all the mighty Arguments and wondrous Products and effects of Subterraneous fires In so much that we want not History to report to us That heretofore it all burnt from Cuma and Visuvius in Campania or Terra di Lavoro even to Histria not far from Venice and therefore to have been called by the most ancient Inhabitants thereof The burnt Country And indeed Italy is every way disposed for such vast Combustions As with straitness and narrowness of scituation whereby it is continually dash'd and struck with the beating of waters and waves between two Seas with subterraneous passages and cavernous hollow windings and turnings easily penetrable and passable to fires and winds And lastly with plenty of sulphureous materials wherewith the whole luxuriously abounds In so much that it burns in certain places above ground on the surface of the Earth For in all the Southern parts of Italy from the utmost Coasts of Sicily to the very Confines of Tuscany in some places are seen perpetual burnings as in Aetna In other Conflagrations by times as in the Vulcanello's or Liparitan Islands and over against Naples as in Ischia Prochyta Pythacusa and also in the Mountains of the Continent Vesuvius Misenum the Puteoli and Cuma which often burn and in certain places shew great Aestuaries with abounding fires fumes vapours baths winding labyrinths also every where obvious as Kircher with greatest diligence observed and gapes with burrow'd breathing-holes which when they send forth a blast presently not without terrour of standers-by are perceived more inward crackings as it were of burning and blazing fires and sounds of waters as in the Phlegraean Hills which surround the Vulcanian Plains commonly called Sulphatara or Land of Sulphur is to be seen and heard Also the Sybell's Den at Cuma not far distant and most mighty horrid Gapings and Recesses impenetrable and not to be entred for their raging heat give further assurances All Campania every where on it's Plains carries ancient foot-steps of the same Conflagrations The ground every where parch'd like Cinders and Pumis-stones and a dust which they call the Puteolan like Pouder And extinct Coals included in living Rocks From Puteoli pass to Campagna di Roma which is full of sulphurous Crater's through the Minturnan Marshes to Sulmo whence a continued Mine of Sulphur through the Roman Plain exerts it self in divers places but chiefly in a certain Lake of unsearchable profundity four miles distant from the City Tivoli as also the most famous of the sixteen swimming Islands thereabouts which they call the Barchettae or little Barks Out of which the sulphureous River of Tyber has its origine and seems to have been famous heretofore for hot Bath's Hence a burrow of subterraneous sire bends back to the Round Mountain And thence into divers branches One part whereof tends to the Stiglian Bath's and the Lake in the middle Wood horrible with stench of Brimstone and for the spectacle of Waters boyling and bubling up in the form of a Column and at length through the neighbour Mountains where are also hidden pits of Serpents full of Aestuaries and smoking Funnels or Chimneys and even to the very hundred Cells All which places lavish with sulphurous Bitumen and unctuous materials and so terminate in the Sea The other branch towards the Mountain Rosea between which and Roncilion new sulphurean Fire-Cups break forth which have their occult communications with the Mountain Viterbo and with the Village Vico and are famous for sulphurean boyling Springs And indeed the Mountain Viterbo seems yet to cherish a great force of fire under most profound Dens which it diffuses at its Roots on the Morthern-side towards Viterbium into all the Plain which is full of a most sulphureous Gas The Glebes every where parch'd and covered with Pumice-stones and has innumerable hot Fountains among which Bullicamum is most famous for its intollerable fervour This hath a great commerce with another neighbour Lake between Viterbium and the Mountain Flasco where Water breaking forth from the bottom of the Lake does mightily tumultuate And which is wonderful to relate here are beheld two Fountains together distant scarce one pace whereof one dances and leaps with most hot and boyling the other with most cold and freezing water Hence a burrow of subterraneous fire through whole Tuscany diffusing it self into innumerable branches scarce leaves any place free from sulphureous Cups and Mineral waters Sith Tuscany on that side looking towards the Tuscan Sea even to the Island Ilva the whole Country every where bubbles with hot waters or luxuriously abounds with sulphureous Mines of Iron or Brass under which are indeed memorable the stinking Ditches and Pools of Volterra stuffed with servid and bubling Waters And the Mines of the best Sulphur at Castro On the other part towards the East a Burrow of Fire extended far and wide chiefly exerts it self under the Mountain called Vivo where it causes the famous Baths of St. Cossian and St. Philip and hence stretches it self towards those called the Avignion Baths even to the Mountain Politiano where a plentiful quantity of Mineral Waters with the grievousest stench bubbles up And hence on one side even to the Apennine which is also replenish'd with Aestuaries or raging Gulphs on the other to Siena in Tuscany and the neighboring parts adjoyning to the Sea And even to the Confines of Genoa and the fields of Luca which abound with so many Metals so many sulphurous Wells and Fountains of hot and fervid Water as perhaps all Italy hath not the like Yet most of all the Breathing-holes of subterraneous fire burst out in the Apennine Hills at Petra Mala and neighbouring places where the Air sparkles and glitters by night and 't is thick with darkness and smoak for a long time as it were from some flaming furnace underneath and heats the waters that are cast in and burns stubble Now this Fountain seems to have continual veins even to the Porretan waters in the Bononion fields Hills whereof every where sparkle and lighten by night And hence seems to be poured into the fields of Modena where liquor of Bitumen and Sulphur and Fire rages after a wonderful manner And hence continues the burnings of its fuel even to Histria of the Venetians For that these Mountains of Padua as ancient Historians testifie did heretofore burn about the Baths of Albano in the Paduan fields both the bubling Tracts of Hills and Ashes and the external surface of Pumice-stones as also burnt and cindred Coals and the fervor of stones which make the very waters running between hot do sufficiently shew Which things seeing they are so it may be truly a certain Argument to us that all Italy universally is stor'd with continual matter of Sulphur a Burrow of which as it does any where more or less far and wide stretch forth its branches so it extends them under the Sea also to adjacent Islands and according to the singular and peculiar
