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in all probability, have had a like effect of raising and dispersing of those 
parts that bounded and imprisoned it. Now, it is evident that the melted 
matter which was vomited out of JEtna in the year sixty-nine (of which we 
have a part now in the repository) was very much like to melted or cast iron , 
and I doubt not but that there may be much of that mineral in it; besides, 
the foot of that mountain does extend even to the very dea, and in all pro¬ 
bability may have caverns under the sea itself, which is argued also from the 
concurrency of the conflagration of Strombolo and Lipary, islands consider¬ 
ably distant by sea, at the same time, it is generally believed that there may 
be subterraneous cavernous passages between them, by which they commu¬ 
nicate to one another; so that sometimes it begins in JEtna, and is commu¬ 
nicated to Strombolo , and reciprocally to MongibeL 
“ This possibly may afford a probable reason why islands are now more 
subject to earthquakes than continents and inland parts; and indeed how so 
many islands came to be dispersed up and down in the sea, namely, for that 
these fermentations may have been caused in the parts of the earth subjacent 
to the sea, which being brought to a head of ripeness, may have taken fire, 
and so have had force enough to raise a sufficient quantity of the earth above 
it, to make its way through the sea, and there make itself a vent, as that of 
the Canaries did in the year thirty-nine, which, if sufficiently copious, may 
produce an island as that did also for a time, though it hath since that time 
again sunk under the surface of the sea:* but the island of McenJon, which, 
* The swallowing up of islands by Volcanos is, we suppose, represented by the story of Pro¬ 
serpine. 
Thus in Sicilia s ever-blooming shade 
When playful Proserpine from Ceres stray’d, 
Led with unwary steps her virgin trains 
O’er JEtna s steeps, and Ennas golden plains; 
Pluck’d with fair hand the silver-blossom’d bower, 
And purpled mead,—herself a fairer flower; 
Sudden, unseen amid the twilight glade. 
Rush’d gloomy Dis, and seiz’d the trembling maid. 
Her starting damsels sprung from mossy seats. 
Dropp’d from their gauzy laps the gather’d sweets, 
Clung round the struggling nymph, with piercing cries 
Pursu’d the chariot, and invok’d the skies;— 
Pleas’d as he grasps her with his iron arms, 
Frights with soft sighs, with tender words alarms, 
The wheels descending roll’d in smoky rings. 
Infernal Cupids flapp’d their demon wings; 
Earth with deep yawn receiv’d the fair, amaz’d. 
And far in night, celestial beauty blaz’d. 
2 L 
Darwin, 
