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Cir. XXIV. | 



VOLCANIC EKUPTIONS OP ISCHIA 



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plants lias been so vigorous, that botanists have scarcely 

 been able to recognise the species. 



The eruption which dislodged the Syracusan colony is sup- 

 posed to have given rise to that mighty current which forms 



Fig. 61 



Part of Ischia seen from the West. From a drawing by Gr. P. Scrope. 



a. Monte Epomeo. 



c. Another of the minor cones with a crater.* 



/;. Monte Vico 



the promontory of Zaro and Caruso. The surface of these 

 lavas is still very arid and bristling, and is covered with 

 black scoriae ; so that it is not without great labour that 

 human industry has redeemed some small spots, and con- 

 verted them into vineyards. Upon the produce of these 

 vineyards the population of the island is almost entirely 

 supported. It amounted when I was first there, in 1828, to 

 about twenty-five thousand, and was on the increase. 



From the date of the great eruption last alluded to, down 

 to our own time, Ischia has enjoyed tranquillity, with the 

 exception of one emission of lava hereafter to be described, 

 which, although, it occasioned much local damage, does not 



appear to have devastated the whole country, in the manner 

 of more ancient explosions. There are, upon the whole, on 

 different parts of Epomeo, or scattered through the lower 

 tracts of Ischia, twelve considerable volcanic cones which 

 have been thrown up since the island was raised above the 

 surface of the deep ; and many streams of lava may have 

 flowed, like that of <Arso' in 1302, without cones having 

 been produced ; so that this island may, for ages before the 

 period of the remotest traditions, have served as a safety- 



* See a. Poulett Scrope, Geol. Trans. 2d series, vol. ii. pi. 34. 



