Ivi NOTES. 



for the earthquake of the 1st of November 1 755, only a rate of 50 English miles 

 a minute (. e. only 4170, instead of 7464, Paris feet in a second). There may 

 be here partly incorrectness in the older observations, partly diversity of propaga- 

 tion route. A passage of Proclus in the Commentary to Plato's Cratylus, 

 throws a remarkable light on the connection of the sea-god Neptune with earth- 

 quakes alluded to in the text in the same page. " The middle one of the three 

 gods, Poseidon, is the cause of motion to all, even to those things which are least 

 movable. As the originator of motion he is called 'Evvocriyaws; and in casting 

 lots for the Croniau Empire, the middle lot with the moving sea fell to his 

 share." (Crenzer, Symbolik und Mythologie, 1842, Th. iii. S. 260.) As the 

 Atlantis of Solon, and, as I suppose, the kindred story of Lyctonia, are " geological 

 myths," so both these supposed fragmentary earthquake-divided lands were re- 

 garded as under the dominion of Neptune, and as such opposed to the " Saturnian 

 continent." According to Herodotus (lib. ii. c. 43 and 50), Neptune was a Lybian 

 divinity and unknown in Egypt. On these relations, on the disappearance of the 

 Lybian Lake Triton by the effects of an earthquake, and the belief of the great 

 rarity of earthquakes in the valley of the Nile, compare my Examen critique de 

 > Geographic, t. i. pp. 171 and 179. 



( l52 ) p. 182. The explosions of the Sangai, or Volcan de Macas, succeeded 

 each other on an average every 13-4 seconds ; Wisse, Exploration du Volcan de 

 Sangai, in the Comptes rendus de 1'Acad. des Sciences, t. xxxvi. 1853, p. 720. 

 As an example of earthquake phenomena limited to a very small space, I might 

 also have adduced the account given by Count Larderel of the " Lagoni " in 

 Tuscany. The vapours, which contain borax or borassic acid, announce their 

 presence and their being about to burst forth through fissures, by the agitation 

 of the suiTounding rocks. (Larderel, Sur les Etablissemens industriels de la 

 production d'acide boracique en Toscane, 1852, p. 15.) 



(^ p. 182. I am glad to be able to cite an important authority in support 

 of the view which I have attempted to unfold in the text : " Dans les Indes, 

 1'oscillation da sol, due a une eruption de volcans, est pour ainsi dire locale, tan- 

 dis qu'un tremblement de terre, qui, en apparence du moins, n'est lie' a aucune 

 e'ruption volcanique, se propage a des distances incroyables. Dans ce cas on a 

 remarque* que les secousses suivaient de preYeYence la direction des chaines de 

 montagnes, et se sont principalement ressenties dans les terrains alpins. La 

 frequence des mouvemens dans le sol des Andes, et le peu de coincidence que 

 Ton remarque entre ces mouvemens et les Eruptions volcaniques, doivent ne'ces- 

 sairement faire pre'sumer qu'ils sont, dans le plus grand nonibre de cas, occa- 

 sionne's par une cause independante des vokans" (Boussingault, Annales da 

 Chiruie et de Physique, t. Iviiu 1835, p. 83.) 



