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Read Ebook: The Early Oxford Press A Bibliography of Printing and Publishing at Oxford '1468'-1640; With Notes Appendixes and Illustrations by Madan Falconer
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A Brief Account of the Principal Varieties of Volcanic Rocks 259-265
Index 268
" 3. Volcanic Cone of Orizaba " 21
Map of the World, showing Active and Extinct Volcanoes " 23
" 4. Teneriffe, seen from the Ocean " 31
" 5. View of the Summit of Teneriffe " 35
" 6. Probable Aspect of Vesuvius at Beginning of Christian Era " 43
" 7. View of Vesuvius before 1767 " 50
" 8. Map of District bordering Bay of Naples " 52
" 9. View of Vesuvius in 1872 " 53
" 10. Ideal Section through Etna " 63
" 11. Map of the Lipari Islands " 70
" 12. The Island of Vulcano in Eruption " 71
" 13. Ideal Section through Gulf of Santorin " 76
" 14. Bird's-eye View of Gulf of Santorin " 79
" 15. Ground Plan of Rocca Monfina " 80
" 16. Geological Section of Tiber Valley at Rome " 88
" 17. Generalised Section Through the Vale of Clermont " 93
" 19. Mont Demise, seen from the S.E. " 103
" 20. Sketch Map of Rhenish Area in the Miocene Epoch " 114
" 21. The Volcanic Range of the Siebengebirge " 117
" 22. Section of Extinct Crater of the Roderberg " 120
" 23. Plan and Section of the Laacher See " 122
" 24. Extinct Craters in the Jaul?n " 130
" 25. Mount Shasta " 139
" 26. Forms of Volcanic Tuff-Cones, Auckland " 148
" 27. "The White Rocks," Portrush, Co. Antrim " 157
" 28. Section across the Volcanic Plateau of Antrim " 159
" 29. Section at Templepatrick " 161
" 30. Cliff above the Giant's Causeway " 163
" 31. The Giant's Causeway, Co. Antrim " 165
" 32. "The Chimneys," North Coast of Antrim " 166
" 33. Section at Alt na Searmoin, Mull " 175
" 34. View of the Scuir of Eigg from the East " 181
Map of Volcanic Band of the Moluccas " 200
" 35. Map of the Krakatoa Group of Islands " 203
" 36. Section from Verlaten Island through Krakatoa " 204
" 38. Photograph of the Moon's Surface " 241
" 39. Portion of the Moon's Surface " 243
Volcanoes: Past and Present.
INTRODUCTION.
HISTORIC NOTICES OF VOLCANIC ACTION.
There are no manifestations of the forces of Nature more calculated to inspire us with feelings of awe and admiration than volcanic eruptions preceded or accompanied, as they generally are, by earthquake shocks. Few agents have been so destructive in their effects; and to the real dangers which follow such terrestrial convulsions are to be added the feelings of uncertainty and revulsion which arise from the fact that the earth upon which we tread, and which we have been accustomed to regard as the emblem of stability, may become at any moment the agent of our destruction. It is, therefore, not surprising that the ancient Greeks, who, as well as the Romans, were close observers of the phenomena of Nature, should have investigated the causes of terrestrial disturbances, and should have come to some conclusions upon them in accordance with the light they possessed. These terrible forces presented to the Greeks, who clothed all the operations of Nature in poetic imagery and deified her forces, their poetical and mystical side; and as there was a deity for every natural force, so there was one for earthquakes and volcanoes. Vulcan, the deformed son of Juno , is condemned to pass his days under Mount Etna, fabricating the thunderbolts of Jove, and arms for the gods and great heroes of antiquity.
The Pythagoreans appear to have held the doctrine of a central fire as the source of volcanic phenomena; and in the Dialogues of Plato allusion is made to a subterranean reservoir of lava, which, according to Simplicius, was in accordance with the doctrine of the Pythagoreans which Plato was recounting. Thucydides clearly describes the effect of earthquakes upon coast-lines of the Grecian Archipelago, similar to that which took place in the case of the earthquake of Lisbon, the sea first retiring and afterwards inundating the shore. Pliny supposed that it was by earthquake avulsion that islands were naturally formed. Thus Sicily was torn from Italy, Cyprus from Syria, Euboea from Boeotia, and the rest; but this view was previously enunciated by Aristotle in his "Peri kosmou," where he states that earthquakes have torn to pieces many parts of the earth, while lands have been converted into sea, and that tracts once covered by the sea have been converted into dry land.
The account of the first recorded eruption of Vesuvius has been graphically related by the younger Pliny in his two letters to Tacitus, to which I shall have occasion to refer further on. These bring down the references to volcanic phenomena amongst ancient authors to the commencement of the Christian era; from all of which we may infer that the more enlightened philosophers of antiquity had a general idea that eruptions had their origin in a central fire within the interior of the earth, that volcanic mountains were liable to become dormant for long periods, and afterwards to break out into renewed activity, that there existed a connection between volcanic action and earthquakes, and that volcanoes are safety-valves for the regions around.
The following are some of the more important works on the phenomena of volcanoes and earthquakes published during the present century:--
"Vidi ego, quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus, Esse fretum. Vidi factas ex aequore terras: Et procul ? pelago conchae jacuere marinae; Et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora sumnis. Quodque fuit campus, vallem de cursus aquarum Fecit; et eluvie mons est deductus in aequor: Eque paludosa siccis humus aret arenis; Quaeque sitim tulerant, stagnata paludibus hument. Hic fontes Natura novos emissit, at illuc Clausit: et antiquis concussa tremoribus orbis Fulmina prosiliunt...." --Lib. xv. 262.
Strabo, lib. vi.
Tacitus, lib. vi. 16, 20.
Edin. .
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