are from this led to notice an extraordinary
matter, of which they do not appear themselves
to have seen any symptoms, that so
great a quantity of salt * has been found
tions (Campi Phlegroei, p. 27J on this subject, that “ it
is well attested, that in the great eruption of Vesuvius,
A. D. 1631, several towns, among which were Portici
and Torre del Greco, were destroyed by a torrent of
boiling water having burst out of the mountain with the
lava, by which thousands of lives were lost.”.
* This, as they say, (tom. iii. p. 35.) “ ne contribue
pas peu à confirmer 1’ opinion de la connexion probable
entre la mer et les volcans, tant de ceux qui vomissent
des matières embraseés, que de ceux qui vomissent de
l’eau alternativement. On peut raisonnablement présumer
ces communications entre la mer, les volcans, et les
glaciers de la partie orientale, en raison de leur proximité
de la mer et la profondeur de leurs racines -, ces
montagnes vomissent en effet une bien plus grande
quantité d’eau que la fonte des glaces ne pourrait produire,
et on a même remarqué un goût salin â leurs
eaux. On objectera peut-être, â l’égard du mont Hecla,
qu il peut se trouver dans ses entrailles quantité
de sel de roche j mais ses entrailles vont jusqu’au
niveau de la mer j d’ailleurs indépendamment de l’opinion
généralement accréditée de tant de sa vans de tous les pays,
de la connexion secrète qu’il y a entre l’Etna en Sicile et
1 Hecla, puisque ces deux volcans ont si souvent brûlés
en même temps, on verra nombre d’exemples curieux
qui prouvent la sympathie qu’il y a entre l’Hecla, lors
after its eruptions, as has been sufficient to
load a number of horses. On the night of
the 19th of June, they at length approached
the summit, and found themselves on the
edge of the crater, in a place covered with ice
and snow ; yet not of such a nature as that
of the glaciers, since it generally melts away
in the summer months, excepting only what
de ses éruptions, et les autres volcans de l’Islande plus
éloignés de lui qu’il ne l’est de la mer, et même les plus
éloignés.”—What might be considered as still farther
proving the connection between volcanoes and the ocean
is, that Ætna is related by Seneca in his second book
Naturalium Quoestionum to have thrown out a quantity
of burning sand j so that “ involutus est dies pulvere,
populosque subita nox terruitj” but probably that
philosopher meant nothing more by sand than minute
particles of pulverized matter, a quantity o f which,
resembling gunpowder, was lately shewn me by the
Countess of Gosford, picked up during the last eruption
o f the same mountain (March, 1809), in the very
streets of Messina, fifty miles distant in a straight line,
where it fell in such quantities that several cart-loads
might have been collected.—The most extraordinary
proof of the connection between volcanoes and subterraneous
waters seems to be afforded by Humboldt, who,
in the zoological part of his travels, speaks of the volcanoes
of Quito casting out innumerable quantities of
a species of fish that is found in the streams that run
into the sides of the mountains.