70 'NATURAL HISTORY. 



there are veins of sulphur, bitumen, and other inflam- 

 mable substances, and also great quantities of pyrites, 

 which ferment when exposed to thy air, or to moisture, 

 en.l produce explosions in proportion to the quantity 

 of inflammable matter they contain. A mixture of 

 sulphur, of filings of iron, and of water, buried at a 

 certain depth below the ground, will exhibit, in min.i- 

 nture, all the appearcnces of a volcano. This mix- 

 ture will soon produce explosions perfectly similar to 

 those of burning mountains. 



There are three famous volcanoes in Europe, mount 

 ^Etna in Sicily, mount Hecla in Iceland, and mount 

 Vesuvius in Italy, near Naples. Mount JEtna has 

 burnt from time immemorial. Its eruptions are very 

 violent, and the matters it throw's out are so plentiful 

 that they may be dug to the depth of 68 feet, where 

 we meet with marble pavement, and tie vestiges of an 

 ancient town which has been covered and buried under 

 this thickness of matter ejected from the mount, in the 

 same manner as the city of Herculaneum has been 

 covered by the matter thrown out from Vesuvius. New 

 mouths of fire were formed in 1650, iCfip, and at other 

 times. We see the flame and smoke of this volcano 

 from Malta, wliich is about 60 leagues distant from it ; 

 it smokes continually, and it sometimes vomits flames 

 and matters of every kind with impetuosity. In 1537, 

 there was an eruption of this volcano, which occasioned 

 an earthquake in Sicily for 12 days, and which over- 

 threw a very great number of houses and structures. 

 It ceased only by the opening of a new lire mouth, which 

 burnt every thing for rive miles in the environs of the 

 mountain. The cinders thrown out by the volcano 

 were to abundant, and ejected with so much force, that 

 they wove driven as far as Italy ; and vessels wliich 



