798 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



blende-andesite, somewhat similar to that of Mt. Stavro, in large 

 angular blocks, with a cement of small pieces and paste of the 

 same material ; the whole being rather soft, considerably weath- 

 ered, and showing no signs of stratification. Many of the blocks 

 show the peculiar sub-vitreous lustre which seems to be charac- 

 teristic of lava when cracked and broken while cooling from a 

 highly heated condition. The original dome is now to a great 

 extent destroyed, the sides being cut by cracks and deep ravines 

 with precipitous sides, the largest of these running quite across the 

 hill from north to south, while the interior is quite hollow, forming 

 a sort of amphitheatre with precipitous walls of rock. This amphi- 

 theatre is a scene of wild beauty, pinnacles and buttresses rising 

 on all sides to heights of six to twenty metres, those towards the 

 south being the highest. Two cases of faulting were seen, the 

 throw being vertically downwards and the slip in one case being 

 a couple of metres. Fiedler 1 apparently attributes the condition 

 of the dome largely to explosive agencies, as he calls it " eine 

 zerborstene Felskuppe." Judging from two examinations of the 

 place, this explanation does not appear to me to be the correct one. 

 For one thing, the surface of the dome and the surrounding 

 ground are quite free from large blocks such as could naturally 

 be expected to have been dropped there by an explosion. Again, 

 the presence of tall slender pinnacles of the not very coherent 

 breccia is quite incompatible with such an explanation. Spasmeno 

 Vouno must be regarded then as a volcanic dome, formed by 

 the outpouring of a partially solidified lava stream, the interstices 

 between the blocks being filled chiefly by more liquid matter or 

 by disintegration of the upper part. The mass cracked on cool- 

 ing, such as we see a similar andesitic mass to have done at 

 Stavro and Palaeochora, and the fissures thus formed served as 

 starting points for subaerial erosion. That this erosion is still 

 going on here at quite a rapid rate is shown by the presence of 

 a niche for the reception of a votive tablet, such as are very fre- 

 quently met with in Greece, near the top of a slender buttress 

 near the north side of the amphitheatre. This niche, which must 

 'Op. cit., I., 274. 



