124 



NOTES TO PRECEDING SECTION. 



Greek Colony. The word A'lTvr} in the text of Hesiod. is 

 of doubtful origin, as I have shown elsewhere. (Humboldt, 

 Examen. crit. de la G6qgr. t. i. p. 168.) 

 18^ (p. 68.)— Seneca, Epist. 79. 



185 (p.68.)— Aelian. Var. hist. viii. 11. 



186 (p. 69.)— Petri Bembi Opuscula (Aetna Dialogus), 

 Basil. 1556, p. 63 ; " Quicquid in Aetnae matris uterocoale- 

 Bcit, nunquam exit ex cratere superiore, quod vel eo ince- 

 dere gravis materia non queat, vel, quia inferius alia spira- 

 menta sunt, non fit opus. Despumant flammis urgentibus 

 ignei rivi pigro fluxu totas delambentes plagas, et in lapi- 

 dem indurescunt." 



187 (p. 69.)— See my drawing of the volcano of Jorullo, 

 of its Hornitos and of the uplifted Malpays, in my Vues de 

 Cordiil^res, PI. xliii. p. 239. 



188 (p. 69.) — Humboldt, Essai sur la G6ogr. des plantes 

 et Tableau phys. des Regions 6quinoxiales, 1807, p. 130, 

 und Essai geogn. sur le gisement des Roches, p. 321. But 

 that the total absence of streams of lava, along with inces- 

 sant activity of volcanoes, is not connected solely with the 

 configuration, position, and absolute height of the mountains, 

 we are assured by the phenomenon of the greater number 

 of the volcanoes of Java. (Vide Leop. von Buch, Descr. 

 phys. des lies Canaries, p. 419 ; Reinwardt and Hoffmann 

 m Poggend. Ann. Bd. xii. S. 607.) 



18H (p. 70.)— See the bases of my measurements compared 

 with those of Saussure and Lord Minto, in the Abhand- 

 lungen der Academic der Wiss. zu Berlin aus den J. 1822 

 and 1823, S. 30. 



190 (p. 70.)— Pimelodes Cyclopum s. Humboldt, Recueil 

 d'Observations de Zoologie et d'Anatomie compar6e, t. i. p. 

 21-25. 



191 (p. 71.) — Leop. von Buch,in Poggend. Ann. Bd. xxxvii. 

 «. 179. 



192 (. 71.) — On the chemical origin of iron glance in vol- 

 canic masses, vide Mitscherlich in Poggend. Ann. Bd. xv. 

 S. 630 ; and on the extrication of hydrochloric acid gas, 

 Gay-Lussac in the Annales de Chimie et de Phys. t. xxii. 

 p. 423. 



193 (p. 71.) — See the beautiful experiments on the refri- 

 geration of rocky masses in BischoflTs Wavmelehre, S. 384, 

 443, 500—512. 



194 (p. 71.) — Berzelius and Wohler in Poggend. Annalen, 

 Bd. i. S. 221, and Bd. xi. S. 146 ; Gay-Lussac, in the Annales 

 de Chimie, t. xxii. p. 422; Bischoff, Reasons against the 

 Chemical Theory of Volcanoes, in the English edition of his 

 Wftrmelehre, p. 297—309. 



