VOL. VI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 637 



belief concerning eclipses; of the books of sciences received amongst them; of 

 their doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and of the creation, preservation, 

 and destruction of the world; as also a relation of the different sects of philoso- 

 phers among them; of their method of physic, very different from ours, and 

 how successful ; of their ignorance in, and aversion from anatomy; of their 

 pleasant tenets in astronomy, geography, and chronology; of their opinion con- 

 cerning plants and animals, importing that the seeds of both of these kinds are 

 not formed anew, but were contrived in the first production of the world ; as 

 also, that they are actually the very entire plant or animal. 



Secondly, a good description of the kingdom of Kachemire, the reputed para- 

 dise of the East Indies; its ancient state; its present condition and excellencies 

 for soil, vegetables, waters, cattle, wild deer; the wit and industry of the in- 

 habitants in making fine stuffs, good varnish, &c. the condition of its moun- 

 tains, one side of them being intolerably hot, and yielding Indian plants, the 

 other very tolerable, and affording none but European plants; some remarkables 

 about the generation and corruption of trees there ; strange cascades of water ; 

 periodical fountain, &c. The situation of the kingdoms of Tibet, and the com- 

 modities they afford. A considerable account of voyages made by caravans 

 from Kachemire through the mountains of the Great Tibet into Tartary and Ca- 

 taja, &c. &c. 



IV. Historia et Meteorologia Incendii ^Etnaei Anni 1669. Job. Alph. Borelli. 

 Regio Julio 1670, in 4to. 



The learned author having given a short topography of this mountain, delivers 

 first a succinct relation both of the old and later eruptions, as also of this last 

 fire of jfEtna, and assigns the perpendicular height of the same, showing it not 

 to exceed three Italian miles, and here taking notice of Kepler's assigning two 

 such miles for the height of the atmosphere, and thence concluding the top of 

 iEtna to be considerably raised above that region of the common air; confirm- 

 ing the same by a known experiment, whereby those that are on the said top at 

 a clear break of day, may plainly see the whole island of Sicily, and all the towns 

 thereof, as if it were elevated and hanging in the air, near the eye, just as, by 

 refraction, stones lying at the bottom of a pond appear nigh the surface of the 

 water. 



After this, in the history itself of this eruption he describes particularly : 



First, the beginning of it, which happened on the 8th of March, 1669, ac- 

 companied with earthquakes, and a rent of the ground of 12 miles long, and 

 five or six feet broad, as also with a terrible noise, roaring and cracking, vast 

 globes of smoke first rising into the air, and abundance of fiery melted stones 

 being ejected soon after, which first ran like a flood of fire, and overwhelmed 



