Tiih i.Aum. 77 



and was accompanied with terrible roarings of the wind, rusiiing 

 through the volcano, still louder than the former rumblings in 

 its bowels. At last all was quiet, neither iire nor smoke to be 

 seen, nor noise to be heard ; till in the ensuing year, the flames 

 again appeared with recruited violence, forcing their passage 

 through several other parts of the mountain, so that in clear 

 nights the flames being reflected by the transparent ice, formed 

 an awfully magnificent illumination." 



Such is the appearance and the effect of those fires which 

 proceed from the more inward recesses of the earth : for that 

 they generally come from deeper regions than man has hitherto 

 explored, I cannot avoid thinking, contraiy to the opinion of 

 Mr Buflfon, who supposes them rooted but a very little way be- 

 low the bed of the mountain. " We can never suppose," says 

 this great naturalist, " that these substances are ejected I'rom any 

 great distance below, if we only consider the great force already 

 required to fling them up to such vast heights above the mouth of 

 the mountain ; if we consider the substances thrown up, which we 

 shall find upon inspection to be the same with those of the moun- 

 tain below ; if we take into our consideration, that air is always 

 necessary to keep up the flame ; but, most of all, if we attend 

 to one circumstance, which is, that if these substances were ex 

 ploded from a vast depth below, the same force required to shoot 

 them up so high, would act against the sides of the volcano, and 

 tear the whole mountain in pieces." To all this specious rea- 

 soning, particular answers might be easily given ; as, that the 

 length of the funnel increases the force of the explosion ; that 

 the sides of the funnel are actually often burst with the great 

 violence of the flame ; that air may be supposed at depths at 

 least as far as tLe perpendicular fissures descend. But the best 

 answer is a well known fact ; namely, that the quantity of mat- 

 ter discharged from .(Etna alone, is supposed, u])on a moderate 

 computation, to exceed twenty times the original bulk of the 

 mountain.' The greatest part of Sicily seems covered with its 

 eruptions. The inhabitantss of Catanea have found, at\the dis- 

 tance of several miles, streets and houses sixty feet deep, over- 

 whelmed by the lava or matter it has discharged. But what is 

 still more remarkable, the walls of these very houses have beea 



3 Kirchcr, Muud, Subt, vol. L p. 202. 



