coo 



VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS OF ISCHIA. 



[Ch. XXIV. 



eruptions. First the Erythraeans, and afterwards the Chal- 



mentioned 



quakes and igneous exhalations. A colony was afterwards 

 established by Hiero, king of Syracuse, about 380 years 

 before the Christian era ; but when they had built a fortress, 

 they were compelled by an eruption to fly, and never again 

 returned. Strabo tells us that Timseus recorded a tradition 



moun 



tain 



vomited 



earthquakes; that the land between it and the coast had 



matter 



that the sea receded for the distance of three stadia, and then 

 returning, overflowed the island. This eruption is supposed 

 by some to have been that which formed the crater of Monte 



omeo 



the lava-current of which may still be traced, by aid of the 



urface 



To one of the subsequent eruptions in the lower parts of 

 the isle, which caused the expulsion of the first Greek colony, 

 Monte Eotaro has been attributed, and it bears every mark 

 of recent origin. The cone, which I examined in 1828. is 



remarkably perfect, and has a crater on its summit pre- 

 cisely resembling that of Monte Nuovo near Naples ; but the 

 hill is larger, and resembles some of the more considerable 

 cones of single eruption near Clermont in Auvero-ne and 



some 



base, instead of its summit. A small ravine swept out by a 

 torrent exposes the structure of the cone, which is composed 



innumerable 



of 



o 



pumice, scoriae, white lapilli, and enormous ai 

 trachyte. These last have evidently been thrown out by 

 violent explosions, like those which in 1822 launched from 

 Vesuvius a mass of augitic lava, of many tons' weight, to 

 the distance of three miles, which fell in the garden of 

 Prince Ottajano. The cone of Eotaro is covered with the 

 arbutus, and other beautiful evergreens. Such is the streno-th 

 of the virgin soil, that the shrubs have become almost 

 arborescent ; and the growth of some of the smaller wild 







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