Mount Vesuvius 



279 



familiarly called the 

 "L ighthouse of the 

 Mediterranean." 



Still southward, close 

 by the eastern shore of 

 Sicily, rises another vol- 

 cano, also famed in 

 classic myth, and in com- 

 parison to which Vesu- 

 vius is but a mound. 

 Etna is more than 10,000 

 feet in height and has a 

 circumference of 40 

 miles. Like Vesuvius, 

 this vast cone is built 

 chiefly of lavas and ashes 

 coming' to rest about a 

 central pipe or throat 

 leading" up from the 

 depths, but there have 

 also been many small 

 eruptions on the flanks. 

 From time to time cracks 

 open on the sides of the 

 great cone, allowing the 

 escape of lava and cin- 

 ders and causing small 

 cones to be built. Like 

 other great mountains, it 

 has a rugged surface, and rises through 

 several zones of climate, being almost 

 tropical at base, temperate and forested 

 on its middle slopes, and arctic and snowy 

 on its summit. 



In 183 t the sea south of Sicily gave a 

 fine illustration of the volcanic habit of 





^NfM 





j&rrocidia 



From " Physical Geography," by William M. Davis and W. H. Snyder 



Ginn & Co. Copyrighted 



Vesuvius in Eruption 



that great region. At a point where the 

 water was 600 feet deep volcanic mate- 

 rials were cast up until they stood 200 feet 

 above the water. This new island, how- 

 ever, was soon cut away by the sea 

 waves, leaving a shoal where the tran- 

 sient land had been. 



Some good books describing volcanic 

 action are : 



"Introduction to Physical Geography," 

 by G. K. Gilbert and A. P. Brigham (Ap- 

 pletons). 



"Phvsical Geography," by Wm. M. 

 Davis "( Ginn & Co.). 



"Volcanoes of North America," by 

 Israel C. Russell (Putnams). 



"Volcanoes ; their Structure and Sig- 

 nificance," by T. G. Bonney (Putnams). 



"Text Book of Geology," by Sir Archi- 

 bald Geikie (Appletons). 



"Geology," by T. C. Chamberlin and 

 R. D. Salisbury (Henry Holt), 3 vols. 



