The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-30
VOLCANOES AND EARTHQUAKES.

and Earthquakes
Nature has Of late been calling attention, in
her most emphatic accents, to the persistence
and the intensity of her subterranesn fires.
What had come to be regarded as the exag-
gerations, If not the mythical inventions, OF
an age when science was yet unborn, have
been forced upon us with reality, and even
a degree of dread, to which the most advanced
science Of our day has to lend an ear, half of
curiosity, half of bewilderment Those who
are for ever agape for novelties and marvels,
whether on the part of nature or of mankind,
may find daily stimulants to sensation IN so
many villages overrun by the lava OF We
suvius, or 80 many scores of thousands swal-
lowed up alive by the rending soil OF Peru.
Now we may expect the prophecy -monger to
have IL all his own way. What with earth
uuakes telegraphed every morning In divers
places, and the palpable shaking of the stars
of heaven witnessed to us in the reports of
the November meteors, we ought surely to
see DR.. Cumming bestir himself II he would
not have some junior aspirant to prophetic
honors finally fix for him the date of the COM
ing of the end. Meanwhile, people OF less
imagination, or less impatient for the drawing
of the veil OF the future world, will give stu
dious and careful heed to the grand, and in
many respects to the mysterious, phenomena
which are Just now manifest in nature. Num-
bers will be interested in the causes which
science islprepared to assign for these unusually
stupendous displays OF physical force. Falling
in oppOrtunely with this state of interest and
expectancy in the public mind, the
little work which Mrs. Norman Lockyer has
lust given us has claim to favorable oonsi-
deration. "Volcans ct Tremblements de
Terre," by NM. Zurcher and Margol6, forms
one volume of the well-ohosen and agreeably-
written series, the "Bibliotheque des Mer-
veilles," whereby Messrs. Hachette are wont
to cater with judgment and success for the
growing appetite of the public for a know
ledge of natures more striking phenomena.
The clear and graphic illustrations in wood,
by M. Riou, have been employed in the en-
bellishment of the English version. As a
popular summary of the more prominent facts
and theories connected with this sublime
branch Of terrestrial physics we cannot readily
point to a publication which embodies more
systematically or expresses more clearly what
readers beyond the pale of special or technical
culture are likely to be DESTROYS OF knowing.
Without pretending to the depth or precision
Of scientific treatise in the strioter sense,
this little manual comprises q rapid historical
survey of the principal recorded earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions. The compilers have
not indeed carried back their historical ken to
the remote and often seemingl ly fabulous range
OF the Indian or Chinese chronicles They
have contented themselves with the nearer
guilty. The frontispiece forms a vivid and
speaking accompaniment to the well-known
words in which the younger Pliny depicts the
most memorable of all catastrophes of this
kind. The list of eruptions from that fixed
date is carried down almost to the margin of the
striking series Of outbreaks which ust now
keep scientific expectation on tenter-hooks.
Upwards of dozen eruptions of what may be
termed the first class can be- thus enumerated.
Since that of A. d. 70, the most remarkable
epochs were those of 204, 479, 512, 6S5, 993,
1886, 1876. After the violent one of 1916,
Vesuvius remained inactive for nearly 500
years. At the opening of the seventeenth
century the summit had the form of large
basin, which, according to the testimony of
travellers, was covered with old oaks, ches-
nuts, and maple trees. In December, 1851,
the volcano opened anew below the Atrio del
Cavallo, the great depression which separates
the crater from the Somme. A great portion of
the mountain fell in, and the stream of lava,
sweeping away houses and villages, ran into
the sea near Portici. In 1856 aud 1877
the cone underwent repeated changes of form.
In 1897 the river of lava described by Sir W.
Hamilton, 1900 feet wide and IA feet deep,
flowed three miles and half, and extended
into the sea 600 feet! Humboldt in 1922 has
described the tremendous falling in of the
cone, which rose to q height of 2lS yards
above the floor of the crater, when for days
the air for miles round was darkened by
clouds of ashes and lapiLL, and people walked
about with lanterns as at Quito during the
eruptions of Pichincha. In 1850 large blocks
of granite were borne down the noun
tain side by the torrent of lava. Not
having the original at hand, we are
at a loss whether to charge upon the authors
or the translator the amazing exaggeration of
making the plateau formed by this stream "a
kind OF cyclopean rampant raised more than
fve miles above the plain where the torrent
stopped The authors themselves have
visited the mountain, and add their personal
description TO the scientific records persistently
kept by Professor Palmieri for the greater part
of the range of contemporary observation.
The destruction of life and property caused
by Etna has never equalled that due to Vesu-
Vius. Greater prudence, for one reason, has
here been observed in pitching human habita-
tiOns so near the mouth of danger. Consider
able damage has, Notwithstanding, been done
to Catania and the neighboring villages by the
frequent eruptions which. local history has to
record. From the time of fierce activity noted
by Virgil, the mountain seems to have taken
some centuries Of rest. But during the last
eight centuries eruptions have been both fire.
quent and severe. Dislocations have been
thereby occasioned to such an extent, that at
the present time no fewer than 200 secondary
beds can be counted on the sides of the
mountain. The principal cone rises 5000 yards
above the sea, its smoking summit enveloped
in snow. The long and deep ravine on its
eastern side reaching to the seattle cele-
brated Val del Bove--is explained by Mr..
Poulett Scrope as ga vast fssure enlarged into
a crater by some paroxysmal eruption which
blew out OF the heart of the mountain, and
since widened by the abrasive violence OF
aqueous d6bdcteS, caused by the sudden melt