195 (p. 72.) — According to Plato's geognostic notions, as 

 they are exposed in the Phiedo, Periphlegethon, in respect 

 of the activity of volcanoes, plays nearly the same part 

 which we now ascribe to the increased heat of the earth 

 with the greater depth, and the melted state of the internal 

 strata of the earth. (Phaedo, ed. Ast. p. 603 and 607, An- 

 not. p. 808 and 817.) " Within the earth, all around, there 

 are greater and smaller caverns. There water flows in 

 abundance ; and also much fire, great fire-streams, and 

 streams of wet mud (here purer, there more filthy) as in 

 Sicily the streams of mud that are poured out before and 

 along with the fire-stream itself; all places are filled with 

 these, according as each of the streams takes its several 

 way. Periphlegethon flows out into an extensive district 

 burning with fierce fire, where it forms a lake larger than 

 our sea, boiling with water and mud. From hence it moves 

 in circles round the earth turbid and muddy." This stream 

 of melted earth and mud is so much the general cause of 

 volcanic phenomena, that Plato adds: " Thus is Periphle- 

 gethon constituted, from which also the fire-streams (ol 

 f^vuKcg) inflate small or detached portions wherever these 

 are met with on the earth (otrrj liv rvxit^i^i tj)? yns). Vol- 

 canic scoriie and lava streams are therefore portions of per- 

 iphlegethon itself, portions of the subterranean melted and 

 ever-moving mass. That ol piaKCi are lava streams, and 

 not, as Schneider, Passow, and Schleiermacher, will have 

 it, " fire-vomiting mountains," appears from many passages 

 that have been already collected by Ukert (Geogr. der 

 Griechen und Romer, Th. ii. 1. S. 200) ; ^val is the vol- 

 canic phenomenon seized from its most remarkable point of 

 view, the lava stream. Whence the expression the ^iuxkcs 

 of ^tna. Aristot. Mirab. Ausc. t. ii. p. 833, (> 38, Bekker ; 

 Thucyd. iii. 116; Theophr. de Lap. 22, p. 427; Schneider, 

 Diod. V. 6, and xiv. 59, where the remarkable -words : '' many 

 places near the sea, not far from .^tna, were destroyed," 

 viro Tov KaXovixtvov pvuKog ; Strabo, vi. p. 269, xiii. p, 628, 

 and of the celebrated glowing mud of the Lelantine plain in 

 Cubaea (Strabo, i. p. 58, Casainb.) ; lastly Appian. de bello 

 civili,vi. 114. The blame which Aristotle throws on the 

 geological fancies of the Phaedo (Meteor, ii. 2, 19) attaches 

 only to the rivers which flow over the surface of the earth. 

 The expression, so distinct in reference to the " eruptions 

 of wet mud in Sicily preceding the glowing (lava) streams" 

 is very remarkable. Observations on JEtna could not have 

 led to such language, unless torrents of ashes or pumice 

 mixed with the melted snow and water of the cone during 

 ftn eruption, were taken for ejected mud. It seems more 



probable that the vypoii irri^ov irorafiot of Plato, the " moist 

 mud streams," are an obscure recollection of the mud-vol- 

 canoes of Agrigentum, which 1 have already referred to 

 (Note 89), which eject mud with loud noises. The loss of 

 one among the many lost writings of Theophrastus : tied} 

 pvuKog TOV iv "^iK^Yiq, of which Diogenes Laertius (v. 39) 

 makes mention, is much to be regretted in connection with 

 this subject. 



196 (p. 72.)— Leopold von Buch, Physical. Beschreib. der 

 Canarischen Inseln, S. 326 — 407. I doubt whether we can, 

 with the able Darwin (Geological Observations on the Vol- 

 canic Islands, 1844, p. 127), regard Central volcanoes in 

 general as Rank -volcanoes of small compass developed ou 

 parallel fissures. Fried. Hoff^mann believed that he per- 

 ceived in the group of the Lipari islands, which he has so 

 well described, and in which two eruption-fissures cross 

 each other near Panaria, an intermediate member between 

 the two principal modes in which volcanoes appear, the 

 central, and the rank or row-volcanoes of Leopold von Buch 

 (vide Poggend. Annal. 26, p. 81). 



197 (p. 72.) — Humboldt, Geognost. Beob. iiber die Vulkane 

 des Ilochlandes von Quito, in Poggend. Annalen, Bd. xliv. 

