EARTHQUAKES -" 177 



of this important subject of volcanic geography. In Greece, 

 also, which has suffered from earthquakes more than any 

 other part of Europe (Curtius, Peloponnesos, i, s. 42 46), 

 it appears that an immense number of thermal springs, some 

 still flowing, others already lost, have broken out with earth- 

 shocks. A similar thermic connexion is indicated in the re- 

 markable book of Johannes Lydus upon earthquakes (De 

 Ostentis, cap. liv, p. 189, Hase). The great natural pheno- 

 menon of the destruction of Helice and Bura in Achaia 

 (373 B.C. ; Cosmos, vol. iv, p. 543) gave rise in an especial 

 manner to hypotheses regarding the causal connexion of 

 volcanic activity. "With Aristotle originated the curious 

 theory of the force of the winds collecting in the cavities 

 of the depths of the earth (Meteor, ii, p. 368). By the part 

 which they have taken in the early destruction of the monu- 

 ments of the most flourishing period of the arts, the unhappy 

 frequency of earthquakes in Greece and Southern Italy has 

 exercised the most pernicious influence upon all the studies 

 which have been directed to the evolution of the Greek and 

 Roman civilisation at various epochs. Egyptian monuments 

 also, for example that of a colossal Memnon (27 years B.C.), 

 have suffered from earthquakes, which, as Letronne has 

 proved, have been by no means so rare as was supposed in 

 the valley of the Nile (Les Statues Vocales de M.emnon y 

 1&33, pp. 2327, 255). 



The physical changes here referred to, as induced by earth- 

 quakes by the production of fissures, render it the more re- 

 lines in the direction of which the movements may also be propa- 

 gated.)" As the city of Khotan and the district south of the Thian- 

 echan has been the most ancient and celebrated seat of Buddhism, the 

 Buddhistic literature was occupied very early and earnestly with the 

 causes of earthquakes (see Foe-koue-ki, ou Relation des Royaumes Boud- 

 diques, translated by M. Abel Re"musat, p. 217). By the followers of Sak- 

 hyamuni eight of these causes are adduced, amongst which a revolving 

 wheel of steel, hung with reliques ('sarira, signifying body in Sanscrit), 

 plays a principal part, a mechanical explanation of a dynamic phe- 

 nomenon, scarcely more absurd than many of our geological and mag- 

 netic myths, which have but recently become antiquated ! According 

 to a statement of Klaproth's, pnestd, and especially begging monks (Bhik- 

 *hous) have the power of causing the earth to tremble and of setting 

 the subterranean wheel in motion. The travels of Fahian, the author 

 of the t'oe-koue-ki, date about the commencement of the fifth cen- 

 tury. 



VOL. V. M 



