•lr 







^lio 



Jl 



^^ 



the 



ot 



%. 





s--.. 



'*< 



1 



.y from tt^ 



o 



at 



sOUlliii; 



Jm 



r, but 



^ and ki 



re suJl-^V 



•pours, d 



d in l^i>,- 

 lacier unte 

 the hi?te 



,iO pr 



V **- - 



^tit 



.iiirtr v-' 



the ^^^''^ 



r 



f 



ill; 



a 





I 



11 1(^ ^ 



aH 



d 



i 



1^^'^' 4 



BS 



ii^' 



Ch. XXVL] 



EXISTENCE OF ICE UNDEE LAVA. 



39 



known to be an extremely bad conductor of heat j and tbe 

 shepherds in the higher regions of Etna are 



accustomed 



summer 



provide water for their flocks during 



layer of volcanic sand a few inches thick over the snow^ 



which effectually prevents the heat of the sun from pene- 



trating. 



Suppose the mass of snow to have been preserved from 

 liquefaction until the lower part of the lava had consolidated, 

 we may then readily conceive that a glacier thus protected 

 at the height of 10,000 feet above the level of the sea 

 would endure as long as the snows of Mont Blanc, unless 

 melted by volcanic heat from below. When I first visited 

 the summit of the highest cone in the beginning of winter 

 (December 1st, 1828), I found the crevices in the interior 



some 



streamin 



and steep walls of the crater. Paradoxical, therefore, as it 



mass 



preserved from melting, by the singular accident of a current 



of lava flowing over it. 



If, then, 



may 



volcanic sand and lava, the store of w^ater which Eecupero 



somewhere 



mountain, seems sufficiently accounted for. 



am 



mor 



thought worth recording;. 



mountaineer 



him tliat the 



water was boiling, that it was as salt as the sea, and that 

 it brought down with it sea-shells to the coast. 



Now 



be seen that the hypothesis above suggested would very 

 naturally account for the water being hot, and it may have 

 heen impregnated with saline matter exhaled from fumeroles 



from 



may 



com- 



As 



S 



to the story of the marine shells, if the flood, after issuin^ 

 from the Val del Bove, cut deeply through the superficial 

 lava or the alluvium between Milo and Giarre, it may h 

 reached some of the beds of the subiacent Newer Plioc 



