Chap. 111.] IGNEOUS PHENOMENA. 141 



litani. Tliis fire, however, is intemaP, mild, and not burn- 

 ing the foliage of a dense wood which is over it^. There is 

 also the crater of Nymphaeum', which is always burning, in 

 the neighbourhood of a cold fountain, and which, according 

 to Theopompus, presages direful calamities to the inhabitants 

 of Apollonia^. It is increased by rain\ and it throws out 

 bitumen, which, becoming mixed with the fountain, renders 

 it unfit to be tasted ; it is, at other times, the weakest of all 

 the bitumens. But what are these compared to other 

 wonders ? Hiera, one of the -Solian isles, in the middle of 

 the sea, near Italy, together with the sea itself, during the 

 Social war, burned for several days', imtil expiation was 

 made, by a deputation from the senate. There is a hill in 

 -Ethiopia called 0ew»' oxn^a^ which burns with the greatest 

 violence, throwing out flame that consumes everything, like 

 the sun*. In so many places, and with so many fires, does 

 nature burn the earth ! 



CHAP. 111. (107.) — WOKDERS OF FIEE ALONE. 



But since this one element is of so prolific a nature as to 

 produce itself, and to increase from the smallest spark, what 

 must we suppose will be the efiect of all those funeral piles 



^ " Internus." " In interiore nemore abditus." Hardouin in Lemaire, 

 i. 455. 



' If this account be not altogether fabulous, the appearance here de- 

 scribed may be, perhaps, referred to the combustion of an inflammable 

 gas which does not acquire a very high temperature. 



* We have an account of tliis place in Strabo, vii. 310. Our author has 

 already referred to it in the 96th chapter of this book, as a pool or lake, 

 containing floating islands ; and he again speaks of it in the next chapter. 



^ We have an account of this volcano in -/Elian, Var. Hist. xiii. 16. 

 It wovdd appear, however, that it had ceased to emit flame previous to 

 the calamitous events of which it was supposed to be the harbinger. 



5 Tliis circxunstance is mentioned by Dion Cassius, xU. 174, We may 

 conceive that a sudden influx of water might force tip an unusually large 

 quantity of the bitumen. 



^ We have a full account of this circumstance in Strabo, vi. 277. 



' " Currum deonmi Latine Hcet interpretari." Hardouin in Lemaire, 

 i. 456. 



^ " torrentesque soHs ardoribus flammas egerit ;" perhaps the author 

 may mean, that the fires of the volcano assist those of the sun in parch- 

 ing the surface of the ground. 



