THE HUMAN SPECIES. 71 



base, have been subjected to the boring of Lithodomi, 

 while other parts of the ancient city, and a paved road, 

 are seen beneath the waters. The whole length of 

 Italy exhibits craters, lakes simmering, volcanic pits, 

 crevices emitting sulphureous vapours, till we reach the 

 kingdom and sea of the two Sicilies, where a vast con- 

 centration of volcanic fire permanently discharges from 

 below, smoke, gaseous vapours, flames, and lavas, by 

 the craters of Etna, Vesuvius, and Stromboli. Thucy- 

 dides, Seneca, Strabo, Pausanius, Pliny, and others, 

 mention numerous earthquakes in Italy, when moun- 

 tains were split, cities were overturned, and volcanic 

 islands rose and again subsided. Since the Vesuvian 

 eruption, recorded by Pliny the Younger, no calamity 

 more appalling appears on record than that which took 

 place in 1538, when, in a few hours, Monte Nuovo, a 

 flaming mountain of four miles in circumference, rose 

 out of the earth, destroying the village of Tripergola, 

 obliterating the Lucrine Lake, and caused the ruin of 

 the country to six miles around it ; unless one greater 

 still occurred, when Messina in Sicily, and many towns 

 of Calabria, were destroyed in 1786. 



No author states, at what period, and to what extent, 

 volcanic convulsion changed the surface of Eastern 

 Italy, and separated Calabria from Sicily, by a disrup- 

 ture now denominated the Straits of Messina. The 

 event can only be surmised by approximation; for, 

 although the catastrophe confessedly took place before 

 written historical record, it was not so remote as to have 

 obliterated the terror impressed upon the memories 



