NOTES. 



Museum, 1832, S. 387). If, according to Voss, At-mj is of Grecian origin, 

 and connected with aiQw or ouQivos, Mtna would signify a burning and shining 

 mountain ; hut the learned Parthey doubts the Grecian origin, both, from 

 etymological considerations, and also because ./Etna could not have been a 

 beacon light for Greek navigators and travellers, like the continually-active 

 volcano, Stromboli (Strongyle), which Homer appears to refer to in the 

 Odyssey (xii. 68, 202, and 219), although the geographical position is only 

 very vaguely indicated. I imagine that the word jEtna would more probably 

 be found to belong to the language of the ancient Siculi, if any considerable 

 portions of it were in our possession. According to Diodorus (v. 6), the 

 Sicani, who were the aboriginal inhabitants of Sicily before the arrival of the 

 Siculi, were forced by the eruptions of JStna, which lasted several years, to 

 take refuge in the western part of the country. The oldest recorded eruption 

 of .(Etna is that mentioned by Pindar and ./Eschylus as having taken place in 

 the reign of Hiero, in the second year of the 75th Olympiad. Hesiod was 

 probably aware of devastating eruptions of ./Etna having occurred previous to 

 the Greek settlements. There are, however, some doubts respecting the word 

 AtrvTj, which I have discussed at some length in my Examen. critique de la 

 Geographic, T. i. p. 168. 



(2 14 ) p. 215. Seneca, Epist. 79, 

 O 215 ) p. 215 JSlian. Var. hist. viii. 11. 



(2 16 ) p. 218. Petri Bembi Opuscula (^Etna Dialogus), Basil. 1556, p. 63; 

 " Quicquid in Mtuss matris utero coalescit, nunquam exit ex cratere supcriore 

 quod vel eo incendere gravis materia non queat, vel, quia inferius alia 

 spiramenta sunt, non fit opus. Despumant flammis urgentibus ignei rivi pigro 

 fluxu totas delambentes plagas, et in lapidem indurescunt." 



(^ p. 218. See my drawings of the volcano of Jorullo, of its " Hornitos," 

 and of the upraised Malpays, in the Vues des Cordilleres, PI. xliii. p. 239. 

 O p. 219. Humboldt, Essai sur la Geographic des Plantes et Tableau 

 physique des Regions equinoxiales, 1807, p. 130, and Essai geognostique sur 

 le gisement des roches, p. 321. A consideration of the greater part of the 

 volcanoes of the Island of Java is sufficient to shew that the entire absence of 

 lava currents, during a period of uninterrupted activity, cannot be ascribed to 

 the form, situation, and absolute elevation of the mountains. (Fide Leop. 

 von Buch, Descr. phys. des lies Canaries, p. 419 ; Reinwardt and Hoffmann, 

 in Poggend. Ann. Bd. xii. S. 607). 



C 219 ) p. 221. See the comparison of my measurements with those of 



