SKETCH OF AlGINA AND ME THAN A. 805 



the stream is quite distinct from that just described, being brown 

 and apparently scoriaceous, and weathered into tall pinnacles 

 rendering it almost inaccessible. 



This Kaimeni is undoubtedly the site of the last and only 

 historical eruption of the whole region, which occurred during 

 the reign of Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia, 227-239 

 B. C, and which has been spoken of by Strabo, Pausanias, and 

 Ovid. Pausanias 1 is very brief and merely speaks of hot springs, 

 20 stadia (2.5 miles) from the small city of Methana, which 

 started during the reign of Antigonus, the water not appearing 

 first, but being preceded by an eruption of fire from the ground. 

 Strabo's 2 account is more explicit and runs as follows : 

 " Near Methone, which is on the Hermionic Gulf, a mountain 

 seven stadia high was cast up during a fiery eruption. During 

 the day it could not be approached on account of the heat and 

 the sulphurous smell, but by night it emitted an agreeable odor 

 and appeared brilliant at a distance ; the heat was so great that 

 the water of the sea boiled for five stadia around and was turbid 

 at a distance of twenty stadia. On the hill were found masses 

 of rock as large as towers." Ovid 3 is much more fanciful, and 

 he describes poetically how the winds enclosed in interior cavi- 

 ties, seeking an outlet, finally elevated a mass of rock like a 

 bubble, which was still standing in his day. This poetical 

 description has been brought forward by Humboldt and others 

 in support of von Buch's theory of craters of elevation. 4 



The identification of the site of this historical eruption, which 

 as we have seen is due to Fouque, is of great importance for 

 many reasons. In the first place it shows us the character of at 

 least one eruption of the region with clearness and certainty. It 

 also, by the state of preservation at the end of the two thousand 

 years which have elapsed since the eruption, furnishes a meas- 

 ure of comparison for the other eruptive centres, and it also gives 



1 Pausanias, II., 34. 1. 



2 Strabo, I., 3. 18. 



3 Ovid : Metamorph., XV., 296-306. 



4 Cf. Daubeny : Volcanoes, London, 1848, p. 327. 



