234 NICOLAUS STENO 



permitted to affirm aught about a subject otherwise so little 

 known as are the functions of things. 



4. That the extension of crests of mountains, or chains, as 

 some prefer to call them, along the lines of certain definite 

 zones of the earth, accords with neither reason nor experience.^ 



5. That mountains can be overthrown, and fields carried 

 over from one side of a high road across to the other; that 

 peaks of mountains can be raised and lowered, that the earth 

 can be opened and closed again, and that other things of this 

 kind occur which those who in their reading of history wish to 

 escape the name of credulous, consider myths.^ 



PASSAGE-WAYS FOR THINGS ISSUING FROM THE EARTH 



The same alteration in the position of strata affords a pas- 

 sage-way for things issuing from the earth, such as : 



1. Waters, which are shut up in mountain caves away from 

 the air, gushing forth on the mountains, whether those waters 

 come from subterranean reservoirs, or have been condensed 

 in a place away from the upper air and then ejected. And this 

 I believe to be very common, since in many caverns I have 

 observed that everything both above and below was solid though 

 the water nevertheless trickled there abundantly. 



2. Winds breaking forth from mountains, whether those 



the sea coasts or in districts remote from the sea, by the force of winds ; these no longer held 

 in check by the valleys, but set free, heap up the sand and dust, which they gather from 

 all sides, to one spot, and a mass arises and grows together. If time and space allow, it grows 

 together and hardens, but if it be not allowed (and in truth this is more often the case), the 

 same force again scatters the sand far and wide. . . . 



"Then, on the other hand, an earthquake either rends and tears away part of a mountain, 

 or engulfs and devours the whole mountain in some fearful chasm. In this way it is recorded 

 the Cybotus was destroyed, and it is believed that within the memory of man an island under 

 the rule of Denmark disappeared. Historians tell us that Taygetus suffered a loss in this way, 

 and that Therasia was swallowed up with the island of Thera. Thus it is clear that water and 

 the powerful winds produce mountains, and also scatter and destroy them. Fire only con- 

 sumes them, and does not produce at all, for part of the mountains — usually the inner part — 

 takes fire." 



1 Steno is not referring to mountain-chains in the modern sense of the term ; he is reject- 

 ing Kircher's theory of chains running from north to south and east to west over the 

 entire surface of the earth. This is set forth in Mundus Subterraneus, Amstelodami (1665), 

 Vol. I, c. ix, p. 68 ff. Cf. Maar, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 337. 



^ For a modern exposition of Tuscan earth features, see Murchison, Geological Structure of 

 the Alps, in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. S (1849), pp. 157-312, especially 

 pp. 263-308. 