 S. 194. 



198 (p. 72.)— Seneca, whilst he speaks very pointedly on 

 the problematical lowering of ^^i^tna, says, in his 79th let- 

 ter: '' Potest hoc accidere, mm quia montis altitudo desedit, 

 sed quia ignis evanuit et minus vehemensaclarguseffertur: 

 ob eandem causam, fumo quoque per diem segniore. Neu- 

 trum autem incredibile est, nee montem qui devoretur quo- 

 tidie minui, nee ignem non manere eundem ; quia non ipse 

 ex se est, sed in aliqua inferna valle conceptus exaestuat et 

 alibi pascitur : in ipso monte non alimentum habet sed 

 viam." (Ed. Ruhkopfiana, t. iii. p. 32.) The subterrane- 

 ous communications, " by means of galleries," between the 

 volcanoes of Sicily, Lipari, Pithecuse (Ischia), and Vesu- 

 vius, which may be conjectured to have been formerly on 

 fire, are fully recognized by Strabo, who calls the whole 

 country "subigneous." (Lib. i. p. 247, 248.) 



199 (p. 72.) — Humboldt, Essai polit. sur la Nouv. Espagne, 

 t. ii. p. 173—175. 



200 (p. 73.)— On the Eruption of Methone, vide Ovid. 

 Metamorphos. xv. 296—306) : 



"Est prope Pittheam tumulus Troezena sine ullis 

 Arduus arboribus, quondam planissima campi 

 Area, nunc tumulus ; nam — res horrenda relatu — 

 Vis fera ventorum, caecis inclusa cavernis, 

 Exspirare aliqua cupiens, lucta*aque frustra 

 Liberiore frui coelo, cum carcere rima 

 Nulla foret toto nee pervia flatibus esset, 

 Extentam tumefecit humum ; ceu spiritus oris 

 Tendere vesicam solet, aut direpta bicorni 

 Terga capro. Tumor ille loci p^ermansit, et alti 

 CoUis habet speciem, longoque induruit aevo." 



This description of a dome-shaped elevation of the land, so 

 important in a geological point of view, accords remarkably 

 with what Aristotle says, (Meteor, ii. 8, 17—19) on the up- 

 liftment of an Eruption island. '' The quaking of the earth 

 does not cease until the wind (avEjioi) which occasions the 

 shocks has made its escape into the crust of ihe earth. So 

 did it happen lately at Heraclea in Poutus, and formerly 

 too in Hiera, one of the iEolian islands. In this a portion 

 of the earth swelled up and rose into the shape of a hill 

 with loud noises, until the powerful lifting l)reath (itvei'txa) 

 found a vent, and threw out sparks and ashes, which cov- 

 ered the neighbouring town of the Liperians, and even ex- 

 tended to several towns of Italy." In this description, the 

 vesicular-like distension of the crust of the earth (a state in 

 which many trachytic mountains have remained) is very 

 well distinguished from the erupti(m itself. Strabo (lib. i. 

 p. 59, ed. Cas.) likewise describes the phenomenon of Me- 

 thone : " Near the town in the Hermionian bay, a flaming 

 eruption took place ; a fiery mountain was thrown up, sev- 

 en (?) stadia high, inaccessible during the day from heat 

 and sulphureous odours, but sweet-smelling (?) in the night, 

 and so hot that the sea boiled five stadia off, and was turbid 

 full twenty stadia out, and was also filled full of detached 

 masses of rock." On the present niineralogical constitution 

 of the peninsula of Methone, vide Fiedler, Reise durch 

 Griechenland, Th. i. S. 257—263. 



201 (p. 73.) — Leop. von Buch, Physik. Beschr. der Canar. 

 Inseln, S. 356 — 358, particular'y the French translation of 

 this excellent work, p. 402 ; also in Poggendorff's Annalen, 

 Bd. xxxvii. S. 163. A submarine island was again in the 

 most recent times formed in the crater of Santorin. In 

 1810 this island was still 15 fathoms under the surface of 

 the sea; but in 18.30 (mly 3 or 4 fathoms. It rises steeply 

 like a great cone from the bottom of the sea ; and the per- 

 sistence of the sui)marine activity is proclaimed by the ad- 

 mixture of sulphuric acid vapours with the sea-water, so 

 that ships which are coppered, lying at anchor in the bay 

 T)f Neo-Kammeni,as well as at Wromolimni near Methana, 

 have their bottoms cleansed and made bright without fur- 

 ther trouble. (Vide Virlet in Bulletin de la Society g6olo- 