an Abysse or bottomless Gulph For on June the 26th in the year 1638 formidable Earthquakes began to make the universal Island shake and quake for the space of eight dayes so that the Cities Towns and Castles being deserted Men were forc'd to dwell in the open Fields chiefly those of Vargen where the Earthquakes raged more dangerously than in other places After which Earthquakes succeeded the following Prodigy Six miles distant from the Pick commonly called the Pick of Camerine is a place called Ferreira where Fisher-men with their Boats were wont to fish especially in the Summer-time For there in a dayes time they caught such a multitude of Fish of all kinds as no Boat returned laden with less than ten thousand Fish In this tract therefore of the Ocean on Saturday in the month of July in the year 1638 Fire broke forth with such an unexpressible violence notwithstanding the depth of the said place of the Ocean found often heretofore by the Fishers to be an 120 foot deep that indeed the very Ocean would not suffice to éxtinguish so great a burning The space which the boyling fire took up was as great as would serve for the sowing of two Bushels of Wheat breaking forth with so great violence that notwithstanding the said profundity of the Ocean it reach'd as high as the Clouds being elevated into the supream Region of the Air carrying with it the very Water Sand Earth Stones and other mighty heaps just like Featherbeds flying up into the Air. Which afar off appear'd a sad spectacle to Beholders But the melted matter returning down into the Sea again resembled a kind of Pultis or Frumenty Moreover it is to be ascribed to the benignity of the Divine Providence that at that time the Wind was terrestrial rushing forth from the parts of the Island against the rage of the outragious Fire without which the whole Island had without doubt been burnt and perished with this formidable combustion Then presently after it cast forth stones of such vast bigness of the height of three Lances or piked Staves that you would say not Stones but entire Mountains were cast out And this was added to the horror That the stony Mountains which were cast forth on high falling back again and meeting and dashing against others thrown out aloft at a good distance out of the bowels of the Sea broke into a thousand pieces with a terrible noise and ratling which afterwards being took up into your hands mouldred into a black Sand. Moreover out of the various and vast multitude of rejected Offalls and the collection and heaping together of innumerable stones a new Island arose and that even in the midst of the most deep Ocean In the beginning indeed little of five Acres only but daily encreasing grew to such a bigness that four dayes after it took up the length of five miles And so great a multitude of Fish perished with this burning as scarce eight Ships of Indian Burden could contain which being dispersed far and wide up and down the Island lest they should cause some Contagion by their putrisaction they were collected together by the Inhabitants all about and buried in most deep-dugg ditches for eighteen miles round about But the scent of Sulphur was smelt for the space of twenty four miles This from the Relation of the Fathers of the Society These visible instances of particular Burnings of the Earth are notable presumptions that there are laid in the hidden Mines of Providence such a provision of combustible matter as will serve for an Universal Conflagration of the Earth when the day of Vengeance shall make use of these Treasuries of Wrath. We might add further Arguments of Subterraneous Fires and the Fewel thereof from Earthquakes and hot Fountains Of which there are some in Peru as Acosta reports that are so hot that a Man cannot endure his hand so long as the repeating of an Ave-Marie There be infinite numbers of these in the Province of Charchas He makes mention also in the same place of several Springs and Fountains that run with Pitch and Rosin Which yet seems nothing so strange as those Baths Fallopius speaks of in the Territories of Parma whose Water catches Fire at a distance But these are something from our present design and therefore pass them by CHAP. V. Of the Remarkables of the Italian Vulcano's and their prodigious Eruptions in particular with particular Relations HOw Italy of all Lands especially Continents has been most notorious for Vulcanian Eruptions and Combustions has already been observed It remains therefore now only to take notice of the most remarkable which are those about Putzol with the Phlegraean Plain now called Sulfatara and the Vesuvian All within the Kingdom of Naples which has near communication and commerce with the Aetnaean in Sicily namely in Terra di Lavoro which Land was anciently called Campania Foelix from the wonderful fertility thereof So exceeding fruitful in Wines and Wheat that it is called by Florus the Land of Strife between Bachus Ceres and deservedly For in this noble Region one may see large and beautiful Fields overshaded with rich Vines thick and delightful Woods sweet Fountains and most wholsom Springs of running Waters as well for health as delight and pleasure and in a word whatsoever a covetous mind can possibly aim at or a carnal covet And yet all this Campania as before was shew'd is or has been obnoxious to Fires and abounds with sulphureous and combustible Earth and Materials which no doubt tend to its fructification To begin with the Phlegraean fields Concerning which Hear first what Mr. Sandys in his Travels sayes Vulcan's Court described The Court of Vulcan call'd the Phlegraean fields heretofore for that Hercules here overthrew the Gyants for their inhumanity and insolencies assisted with Lightning from Heaven Th' Earth with imbowell'd Flames yet fuming glows And Water with Fire Sulphur mixt upthrows Whereupon grew the Fable of their warring with the Godds But hear we Petronius describing it A place deep sunk in yawning Cliffs 'twixt great Dicharchea and Parthenope repleat With black Cocytus waves For Winds that strain To rush forth there a deadly heat contain Th' Earth fruits in Autumn bears not nor glad Field Once puts on Green or sprouting branches yield Their Vernal Songs But Chaos and ragg'd Stone Smircht with black Pumice there rejoyce o'regrown With mournful Cypress Dis his head here raises Cover'd with Ashes pale and Funeral blazes A naked Level it is in form of an Oval twelve hundred forty and six foot long a thousand broad and invironed with high cliffie hills that fume on each side and have their Sulphurous savour transported by the Winds to places far distant You would think and no doubt think truly that the hungry Fire had made this Valley with continual feeding which breaks out in a number of places And strange it seemeth to a stranger that men dare walk up and down with so great a security The
An Imaginary Idea or Type of Subterraneous ffire houses whose Breath holes as it were the Vulcanian Mountains only are An Imaginary Idea or Type of Subterraneous ffire mixt with water and of the protrusion of waters through Subterraneous Aquaeducts out of the Sea and into the water houses of mountains the Concoction of Subterrestrial waters through ffire-ducts THE VULCANO'S OR Burning and Fire-vomiting MOUNTAINS Famous in the World VVith their REMARKABLES Collected for the most part out of KIRCHER'S Subterraneous World And expos'd to more general view in English upon the Relation of the late Wonderful and Prodigious Eruptions of AETNA Thereby to occasion greater admirations of the Wonders of Nature and of the God of Nature in the mighty Element of Fire Res semper aliquid apportat novi None sadlier knows the unresisted Ire Then Thou Poor London of th' all-raging Fire But these occasion'd kindlings are but Blazes To th' mighty Burnings which fierce Nature raises If then a Town or Hills blaze be so dire What will be th' last and universal Fire Licensed and Entred according to Order London Printed by J. Darby for John Allen and are to be sold by him at the White Horse in Wentworth Street near Bell Lane And by Benjamin Billingsly at