140 
PLI^TT'S IS^ATUEAL HISTOET. 
[Book II. 
selis, tlie mountain Chimsera burns, and indeed with a con- 
tinual flame, day and night^ . Ctesias of Cnidos informs us, 
that this fire is kindled by water, while it is extinguished 
by earth and by hay^. In the same country of Lycia, the 
mountains of Hephgestius, when touched with a flaming 
torch ^, burn so violently, that even the stones in the river 
and the sand burn, while actually in the water : this fire is 
also increased by rain. If a person makes furrows in the 
ground with a stick which has been kindled at this fire, it 
is said that a stream of flame will follow it. The summit of 
Cophantus, in Bactria"^, burns during the night ; and this is 
the case in Media and at Sittacene^, on the borders of Per- 
sia ; likewise in Susa, at the White Tower, from fifteen aper- 
tures^, the greatest of which also burns in the daytime. 
The plain of Babylon throws up flame from a place like a fish- 
pond^, an acre in extent. Xear Hesperium, a mountain of 
the Ethiopians', the fields shine in the night-time like stars ; 
the same thing takes place in the territory of the Megalopo- 
that the number of extinct volcanos is considerably greater than those 
now in action. 
1 Cliimsera was a volcano in Lycia, not far from the Xanthus ; the 
cu'cumstance of its smnmit emitting flame, while its sides w^ere the resort 
of various savage animals, probably gave rise to the fabulous story of the 
Centaur of this name, a ferocious monster who was continually vomiting 
forth flame. 
^ The word in the text is " foenum " ; Hardouin suggests that the 
meaning of the author may have been htter, or the refuse of stables. 
Lemaire, i. 454. 
3 The emission of a gas, which may be kindled by the application of 
flame, is a phsenomenon of no very rare occurrence ; but the efiects are, 
no doubt, much exaggerated. See the remarks of Alexandre in Lemaire, 
i. 454. 
4 The country of the Bactrians was a district to the S.E. of the Caspian 
Sea, and to the north of the som'ces of the Indus, nearly corresponding 
to the modern Bucharia. 
^ There would appear to be some uncertainty as to the locahty of this 
place : our author derived his statement from the writer of the treatise 
de Mirab. Auscult. 
6 " Caminis." ' 
7 Probably the crater of a former volcano. 
^ This mountain, as well as the Qeujv oxvf^^i mentioned below, has 
been supposed to be situated on the west of Africa, near Sierra Leone, or 
Cape Yerd ; but, as I conceive, without sufiicient authority. See Alex- 
andre in Lemaire, i. 455. 
