( 3^3 ) 



kind ; except that in the very ancient vol- 

 canos of Padua any perceptible ignitioa 

 has gradually diminifhed and difappeared, 

 nothing remaining but fome feeble refidue 

 in the well-known warm baths. This an- 

 tiquity, it cannot be doubted, likewife, is 

 the reafon why thefe mountains, notwith- 

 {landing they flill retain the figure which 

 characterizes them as volcanic, are greatly 

 changed in their external appearance, being 

 deprived of their craters, probably by the 

 falling in of their fides and the effedis of 

 rains ; as alfo their porous and fcoriaceous 

 lavas having been reduced to cultivable 

 earth by the induftry of men. The vici- 

 nity of thefe places to others that have 

 long been cultivated, may likewife have 

 greatly contributed to diminiOi their ori- 

 ginal wild afped, and render them very 

 different, in confequence of cultivation, 

 from other mountains which, though they 

 have long ceafed to burn, have been defti- 

 tute of population. 



It may here be proper to confider how 



great 