the Printing-Press in Broad-street near Gresham-Colledg 1669. The Epistle to the READER HEre are presented to thee in English the most wonderful most prodigious and even miraculous Operations of Nature in the Geocosm or Terrestrial World 'T is confess'd 't is not an exact or compil'd History But rather a scatter'd Collection of Historical Relations by others of most remarkable passages Which so came to pass First upon so fair an occasion given by the late incredible Eruptions of Aetna and past all belief Had they not been confirmed by so honourable a Testimony past all mistrust And yet there were not wanting some such Persons so unknowing and faithless as to question notwithstanding at first all for a Rodamontado or Isle of Pines c. Therefore secondly also by reason of so general and universal Ignorance of these Matters found among our Countreymen as sufficiently appeared at the first coming forth of that wonderful Relation As if some such strange thing had hapned as never before in the World at least never so great so prodigious and portentous That therefore men might be more generally acquainted with the Wonders of Nature in this particular also of Fire has this been undertaken And then because there had yet been none in English of the Subject for the general information of men or of such as were desirious to know fuller of these matters And yet there is a method sufficient for an exact History Nor is there any thing Material or Remarkable that is not in brief at least taken notice of Lastly The Subject and Argument so admirable and curious may excuse other defects For that not so much the Philosophy of these Matters yet there is a sprinkling of that too as occasionally it occur'd in our Author as the mighty Effects and Things themselves are here intended for the English Reader 'T is therefore an Historical Narration of the Worlds Volcano's and their Wonders and Remarkables But for the grand Literado's and such as are past their English Tongue let them be satisfied that it was never calculated for men of their Degree and Elevation So not to weary thee with Complements of a long Epistle or to hang out Invitations of greater pretences then realities we leave thee to what entertainment the Book it self will afford And if thou findst any occasion not to repent of so much time and labour as the perusal By so much the farther will the Author be from repenting of his pains or thinking his labour lost that is for no good or benefit to his Countreymen in Englishing so wonderful things He presumes to say Read and admire and take the pleasure thereof Farewel The Explication of the Schemes out of Kircher I. THE Central Fire A through certain Fire-ducts or Channels diffuses round about every where far and near fiery exhalations and spirits These driven into the Water-houses it partly disposes into hot Baths partly attenuates or rarifies into vapours which dashing as it were against the Arches or Vaults of Concavous Dens and condens'd by the coldness of the place and lastly dissolved into Waters generate Fountains and Rivers and then partly derived into fit Matrices and Receptacles fruitful of other kind of Juyces of several Minerals contract fast together and harden into Metallick Bodies or else are ordered for a new Conception and fructifying of combustible Matter to nourish and still feed and maintain the Fire You see there also how the Sea by the Winds and pressure of the Air or motion of the aestuating Tides ejaculate and cast forth the Waters through Subterraneous or under-ground Burrows into the highest Water-houses of the Mountains You see also the Sea and the Plains in the utmost surface of the Earth to take place next to the Subterraneous World and the Air next to them as the Scheme teaches Yet you are not to imagine that the Fires and Waters c. are really thus disposed in Nature underground For whoever has seen them But this onely was to signifie according to the best imagination of the Author that they are after some well-ordered and artificial or organiz'd way or other contriv'd by Nature and that the Under-ground World is a well fram'd House with distinct Rooms Cellars and Store-houses by great Art and Wisdom fitted together and not as many think a confused and jumbled heap or Chaos of things as it were of Stones Bricks Wood and other Materials as the rubbish of a decayed House or an House not yet made And to the perpetuation of these hidden and unsearchable operations of Nature there is a constant circulation and return round thereof The Constellations Sun Moon and Stars cause the reciprocal slowings and Tides of the Sea to and fro By the impetuousness of the Seas rage and Tides an immense bulk of Waters being through hid and occult passages at the bottom of the Ocean protruded or thrust forcibly into the intimate bowels of the Earth excites and stirs up also Subterraneous Fire by the impetuousness of Winds and restores it with new conveyance of Nutriment The Subterraneous Fire not knowing how to be idle being enkindled by the reciprocation or return to and fro of the Tides as it were by certain Bellows and raging does by these and those and the other Fibres or Veins of occult passages which are replenished with Metallick and Mineral Juyces carry whiles it passes by an huge plenty of vapors with it self which protruded partly through the Terrestrial Conveyances of the Mountains partly through the bottom of the Ocean into the uttermost Surface and there dilated and spread wider do again with their blasts solicite and provoke the Air the Ocean and Seas And what is again insinuated through the Orifices of the Oceans bottom doth
fumes and fiery Waters as it were out of Furnaces But now the very Plains no otherwise then the Phlegraean Hills being exhausted with perpetual flames are cavernous with an infinite number of holes and are every where yellowish with a sulphureous matter and colour The soil also when it is touch'd by such as walk thereupon sounds and rattles like a Drum as it were by reason of the concavities and you may feel as it were not without astonishment boyling waters under your feet and thick and fired fumes to hiss and flow hither and thither with a great crackling noise through Pipes and Subterraneous Caverns made by the force of the hot Exhalations VVhich force how great it is you may try by stopping any hole with a heavy stone or so for then you shall see the violent force of the smoke presently to belch it forth again Yet an huge Laky-ditch in the same Plain did wonderfully affect me For it is found full of boyling waters and ready to fright one with their blackness You would say it was a Kettle or Caldron boyling with Pitch and Rosin VVhich forthwith changes place and the waters growing hard on the brim of the Caldron is made narrower or wider as the force and impetuousness of the Exhalation is greater or lesser That also is wonderful That that swallowing Gulph casts forth waters on high eight or ten foot above a mans height in the fashion of a Pyramid and those fat and clayie and almost of a sulphureous colour VVhich even the Inhabitants of Putzol do confess who affirm that these boyling waters are shot forth on high to sixteen or even twenty four palm height sometimes And this especially when the Sea rages but not so likewise when it is calm A most clear sign certainly that these marvellous effects of the exalted liquor proceed from no where else but from the Sea For the Sea being tossed with the storms of winds whilst through subterraneous passages it sollicites as