L. W. Fulcher — On Vulcano and Stromboli. 347 



solidity of our earth. Hence, it is not surprising that there should 

 be signs of that vast welling out of lava we see so plainly on the 

 surface of the moon in the form of rings 50 miles in diameter and 

 10,000 feet high. The moon therefore seems to afford an example 

 of volcanic action minus water — a phenomenon it was at one time 

 supposed could not exist. 



IV. YULCANO AND STROMBOLI. 1 



By L. W. Ftjlcher, B.Sc, 

 of the South Kensington Museum (Science Branch). 



SINCE the excellent and interesting series of papers on the history 

 and description of these celebrated volcanoes by Professor Judd, 

 which appeared in the Geological Magazine for 1875, there is, as 

 far as I know, no connected record of their condition. The islands, 

 though affording such excellent opportunities for the study of volcanic 

 action, are but rarely visited by geologists ; but having had the 

 opportunity of examining them myself in the autumn of last year as 

 a member of the party arranged by Dr. Johnston-Lavis under the 

 auspices of the Geologists' Association, I thought it would be well, 

 whilst recording my own observations, to prefix a brief account of 

 the volcanoes since the above-mentioned date. The information, on 

 which the following brief sketch is based, has been derived partly 

 from a series of papers by Prof. Mercalli, 1 on notes derived by cor- 

 respondence with Sig. Pincone, the former manager of the lately 

 existing Chemical Works at Vulcano, who now resides at Lipari, and 

 partly from papers in various periodicals to which I will refer as 

 occasion requires. 



I. — Vulcano. 



After having been in almost complete repose for nearly a century, 

 Vulcano resumed its activity in September, 1873, and has not since 

 returned to its former tranquillity. When Prof. Judd visited it in 

 April, 1874, the crater was over 400 feet deep, with a floor whose 

 diameter was about 200 yards. The crater walls rose vertically at 

 the bottom, but afterwards sloped outwards at an angle of about 45°, 

 so that the diameter of the crater rim was about 600 yards. The 

 crater floor was much enci'oached upon by a talus of materials shaken 

 down from the adjoining crater wall, and especially by a series 

 of irregular cones of fragmentary materials around the orifices of 

 ejection on the northern side. There were four mouths still open, 

 from which considerable quantities of vapour escaped. All over the 

 sides and bottom of the crater fumaroles, some of very large pro- 

 portions, were discharging acid vapours and gases. Around their 

 orifices were deposits of white, yellow and red incrustations. Half- 

 way down, on the slope of the cone, was a little crater — the Fossa 

 Anticcha — whose floor was about 60 yards in diameter. To the 

 west of this crater, on the north-west side of the cone, was an 

 obsidian lava flow. 



In 1873 the crater had been purchased by an English company 

 1 Atti Soc. ltal. Sci. Nat. Milan, vols. 22, 24, 27, 29 and 31. 



