THE VOLCANOES AND ROCKS OF PANTELLERIA 657 
possibly from poe (ghadir)=‘‘a pond,’ and Gelkhamar from 
re dus (gebel kamar) = ‘moon mountain.” The local term cuddia, 
applied to the small volcanoes and hills, may be derived from gla 
(hadd) = “pointed,” and if so, its etymology would be analogous 
to that of the French puwy and the Catalan pwig. 
Pantelleria is now used by the Italian government as a penal 
station (as is Lampedusa), several hundred convicts being at 
liberty on the island, returning to their quarters at night, and Ce 
guarded by two companies of soldiers. 
TOPOGRAPHY* 
Montagna Grande.—The most prominent topographic feature 
of Pantelleria is the volcanic mass of Montagna Grande, which 
occupies the center of the island, its summit forming the culmi- 
nating point with an elevation of 836 meters above sea-level. The 
mass has suffered extensively from erosion and shows few traces of 
the original crater. The top consists of a ridge on the east and 
south, from which the surface slopes rather gently downward toward 
the west and north. On this slope is the cone of Cuddia Mida, 
with a small summit crater, so called from being near the center of 
the island. The summit ridge of Montagna Grande is very pre- 
cipitous outwardly on the east and south, the scarp varying from 50 
to 150 meters in height, built up of massive sheets of trachyte, 
which sometimes show a rough columnar structure. These scarps 
do not form a continuous curve, but are roughly straight lines, 
meeting at an angle of about 110° at the southeast corner at Rione 
Miliac. From their foot the surface slopes sharply downward to 
the south and east, the general uniformity being interrupted by 
several small volcanic cones. 
Of these Monte Gibelé, immediately east of the highest point of 
the summit ridge, is the largest and most important. It is fairly 
well preserved, its highest point being 700 meters above sea-level, 
and it shows an almost circular crater, about 100 meters deep and 
™ The accompanying map is based on that of the Instituto Geographico Militare 
(Firenze, 1877, 1: 10000), the geology being based on the map of Foerstner (Bull. Cour. 
Geol. Ital., 1881, Tav. XI.), and my own observations. The contour lines (interval 50 
meters) are only roughly given, and the boundaries of the different geologic areas are 
only approximate. 
