OCR Text |
Show VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN ISCIIIA, 327 vent was in a state of inactivity. 'l~errinc convulsions then took place from time to time in Ischia (Pithecusa), and seem to have extended to the neighbouring isle of Procida (Prochyta), for Strabo* mentions a story of the latter having been torn asunder from Ischia; and Pliny t derives its name from its having been poured forth by an eruption from Ischia. So violent were the eartHquakes and volcanic explosions to which Ischia was subject, that Typhon the giant, "from whose eyes and mouth fire proceeded, and who hurled stones to heaven with a loud and hollow noise," was said to lie buried beneath it. The present circumference of the island along the water's edge is eighteen miles, its length from west to east about five, and its breadth from north to south three miles. Several Greek colonies which settled there before the Christian era were compelled to abandon it in consequence of the violence of the eruptions. First the Erythrreans, and afterwards the Chalcidians, are mentioned as having been driven out by earthquakes and igneous exhalations. A colony was afterwards established by Hiero, king of Syracuse, about three hundred and eighty years before the Christian era; but when they had built a fortress, they were compelled by an eruption to fly, and never again returned. Strabo tells us that ~rimreus recorded a tradition that a little before his time Epomeus, the principal mountain in the centre of the island, vomited fire during great earthquakes; that the land between it and the coast had ejected much fiery matter which flowed into the sea, anrl that the sea receded for the distance of three stadia, and then returning, overflowed the island. This eruption is supposed by some to have been that which formed the crater of Monte Corvo on one of the higher flanks of Epomeo, above Foria, the lava-current of which may still be traced, by aid of the scorire on its surface, from the crater to the ·sea. To one of the subsequent eruptions in the lower parts of the isle, which caused the expulsion of the first Greek colony, Monte Rotaro has been attributed, and it bears every mark of recent origin. The cone is remarkably perfect, and has a crater on its summit precisely resembling that of Monte Nuovo; but the hill is larger, and resembles some of the more considerable cones of single eruption near Clermont in • Lib. v. t Nat, Hist., lib, iii., c. 6. |