,
p. 58, Casaub.; and Appian, 'De Bello Civili', v., 114. The blame which
Aristotle throws on the geognostical fantasies of the Phaedo ('Meteor.',
ii., 2, 19) is especially applied to the sources of the rivers flowing over
the earth's surface. The distinct statement of Plato, that "in Sicily
eruptions of wet mud precede the glowing (lava) stream," is very remarkable.
Observations on Aetna could not have led to such a statement, unless pumice
and ashes, formed into a mud-like mass by admixture with melted snow and
water, during the volcano-electric storm in the crater of eruption, were
mistaken for ejected mud. It is more probable that Plato's streams of moist
mud ([Greek words]) originated in a faint recollection of the salses (mud
volcanoes) of Agrigentum, which, as I have already mentioned, eject
argillaceous mud with a loud noise. It is much to be regretted, in
reference to this subject, that the work of Theophrastus [Greek words] 'On
the Volcanic Stream in Sicily', to which Diog. Laert., v., 49, refers, has
not come down to us.
p 238
The different volcanoes over the earth's surface, when they are considered
independently of all climatic differences, are acutely and
characteristically classified as central and linear volcanoes.
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