', ii., 89, 17-19) of the upheaval
of islands of eruption: "The heaving of the earth does not cease till the
wind [(Greek word)] which occasions the shocks has made its escape into the
crust of the earth. It is not long ago since this actually happened at
Heraclea in Pontus, and a similar event formerly occurred at Hiera, one of
the Aeolian Islands. A portion of the earth swelled up, and with loud noise
rose into the form of a hill, till the mighty urging blast [(Greek word)]
found an outlet, and ejected sparks and ashes which covered the neighborhood
of Lipari, and even extended to several Italian cities." In this
description, the vesicular distension of the earth's crust (a stage at which
many trachytic mountains have remained) is very well distinguished from the
eruption itself. Strabo, lib. i., p. 59 (Casaubon), likewise describes the
phenomenon as it occurred at Methone: near the town, in the Bay of
Hermione, there arose a flaming eruption; a fiery mountain, seven (?) stadia
in height, was then thrown up, which during the day was inaccessible from
its heat and sulphureous stench, but at night evolved an agreeable odor (?)
, and was so hot that the sea boiled for a distance of five stadia, and was
turbid for full twenty stadia, and also was filled with detached masses of
rock.
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