xxvi FIRE AND WATER 73 



though I grant that the cloud is moist and charged 

 with fully formed water, still there is nothing to 

 prevent fire being drawn from what is moist, yes 

 and what will surprise you more to learn out of 

 pure moisture. Some authorities have actually 2 

 affirmed that nothing can be converted into fire 

 without a prior change into water. A cloud, then, 

 without prejudice to the water it may contain, 

 may emit fire at some part of it, just as often one 

 end of a log is blazing while the other exudes 

 moisture. I do not deny that fire and water are 

 opposing elements and that the one destroys the 

 other. But where the fire is stronger than the 

 water it wins the day. On the other hand, where 

 there is a superabundant supply of moisture, then 

 fire is powerless. That is why green wood won't 

 burn. The result depends, therefore, on the quantity 

 of water present. If it is small, no effectual resist- 3 

 ance is offered, the fire is not prevented. Why, 

 according to Posidonius' account, when an island 

 rose in the Aegean Sea long ago in our forefathers' 

 days, the sea was lashed into foam for a long time 

 previously and sent up smoke from its depths. At 

 last fire was emitted, not continuously, but in flames 

 shooting out at intervals, after the fashion of 

 thunderbolts, just as often as the fervent heat of 

 what lay below had .overcome the weight of water 

 above it. By and by boulders were thrown up and 4 

 rocks, part of them still unimpaired, which the air 

 had thrust out before their calcination, part of them 

 corroded by the fire and changed to light pumice ; 

 at last the cone of a blasted mountain issued from 

 the waves. Subsequently, there was an addition 

 to its height, and the rock grew in extent into 

 an island, The same thing happened within our 