it were the Steward or dispenser of this melted liquid matter 't is no wonder that a Liquor not knowing how to contain it self in its own narrow bounds should be darted forth on high beyond its limits constituted thereunto by nature By so much indeed the more violently by how much the impetuous afflux of the Sea thrusts it forth with greater violence Yea and the divers colour of the waters at that time compounded of the various mixture of the sea-Sea-water with the various mixture of the Mineral Juices Namely of those waters which from the more profound boyling Springs of the Earth the subterraneous winds agitated by the ragings of the Sea and growing stronger and stronger amidst the slames belch forth does plainly teach But the Sea being still calm none of these things are perceiv'd but the waters are only beheld sat or oyly and filthy with a black coaly soot together with a certain effervency or boyling What shall I say of the Mountains and Rocks with which this Vulcanian Plain is encompassed and guarded There are beheld in these conveyances or passages as it were of Chimneys not a few breathing-holes some of which belch forth a perpetual wind with a formidable sound and crackling noise and with such a force that if you cast a stone thereinto it being struck back presently you shall receive it cast forth again with great force Some dart forth smoak mixt with flames You would think your self almost in the midst of Hell where all things appear horrid sad and lamentable with a most formidable face of things Also you are almost struck even breathless with the stench of Sulphur Bitumen Napthe and other Earths Clayes Marles and Minerals And yet although the place be so horrid yet those who labour in making of Sulphur Niter Vitriol c. reap much profit thereby Further We must not omit here Mr. Sandys's relation of a most memorable both Earthquake and Burning which happened not far from these Plains near unto the City Putzol in the year 1538. with the new-formed Mountain For the famous Lake Lucrinus near Putzol extended formerly it seems indeed to have been joyn'd with it on one side to the deadly sulphureous Lake Avernus suppos'd the entrance into Hell by ignorant Antiquity where they offered infernal sacrifice to Pluto and the Manes there said to give Answers is now no other than a little sedgy plash choak'd up by the horrible and astonishing cruption of the new Mountain whereof as oft as I think I am easie to credit whatsoever is wonderful For who here knows not or who elsewhere will believe that a Mountain should atise partly out of a Lake and partly out of the Sea in one day and a night unto such an height as to contend in altitude with the high Mountains adjoyning In the year of our Lord 1538 on the 29th of September when for certain dayes foregoing the Country hereabout was so vexed with perpetual Earthquakes as no one house was left so intire as not to expect an immediate ruine After that the Sea had retired two hundred paces from the thoar leaving abundance of Fish and Springs of fresh-water rising in the bottom this Mountain visibly ascended about the second hour of the night with an hideous roaring horribly vomiting stones and such store of cinders as overwhelmed all the buildings hereabout and the salubrious Baths of Tripergula for so many ages celebrated consumed the Vines to Ashes killing Bird and Beasts The fearful inhabitants of Putzol flying through the dark with their wives and children naked defiled crying out and detesting their calamities Manifold mischiefs had they suffered by the Barbarous yet none like this which Nature inslicted But hear we it describ'd by Borgius What gloomy fumes dayes glorious Eye obscure The pitchy Lake effus'd through Sulphury Caves Higher than Aetna's Fire throws flaming waves Hath Phleg'ton broke into Avern with groans Whirling the horrid flouds and rumbling stones The Baian waves resound fresh streams ascend And several wayes their speedy currents bend Misenus lets his Trumpet fall scarce heard Sick Prochyta a second ruine fear'd Loud roarings from Earths smoaking womb arise And fill with fearful groans the darkned Skies A sad sour face doth menace from the West Whence sharper plagues the Latian Towns infest Then furious Winds to Skies huge stones eject Which like a Compass turn'd about erect A round Amphitheatral Flouds of Stone From belching Gulf in Millions straight forth thrown Nor can what they then suffered be ever forgotten having such a testimony still in view as is this strange Mountain advancing his top a mile above his basis The stones hereof are so light and pory that they will not sink when thrown into the water The cause of this accident is ascribed unto the neighbourhood of the Sea and hollowness of the soil whereby easily engendred exhallations being hurried about with a most violent motion do inflame that dry and bituminous matter casting it upward and making way for their fiery expirations To
supply'd with new and new food alwayes And how the Pumices Cinders and Ashes and the other refuses of burnt matter should in succession of time be converted into new materials fit for fires Which knot that it may be untied You may remember that before elsewhere we shewed how that to the conservation of Nature in its perpetual constant course there was a necessity of an everlasting circulation and return round of things In the Heavens the Elements the Air Water Earth and its several sorts soils and Minerals c. even with the very Fire also and its materials and nutriment As appears in the perpetual wheeling round of the Planets and Stars by a constant and inviolable Law of Nature so many thousands of years The perpetual motion and mutation of the Elements alwayes unvariable in the greatest variety of things The perpetual circulation of waters both within and about the Earth All Rivers come from the Sea and return to the Sea again as Solomon the Wise hath confirm'd to us The Sun dries up the vapours of the Sea the vapours are received into rain and return back to the Earth and Sea again Elegantly expressed by Ovid The Earth resolv'd is turned into streams Water to Air the purer Air to slames From whence they back return The fiery flakes Are turn'd to Air The Air thickned takes The Liquid form of Water That Earth makes Or as Dubartas has it The purest humour in the Sea the Sun Exhales i' th Air which there resolv'd anon Return to Water and descend again By sundry wayes into his Mother Main Many therefore wondring whilst they behold Aetna burning so many thousand years how the Mountain should not be consumed by so long and lasting Burnings Nor the Fire ever extinct But Bursting wide ope its Fornace Mouth still streams With melted stones still spues out Globes of Flames And by a thousand Fires as Virgil exprest it before It spending still the fewel which it burns Yet still to former strength afresh returns These certainly if they understood the circling operations of Nature would not so strangely admire when as food is never at any time wanting thereto to perpetuate the Burnings The Fires burn the Mountain and convert the Miscellany or mixture of combustible matter into Ashes Out of the Ashes mixt with Water a new food and nourishment of everlasting Fire is generated Omnia continuo rapidos virtuntur in orbes Naturâ motus perpetuante suos Which may be englished out of our Incomparable Cowly altering a word from his extravagant allusion to drinking Nothing in Nature's constant found But an Eternal course goes round This premised I take for granted