2 HENRY S. WASHINGTON 



point being at the west (133"^), and thence gradually sloping to the 

 east end, where the general elevation above sea-level is but 20"^. 

 The surface, which is in general fairly fiat, is somewhat cut up by 

 shallow erosion valleys, and there are no very prominent hills. The 

 soil almost all over the island is stony and barren, a few gardens and 

 vineyards being maintained with difi&culty here and there, and the 

 only trees are half a dozen date palms which are found in sheltered 

 hollows. The rock composing Lampedusa is a white to creamy- 

 yellow, soft limestone,^ which is distinctly magnesian, as shown by 

 the analysis of Speciale,^ who has described the island briefly. Accord- 

 ing to him it is more recent than the Tertiary limestones of Malta, 

 containing fossils of living mollusks. Lampedusa is of considerable 

 commercial importance as the center of extensive sponge and sardine 

 fisheries, and is the point of exchange for the sponge trade of the 

 Mediterranean, the sponges from the Greek islands being largely 

 brought here. 3 



Lampione, which lies about 8 nautical miles west of Lampedusa, 

 is a mere rock, barely 400 meters across, 43 meters high at its western 

 end, and sloping to sea-level at the east. It is said to be composed of 

 limestone similar to that which forms Lampedusa. , 



GEOLOGY OF LINOSA 



Bibliography. — The literature on the geology of Linosa is very 

 scanty, commensurate with its small size and isolation, and its political 

 and commercial insignificance. For the most part the papers which 

 deal with it belong to the first half of the nineteenth century and are 

 of httle modern value. A Kst of them is given by Speciale. The stand- 

 ard general works on volcanoes either ignore or barely mention the 

 island, Scrope,'^ for instance, giving it but three hnes of description. 



Mercalli,^ who bases his account on the work of Calcara^ (an author 



1 Lampedusa and Lampione are incorrectly colored as volcanic on Sheet 45 of 

 the Carte geologique internationale de I'Europe. I saw no igneous rock on the island. 



2 S. Speciale, Boll. Com. Geol. Ital, Vol. XV, 1884, p. 263. 



3 My thanks are due Signor S. di Maggio for courtesies and assistance during 

 my few hours on Lampedusa. 



4-G. P. Scrope, Volcanoes, London, 2d ed., 1862, p. 345. 



s G. MercalH, Vulcani d'ltalia, Milano, 1883, p. 161. 



6 P. Calcara, Descrizione dell' isola Linosa, Palermo, 1851, pp. 30. 



