J. W, Judd—On Volcanos, 99 



Why look to a secondary cause to account for the fire which flies 

 from the wheel of a railway carriage, when the brake is applied, 

 knowing that a hot furnace is burning in the engine. The two 

 cases are more nearly parallel than they appear. 



Before the matter in dispute can be settled, Mr. Mallet's theory 

 needs to be criticized closely from his own point of view, to inquire 

 whether he is justified in claiming for it a capability for producing 

 the actual phenomena of vulcanicity, both present and past. And 

 even if it should turn out to be capable of that, Mr. Scrope's view 

 may still be concurrently true, unless it can be shown that no direct 

 communication can exist between the surface of the globe and its 

 heated interior. That part of Mr. Mallet's conclusions which Mr. 

 Ward refutes does not appear to be of the essence of the question. 

 Indeed a convert to his main theory might hold quite different, 

 opinions from his with respect to the sequence and formation of 

 some of the great features of the globe. 



II. — Contributions to the Study of Volcanos. 



By J. W. Judd, F.G.S. 



{Continued from page 70.) 



The Lipari Islands. — Vtjlcano. 

 (PLATE VII.) 



During the earliest periods concerning which we have historical 

 records in Southern Europe, Vesuvius was certainly inactive, its true 

 character, indeed, long remaining wholly unsuspected ;. nor "do the 

 eruptions of Etna at this epoch appear to have been of such a 

 character as to have powerfully arrested the attention and excited 

 the imaginations of the oldest inhabitants of the district. Far 

 otherwise was it, however, with the volcanos of the Lipari Islands ; 

 in these the manifestations of igneous activity had been so constant 

 and striking, that priests, poets, and philosophers had successively 

 associated the locality with their most marvellous stories. 



Identified in the older mythologies with the forge of Vulcan and 

 the workshop of the Cyclops, it is not surprising to find the super- 

 stitious mariners applying to the southern and more violently active 

 of the Lipari volcanos the name of Hiera — or the Sacred Isle. And 

 its vast crater, presenting by day bellowing fumaroles, and by night 

 glowing fires, is not inappropriately selected by Virgil as the scene 

 of the forging of the armour of iEneas, 



In later times, when fear and fancy had begun to give place 

 to curiosity, the historians, geographers, and philosophers of Kome 

 gave more sober and accurate accounts of the phenomena of this 

 island; and its later name of "Vulcano" or "Volcano" has gradually 

 come to be applied to all mountains where igneous forces are similarly 

 displayed. Nor, as we shall attempt to show in this chapter, is this 

 volcano unworthy of the distinction which it tbus accidentally 

 acquired — that of serving as the prototype of all the members of 

 its class. Observations, carried on during longer periods, and over 

 far larger portions of the earth's surface, have made us acquainted 