First That a great plenty of Salt lies hid in the Ashes which even from hence is proved That Salt is no wayes more easily got than from a Lixive or Lee of things reduced into Ashes By this means Nitre Salt Allom in some more moist places breaking or springing out of the walls and sides as also in the dunging-places of Pidgeons and other Animals first vegitated and quickned with Urine is dug forth in most plentiful store and abundance I suppose for granted Secondly That out of the humid Sea tinctured and seasoned with a fat saltishness and mixture of other Mineral things an huge quantity of Exhalations together with the spirits and insensible corpuseles of the said things are extracted by vertue of the Sun Which being both extrinsecally resolved into Rain Hail Snows settle about the top of the highest Mountains and also intrinsecally deriv'd through subterraneous passages of the Sea do fertilize the matter of the Fire-houses under ground with new provant These things supposed I say That the Fire perpetually powerful and waxing strong in its Store-houses is also by occult fibres and veins of the Sea insinuating and entering underneath perpetually augmented whilst that it replenishes and recruits the matter consum'd away with fire as are the Ashes and the most porous stones of Pumices with a Sulphureous Soot and Bituminous Spirits And in some measure prepares and disposes it for an enkindling and inflamation But when by the melting of the Hail and Snow both with the fervent heat of the Sun and also with the heat of so near Fire lurking within and by the coming on of Rain the Dust and Ashes be soaked through with a most plentiful bewetting From hence a certain mixt matter is propagated which insinuated more deeply within the porous recesles and spaces of the Pumice-stones And then Sulphureous and Bituminous Spirits which but now lately lodged there intervening to their help at length ends presently as soon as it is waxen ripe in a new food and nourishment of the Fire And that this is so I found by an irrefragable experiment in the brinks and edges of the Valleys of Aetna Vesuvius and Strongylus burnt up with Fire in most of the Cindry and Ashy walls and sides of which I found an immense quantity of Salt Allom and Niere springing forth In some also a slowing and gushing forth of Bitumen Napththe and the like fat oily liquors together her with a most copious quantity of Sulphur Which have their original from no where else but partly out of the Cinders of combust and burnt things from which must necessarily be begot a new off-spring and succession of Salt and Nitre Partly from the Sulphureous corpuseles or spirits which while they continually exhale from the lowest Gulph of the Mountain are condensed into Sulphur in the more cold climate of the Mountain And so that mixt matter is generated cut of Salt Nitre ' Allom Bitumen ' and Sulphur which insinuated as hath been said into the pores of the Calx or Calcined Lime or Ashes of the burnt and adust Pumice and Stones it administers that perpetual and everlasting fuel and food of Fire which we have hitherto inquired after For this corrupted by the Fire as it prepares new burnings so the fat and sulphureous matter being burnt up which lurk'd and lay dormant within the Pumices undergo some respits or truces as it were Till the capacity of the Pumices and the remaining Calx or Calcined Ashes be replenished again as was said with the like new birth of combustible matter But now what happens in the exteriour and outmost surface of Aetna It 's certain the same is effected in all other slammivomous Mountains Nature carrying it self after the same manner alwayes Yea he that shall more narrowly and throughly dive into these things he cannot be ignorant that the process of Nature which we have expressed in the exteriour surface of the Mountain but that it keeps the same course and tenour or order in its intimate and inmost Fire-houses or Receptacles Corallary II. Hence it follows That the food and fuel of Subterraneous Fire follows the Motion of the Sea raging with a perpetual reciprocation of Flux and Reflux For from the concitation and commotion of the Tide The Sea being thrust through occult passages and Burrows at its bottom as
from Thunder and Lightnings not from any other efficient but from the very subterraneous fire it self making its way unto them through hidden passages of the Rocks which it burns Or if they be not immediately touched by actual Fire then certainly from the Marine waves and billows intruded by the force and impetuousness of the Winds through the Submarine gutters and chinks at the bottom of the Sea For that it cannot be that from the vehement dashing of the billows in strait and narrow places and the agitation of the spirits of combustible matter thereby and the attrition or striking of the sat and Sulphureous Air that they should not presently conceive Fire Of the Liparitan or Vulcanian Islands adjoyning commonly called the Vulcanello's West of Sicily in the Tuscan Sea but South and within sight of Messina an hundred and fifty miles distant from Aetna are the Aeolian Islands so called from Aeolus King thereof He taught at first the use of the Sail and by observing the Fire and Smoak that ascended from these Islands for heretofore they all of them slamed prognosticated of Storms to come And thence the occasion of the Fable of Aeolus's being Godd and King of the Winds for us admirable skill and invention that way Of these anciently there were Seven only But now are Eleven 't is like made since out of the excessive burnings of the other as 't is said of the little one called Vulcanello almost of an equal magnitude Yet Liparis is the greatest being ten miles in circuit as also the most famous to which the others were subject And hence they are now call'd the Liparitan and Vulcanian Islands or Vulcanello's Its fruitful and abounding with Bitumen Sulphur and Alumne having hot Baths much frequented by the diseased The Fire here went out about an Age agoe having as is to be supposed consumed the matter that fed it But at this day Strombolo only burns and that with ragings not inferior to the Aetnaean or Vesuvian Yet Volcano smokes continually from Subterraneous Fires They are said heretofore to have burnt wholly together with the Mountains and Sea as Strabo witnesses Volcano formerly call'd Hiera is a little Island burning in the midst of the Sea where Antiquity placed Vulcans Shop or Forge Because of the Fires seen by night and abundance of smoak by day And therefore received its name from its nature consecrated formerly to Vulcan and called his Mansion It is said but first to have appeared above water about the time that Scipio Africanus dyed A barren Island stony and uninhabited It had three Tunnels wherewith it evaporated Fire But now hath but one out of which it smoaketh continually and casts out stones with an horrible roaring It was heretofore all on Fire and the Sea round about for some dayes together which Pliny reports as a known truth and an instance neer at hand And has not ceased to be on a flame since as it were a Mountain of flames only in the midst of the Sea For even in the year of our Lord 1444 on the 5th of February it flamed so abundantly and flung forth fire and stones with such an hideous noise that not only the rest of the Islands but also Sicily trembled thereat Perhaps the last blaze For now flame it doth not but retaineth the rest of its terrours But now Strombolo is the most notorious at this day Here the Inhabitants