274 Notice of Active and Extinct Volcanos. 



progress vegetation has made upon their surface, and the extra- 

 ordinary difference that exists in this respect seems to indicate, 

 that the mountain, to which they owe their origin, must have 

 been in a state of activity, if not at a period antecedent to the 

 commencement of the present order of things, at least at a dis- 

 tance of time exceedingly remote." 



" The silence of Homer on the subject of the eruptions of Et- 

 na is indeed often quoted in proof of the more modern date of 

 this volcano ; but to such negative evidence we have to oppose 

 the positive statement of Diodorus Siculus, who notices an erup- 

 tion long anterior to the age of this poet, as he says that the Si- 

 cani, who with the exception of the fabulous Cyclops and Lestri- 

 gons, were the first inhabitants of the island, and who are admit- 

 ted on all sides to have possessed it considerably before the Tro- 

 jan war, deserted the neighborhood of Mount Etna in conse- 

 quence of the terror caused by the eruptions of the volcano. 



" This is confirmed by Dionysius Halicarnassus, who states 

 that the Siculi, who passed over from Magna Graecia about eighty 

 years before the Trojan war, first took possession of that part of 

 the island which had been deserted by the Sicanians, so that it is 

 probable that the mountain was at that period tolerably tranquil, 

 and supposing no eruption to have taken place from that time 

 till the age of Homer, it is by no means unlikely, that in a bar- 

 barous age, the tradition of events so remote may have been in 

 great measure effaced, and thus have never reached the ears of 

 the Greek poet. 



" The earliest historian by whom the volcano has been noti- 

 ced is Thucydides, who says, that up to the date of the Pelopon- 

 nesian war, which commenced in the year 431 B. C. three erup- 

 tions had taken place from Mount Etna, since Sicily was peopled 

 by the Greeks. It is probably to one of these that Pindar has 

 alluded in his first Pythian Ode, written according to Heyne in 

 consequence of the victory obtained by Hiero in the year 470 B. 

 C. It may be remarked that this poet particularly speaks of the 

 streams of lava which if we may judge from Vesuvius, are less 

 usual concomitants of the first eruptions of a volcano. 



" Diodorus Siculus mentions an eruption subsequent to the 

 above, namely in the 96th Olymp. or 396 years B. C. which stop- 

 ped the Carthaginian army in their march against Syracuse. 

 The stream may be seen on the eastern slope of the mountain 

 near Giarre, extending over a breadth of more than two miles, 

 and having a length of twenty-four from the summit of the moun- 

 tain to its final termination in the sea. The spot in question is 

 called the Bosco di Aci ; it contains many large trees, and has a 

 partial coating of vegetable mould, and it is seen that this torrent 

 covered lavas of an older date which existed on the spot. 



