the learned companion of Otfried Miilier. 



177 (p. 67.)— Plin. ii. 106: Seneca, Epist. 79, t) 3, ed. 

 Ruhkopf. (Beaufort, Survey of the Coast of Karamania, 

 1820, Art. Yanar, next Deliktasch, the ancient Phaselis, p. 

 24). See also Ctesias, Fragm. cap. x. p. 250, ed. Blhr . 

 Strabo, lib. xiv. p. 665, Casaub. 



178 (p. 67.)— Arago, in Annuaire for 1845, p. 234. 



179 (p. 67.)— Acta S. Patricii, p. 555, ed. Ruinart, t.ii. p 

 385, Mazochi. Dureau de la Malle first directed attention 

 to this remarkable passage, in his Recherches sur la Topo- 

 graphic de Carthage, 1635, p. 276. (Vide Seneca, Nat. 

 Quaest. iii. 24.) 



180 (p. 68.)— Humboldt, Rel. hist. t. iii. p. 562—567 ; Asie 

 centrale, t. i. p. 43, t.ii. p. 505— 515; Vuesdes Cordiileres, 

 pi. xli. On the Macalubi (the Arabic Makhlub, cast down), 

 and how the earth ejected liquid earth, vide Solinus, cap. 

 V. ; idem ager Agrigentinus eructat limosas seaturigines,et 

 ut venae fontium sufficiunt rivis subministrandis, ita in hao 

 Siciliae parte solo nunquam deficiente, aeterna rejectatione 

 terram terra evomit. 



181 (p. 68.)— See the interesting little map of the island 

 Nisyros, in Rose, Reise auf den griechischen Inseln, Bd. ii. 

 1843-, S. 69. 



182 (p. 68.)— Leopold von Buch, Phys. Beschreibung der 

 Canarischen Inseln, S. 326 ; and on Erhebungscratere und 

 Vulcane, in Poggend. Ann. Bd. 37, S. 189. Strabo distin- 

 guishes very finely between the two modes in which islands 

 are produced, when he speaks of the separation of Sicily 

 from Calabria. ".Some islands," he says (lib. vi. p. 258, ed. 

 Casaub.), "are fragments of the continent; others have 

 arisen from the sea— an event that still happens at the pres- 

 ent day : for the islands of the great ocean have probably 

 been lifted from its bosom, those that lie off promontories 

 have probably been detached from the main land." 



18-3 (p. 68.) — Ocre Fisove (Mons Vesuvius) in the Umbii- 

 an language, (Lassen. Deutung der Eugubinischen Tafeln, 

 im Rhein. Museum, 1832, S. 387) ; the word ocre is prob- 

 ably genuine Umbrian, and means, as Festus informs us. 

 Mountain. .iEtna, if AiTvrj be, as Voss says, an Hellenic 

 sound, and be connected with aidu) and aiOivoi, may signify 

 a burning and shining mountain. But this etymological der- 

 ivation seems doubtful. The word Mtna would proliably 

 be found a Sicilian word, had we but any remains of the 

 Sicilian language. The oldest eruption of Etna spoken of 

 is that referred to in Pindar and .^schylus under Hiero 

 (Olymp. 75, 2). But it is probable that Hesiod was aware 

 of eruptions of the mountain before the settlement of the 