formerly were wont from the Smoak to predict what Winds would blow Where Aeolus also the first so skilled therein was King c. as before It was formerly call'd Strongyle corrupted at last into Stromboli from the rotundity thereof For it seem no other than an high round Mountain in the Sea out of the top whereof issueth continnally a flame like a burning Beacon and exceeding clearly so that by night especially it is to be discern'd a wonderful way A place so full of horrour to the Neighbouring-Islanders And yet in those parts where the Rage of the Fire offendeth not it is of a very fruitfull Soyl and apt for Tillage and many others of the Ignoranter Romish Catholicks conceive it and such like places to be the Jaws of Hell it self and that within the damned Souls are tormented To which purpose the good Catholicks who are excellent at pious frauds and tales have or rather have rais'd a pretty Story of Sir Thomas Gresham London's most glorious Benefactor which we shall by and by transcribe out of Mr. Sandys's Travels verbatim True it is he was full of pious and charitable good works and bublick Benefactures in his latter dayes But upon such an occasion as this Story pretends we have not the least reason to believe For surely all our Histories and Memories could never have been wholly silent thereof and of a thing so publickly attested before the King c. But to return to the business again Kircher in the said often mentioned year 1638 thought good also to examine among others of these Islands those two chief ones Volcano and Stromboli And Stromboli indeed for the fierceness and outrages of its Fires which it continually vomited was guarded from all access But Volcano making Truces and Intervals with the Aestuaries discover'd nothing else besides Smoak Yet it hath an Island adjoyning call'd Volcanello annexed to Volcano which they relate to have been generated of the rejected refuses and offalls of the Mountain which it belch'd forth out of the last burning thereof perhaps that in the year 1444 a little before mentioned All the Island springs and abounds with Sulphur Nitre Bitumen Yea and the very bottom of the Sea is burrow'd through with innumerable Caverns and Tunnels or Trunks which both the Vortices or Whirlpools and also the frequency of Winds bursting forth and puffing the Sea after a wonderful manner do shew And this made our Author as himself acknowledges that he could in no wise dissent from those who say There are Submarine Mines and Burrows under the Sea which correspond with Aetna and thence by continued passages and conveyances through the concavous spaces of the Back of Appenine with Vesuvius which he a present and Eye-witness found most true in the said year 1638. when in his return home from these Travels he was driven on the Coasts of Terra di Lavoro in the Kingdom of Naples which he found almost reduced unto utter ruine and desolation at the same time by most horrible Earthquakes wherein he very narrowly escaped himself with his life and accordingly hath writ very sensibly and feelingly thereof too large for this place But on a certain day more curiously viewing Stromboli at this time about sixty miles distant he observ'd it to be more than ordinarily furious For it appear'd wholly overwhelm'd with Fire in so great plenty that it seem'd to belch out flamy Mountains A most horrendous spectacle And then heard I know not what kind of dull murmur from the Mountain so far off which time after time seem'd to grow towards them through
convey new Provanr to the Subterraneous Fire to nourish and conserve it and by this means also doth supply new matter to provoke and stir up the Sea again as but now was declar'd You see therefore the manner and way of the Circulation of Nature You see how Water Fire Fire Water mutually as it were cherish one another and by a certain unanimous consent conspire to the Conservation of the Geocosm or Terrestrial World For if Subterraneous Fire should emit no vapours for matters of Winds The Sea as it were torpid and void of motion would go into a putridness to the ruine of the whole Globe And consequently destitute of the aid of Winds could neither also succour Subterraneous Fire with necessary nutriment Whence the Fire extinct being the life of the Macrocosm as spiritous blood is of the Microcosm Universal Nature must necessarily perish Lest therefore Nature undergoing so great a detriment should fail Hereupon God most good and great by provident Nature the Hand-maid of the Supream Work-master would have both Elements be in a perpetual Motion for admirable ends elsewhere shewn For the Water sliding through the secret passages under ground supplies moisture and together therewith carries a mixture of Terrestrial portions to the Fire-houses for their food And these again swelling with hot Spirits carried upwards and elevated through wonted Fire-ducts do with their heat cherish the Water-houses and other kind of Receptacles whether of Air or several Juyces of Minerals and Earths for there are Store-houses of all under ground and do animate them for the Generation both of Minerals and also of Vegetables to be promoted or furthered by exhalations And so in an everlasting and circulatory motion all things which are beheld in Nature do exist and abide And so Subterraneous Fire together with Water are the Effectors and Generators we may say of all things c. II. This Scheme expresses the Nests of Heat only or which is all one the Fire-houses variously distributed through the Universal Bowels of the Earth by the admirable Workmanship of God lest any where should be wanting what would be so greatly necessary to the Conversation of the Geocosm But let none perswade himself as if the Fires were constituted as here represented and the Fire-houses forthwith disposed in that order In no wise this We would onely hereby shew that the bowels of the Earth are full of Aestuaries that is places overflown and raging with Fire which we call Under-ground Fire-houses or Conservatories whether after such or any other manner disposed From the Centre therefore we have deduc'd the Fire through all the Paths to be supposed of the Terrestrial World even to the very Vulcanian Mountains themselves in the Exteriour Surface The Central Fire is signed with the letter A. The rest are the Aestuaries or Fire-houses signed with B. The Fire-ducts C. But the least Channels are Fissures or clests of the Earth which the Fiery Spirits pass and make their way through A. The Central Fire B. The Fire-houses C. The Fire-ducts Fissures of the Earth the rest The TABLE CHAP. I. Of Subterraneous Fire-houses That is Abysses or deep Storehouses of Fire or if you will Aestuaries that is places overslown and raging with or as it were Creeks of Fire underground CHAP. II. Of the Volcano's or Ignovomous that is Fire-vomiting Mountains in General CHAP. III. Of the Manifold Volcano's of Italy in Particular CHAP. IV. Of the Remakables of Volcano's and their Eruptions in General CHAP. V. Of the Remarkables of the Volcano's of Italy and their notorious Eruptions in particular c. Viz. Of the Phlegraean Plains or Volcano's Court. Of the Mountain Vesuvius c. CHAP. VI. Of the Prodigious and Wonderful Aetna in Special and of the Vulcanian Islands adjoyning Aetna's Crater or Fire-Cup A Chronicle of Aetna's Fires c. Of the Volcanello's Strombolo and Volcano c. A sad story of a Spanish Priest c. A foolish Story of Sir Thomas Gresham The VULCANO'S OR Mountains vomiting Fire famous in the World with their Remarkables CHAP. I. Of