Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/174

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PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY.
[Book II.

sells, the mountain Chimsera burns, and indeed with a continual flame, day and night[1]. Ctesias of Cnidos informs us, that this lire is kindled by water, while it is extinguished by earth and by hay[2]. In the same country of Lycia, the mountains of Hephasstius, when touched with a flaming torch,[3], burn so violently, that even the stones in the river and the sand burn, while actually in the water: this fire is also increased by rain. If a person makes furrows in the ground with a stick which has been kindled at this fire, it is said that a stream of flame will follow it. The summit of Cophantus, in Bactria[4], burns during the night; and this is the case in Media and at Sittacene[5], on the borders of Persia; likewise in Susa, at the White Tower, from fifteen apertures[6], the greatest of which also burns in the daytime. The plain of Babylon throws up flame from a place like a fishpond[7], an acre in extent. Near Hesperium, a mountain of the Æthiopians[8], the fields shine in the night-time like stars ; the same thing takes place in the territory of the Megalopo-

    that the number of extinct volcanos is considerably greater than those now in action.

  1. ↑ Chimæra was a volcano in Lycia, not far from the Xanthus; the circumstance of its summit emitting flame, while its sides were the resort of various savage animals, probably gave rise to the fabulous story of the Centaur of this name, a ferocious monster who was continually vomiting forth flame.
  2. ↑ The word in the text is "fœnum"; Hardoum suggests that the meaning of the author may have been Htter, or the refuse of stables. Lemaire, i. 454.
  3. ↑ The emission of a gas, which may be kindled by the apphcation of flame, is a phænomenon of no very rare occurrence ; but the effects are, no doubt, much exaggerated. See the remarks of Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 454.
  4. ↑ The country of the Bactrians was a district to the S.E, of the Caspian Sea, and to the north of the sources of the Indus, nearly corresponding to the modern Bucharia.
  5. ↑ There would appear to be some uncertainty as to the locality of this place: our author derived his statement from the writer of the treatise de Mirab. Auscult.
  6. ↑ "Caminis."
  7. ↑ Probably the crater of a former volcano.
  8. ↑ This mountain, as well as the Θεῶν ὄχημα, mentioned below, has been supposed to be situated on the west of Africa, near Sierra Leone, or Cape Verd; but, as I conceive, without sufficient authority. See Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 455.
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