1 90 THE SEVEN FOLLIES OF SCIENCE 



This is not the place for a general discussion of the origin 

 of fire, but it seems to me more than likely that man obtained 

 his first practical knowledge of fire from the burning wells 

 which abound in the neighborhood of the Caspian Sea, the 

 acknowledged cradle of the human race. These wells 

 could scarcely escape being struck and set on fire by light- 

 ning, and some of them have been burning for ages. The 

 wonderful spectacle and the pleasant warmth of these 

 burning wells would be sure to attract those who came 

 near them, and this was no doubt the source from which 

 men obtained their first knowledge of fire, an agent with- 

 out which civilization would have been impossible. 



THAT VOLCANOES ARE " BURNING" MOUNTAINS 



HE term " burning mountain" is very apt to 

 convey a wrong impression to the ordinary 

 person; he thinks of it as he does of a fire in a 

 stove or as a burning forest where combustible 

 materials combine with the oxygen of the air to produce 

 heat, flames, gas, and dust. In the eruption of a volcano 

 none of these phenomena are caused to any considerable 

 extent by combustion. The red-hot matter which is thrown 

 out was probably "burned" ages ago, indeed long before 

 this earth had taken on its present characteristics of oceans 

 and continents with their mountain ranges, rivers, and 

 lakes. The substances which are thrown out by a volcano 

 are the ashes of long-past fires, and we might as well think 

 of burning the ashes beneath our grates as to burn them. 



The red-hot and sometimes white-hot material thrown 

 out by the volcano is merely a sample of the internal con- 