Subterraneous Abysses and Conservatories or Store-houses of Fire the Original Cause and Sourse of all fiery Eruptions and Vulcano's THAT there are Subterraneous Conservatories and Treasuries of Fire even as well as there are of Water and Air c. and vast Abysses and bottomless Gulphs in the Bowels and very Entrals of the Earth stored therewith no sober Philosopher can deny If he do but consider the prodigious Vulcano's or fire-belching Mountains the eruptions of sulphurous fires not only out of the Earth but also out of the very Sea the multitude and variety of hot Baths every where occurring And that they have their sourse and birth-place not in the Air not in the Water nay nor as the Vulgar perswade themselves not at the bottom of the Mountains but in the very in-most privy-Chambers and retiring places of the Earth is as reasonable to think And there Vulcan as it were to have his Elaboratories Shops and Forges in the profoundest Bowels of Nature For how else could there be every where such a quantity of Minerals brimstone and sulphurous unctuous matters without any fire and subterraneous burnings of fire-engendring and all concocting nature which by no means can be conceived to be enkindled from the conflicts of air and moisture in those most dark and deep Regions of the Earth so remote from all influence of the Sun Therefore subterraneous fire was necessary to the internal Oeconomy or constitution of as it were the organiz'd parts of the earth and distribution of Life and heat as we may so say to all the exteriour members Plato acknowledges hidden treasuries of ever-flowing flames and most huge Rivers of fires as well as of waters Yea and Aristotle himself affirms most ample sourses as of water so of spirit and fire Also Pliny Vitruvius Cicero have noted this Arcanum of nature for in the bowels of the earth are observed hidden operations of heat and the greatest parts of the world are upheld and sustained by heat underneath We see fire struck forth from the conflict and attrition of stones and the reeking earth to smoke upon every new digging especially if deep And also hot and warm waters drawn out of Wells continually and that chiefly in winter for that a great force of heat is contain'd and pent up within the Caverns of the earth All the Poetick Fables of Vulcan Vesta the Cyclops seem to allude to this subterraneous fire This is the sense of Lucretius singing thus The Earth contains within it's Womb First Seeds whence th' Sea and flowing Rivers come In constant course Sources of Fire it has For burning Soyls we see in many a place But above all Aetna's impetuous Cell Rages with flames from th' lowest pit of Hell And Manilius But with all parts the Fires mingled are Quick Lightning in the teeming Clouds of th' Air They gender Pierce the Earth whence Aetna's Mountains Dare Heaven Also
from St. Irene the famous Virgin and Martyr worshipped there For Baronius himself in his Ecclesiastick Annals of the year 726. seems to give credit to Pliny For thus he speaks A vapor was seen to bubble forth out of a Chimny of Fire between the Islands Thera and Therasia or Santorin from the very bottom of the Sea for some dayes whereby the burning of the fiery heat by little and little being condensed and dilated or spread it all shewed like a fiery flaming smoak Moreover with the vastness of its earthy substance it conveyed hugeous Rocky-Pumice-stones and certain great heaps through all Asia and Lesbos and Abydus and the Maretime Coasts of Macedonia so that the whole surface of the Sea was filled with these Pumices But in the middle of so great a Fire there was an Island made from the heaping and congestion of Earth together and joyn'd to the Island called the Sacred which never existed before The like we understood happened in the year 1457 from certain Verses ingraved on Marble for the perpetual Memory of the thing which near the Gate of the Castle Scarus of the said Island run to this purpose Viz. 1547. Magnanimous Francis the Heroes undoubted Off-spring Thou seest with thine eyes what Calamities Wonders By joyning five times eleven unto two on the seventh of the Calends of December With a vast murmur vast Terasia groan'd And pluck'd assunder mighty Camena's stones From the Sea's bottom an huge Rock appears A Monster great and most Memorable for ever Further it appears that there was another Island next to this form'd in the year 1570. not without great Terror of those of Santorin Sith the Burning lasted for a year as some ancient folk who saw it with their Eyes do yet testifie But in the middle of this smaller Island which is now called Little Camena to this very day is beheld an huge and profound ditch which being narrow towards the bottom by little and little inlarges it self round like a funnel out of which as out of a Chimney bursted forth those mighty Stones and Rocks which co-mixed with the Cinders and Ashes built that Bulk or heap appearing aloft But that those Subterraneous Fires which are fed with plenty of Bitumen and Sulphur and sometimes break forth with greatest violence are never extinct is evident from most hot Waters which are found at the Sea-shoar in the furthest South part of the Island and which the Inhabitants use as the most healthfullest Baths to expel diseases sprung from Cold. But if ever those Fires pent up in the bowels of the Earth exercised their force it was most of all then when in the year 1650 on the 24th of September even to the ninth of October they shook that Island with so mighty and so frequent Earthquakes that the people viz. of Santorin fearing nothing but immediate ruin were on their knees night and day before the Altars But it cannot be spoke nor expressed what a fear invaded all when those victorious flames breaking open all obstacles strove to make themselves a way through the midst of the Waters of the Ocean about four miles from Santorin Eastward For that forsooth the Sea swell'd thirty cubits upwards suddenly and extending it self wide through the Neighbouring Lands overturn'd every thing it met in its way In so much that the very Port of Candy which yet is 80 miles distant it broke in pieces with its sudden assault and impetuousness both the Gallies and Ships But the Air infected with those ill-smelling and Sulphureous vapours began to be darkened and put on innumerable forms and appearances Hence brandishing of fiery Lances and flammivomous Swords thence darting forth bright and glittering Arrows Here as it were terrible Serpents and Dragons flying and there hideous Thunder-claps Lightenings and Thunder-bolts were stirred up And yet we could scarce see for the eyes of all beholders were so hurt with those sharp pricking and Sulphureous Smoaks and Vapours that almost all became blind for three dayes so as not only to see nothing but were also seiz'd with so great and so grievous a pain that they wept continually and bewail'd their most miserable lot But when they return'd to their free eyesight they saw all their Silver and Golden both Vessels and Garments and all Pictures drawn over with a yellow colour And such a great multitude of Pumice-stones that fiery Gulph vomitted forth that it covered the whole surface of the Sea so that scarce any one could pass in a Vessel It is most certain that they were convey'd even to Smyrna and Constantinople and all Shoars and Coasts filled therewith Now the force of this burning was greatest the two first months Forasmuch as the Neighbour-Sea seem'd even to bubble like a boyling Pot And night and day huge Globes and flakes of Flames and most thick heaps of furled pitchy Smoak mounted up Which if at any time by an adverse wind were carried to the next places brought besides a most grievous stink destruction both to Birds Beasts yea and to very Men themselves As it happened the ninth of October and fourth of November that fifty Husbandmen choak'd with the smoak and stench most miserably perish'd besides an innumerable multitude of Birds Sheep Oxen and Asses The same happened to nine Mariners who passing by night that way in their Vessel after three dayes were found all half burnt and were buryed in the Island Nio sixty miles distant from Santorine But the other four Months although that Hellish Hearth or Furnace remitted much of its vigor and fierce heat and could scarce lift it self above the waves yet nevertheless it seem'd both to cast out Pumice-stones and even to labour and strive towards the formation of a New Island which although it does not yet appear above Water yet in a calm Sea a shallow Ford is observ'd which the Water swims over scarce eight cubits high But now if it be ask'd Whether yet these Fires are quite allayed 'T is answered That they seem sometimes to revive Sith 't is diligently observ'd that the Sea boyls and rages there very often and sends up smoak with the waves And especially this year 1656 the 11th day of June and three dayes following Even the Geographick Dictionaries also record that both this Santorine and the other little Island by to have arose out of the Sea of late years the one an hundred years since and the other fifty And that the Sea is exceeding deep thereabouts and huge and fearfull Noises to be there heard Italy Sicily together with the neighbouring Islands of the Mediterranean corresponding with them c. are most notorious But of them and their Remarkables and particular Relations by themselves in the next Chapter In the Atlantick Ocean Westward the Azores or Tercera's can scarce be inhabited for the vehemency of Fires and Earthquakes together therewith Which about twenty years since so shook the universal Island of St. Michael and made so great ravagings that it almost wholly sunk in
Earth as hot as sufferable being hollow underneath where the Fire and Water make a horrible rumbling conjoyning together as if one were fuel to the other here and there bubling up as if in a Caldron over a Fornace And sprouting aloft into the Air at such time as the Sea is inraged with tempests In some places of the colour of Water which is mingled with Soot in others as if with Lime according to the complexion of the several Minerals The flames do many times shift places abandoning the old and making new Eruptions the mouths of the vents invironed with yellow cinders arising with so strong a vapour that Stones thrown in are forthwith ejected Yet for all these terrors it is hourly trod upon both by men and horses and resorted unto by the diseased in May June and July who receive the fume at their mouths ears nostrils and such other parts of their bodies as are ill affected which heateth but hurteth not that being only sovereign that evaporateth from Brimstone It mollifieth the sinews sharpneth the sight asswageth the pains of the head and stomach makes the barren pregnant cures violent feavers itches ulcers c. From January to October the Husband-men hereabout do stir their Glebe at such time as much smoak doth arise and that they know that it proceedeth from Sulphur which doth add to the soyl a marvelous fertility From hence they exact yearly three thousand pounds weight Another kind of Sulphur is gotten here not taken from the Fire but found in the Earth of especial use for the dying of Hair and familiarly experimented by Women White Salt-Armoniack is here found also At the foot of this Mountain that regardeth the East are Minerals of Allome and the best of the World In the top of the Mountain are certain little veins of a white matter like Salt much used by Skinners whereof a Water is made that forthwith putteth out all characters that are written in Paper The flower of Brass is here found every where excellent and transparent with white and red Niter This place is said by the Roman Catholicks to be disquieted with Devils and that the fire underneath is a part of Purgatory where departed souls have a temporal punishment The Fryers that dwell hard by in the Monastery of Saint January report that they often do hear fearful shreeks and groanings They tell also a late story of a certain youth of Apulia a Student in Naples who desperate in his fortunes advised with the Devil and was perswaded by him to make him a Deed of Gift of himself and to write it in his own Blood in doing whereof he should in short time recover his losses Believing the Deluder according to appointment he came unto this place with that execrable Writing when afflighted with the multitudes of Devils that appear'd unto him he fled to the aforesaid Monastery and aquainted the Prior with all that happened He communicated it to the Bishop now or late living who informed the Pope thereof by whose command he was cast into Prison and after condemned to the Gallies Possible it is that this may be true but Damianus the reporter of that which followeth though a Cardinal might have had the Whetstone if he had not alledged his Author who telleth of a number of hideous Birds which accustomed to arise from hence on a sudden in the evening of the Sabbath And to be seen until the dawning of the day stalking on the tops of the hills stretching out their wings and pruning their feathers never observ'd to feed nor to be taken by the art of the Fowler when upon the croaking of the Raven that chased them they threw themselves into these filthy waters Said to be damned souls tormented all the week long and suffered to refresh themselves on the Sabbath in honour of our Saviour's Resurrection This he reports from the mouth of the Archbishop Umbertus But if this be Hell what a desperate end made that unhappy German who nor long since slipt into these Fornaces or what had his poor Horse committed that fell in with him that he should be damned at least retained in Purgatory The matter that doth nourish these Subterranean Fires is Sulphure and Bitumen But there it is fed by the latter where the flame doth mix with the water which is not by water to be extinguished approved by the composition of those Ignes Admirabiles or Admirable Waters Nigh hereunto are the ruines of a magnificent Amphitheater environing in an Oval a Court an hundred threescore and twelve feet long and fourscore and eight over thrown down by an Earthquake not many ages since which here happen no seldom by the violence of enflamed and suppressed vapours Dedicated it was to Vulcan and not without cause he seeming in these parts to have such a Sovereignty A latter relation and account we have of these Plains by Kercher which we will give you also and is as follows A Description of the Phlegraean Plain in the Fields of Putzol or Puteoli near Naples by Athanas. Kircher his own Observation An. 1638. In the Year 1638. passing by Naples I could not let slip the opportunity of inquiring and looking into these sulphureous Plains so much celebrated in all Ages Which the Antients called the Phlegraean Plains Having therefore got through a subterraneous passage which they commonly call the Grotte which we have elsewhere describ'd Arched and made hollow or vaulted between the Mountain Pausilippus not far from Putzol between the Jaws of the Mountains a Plain stretched forth far and wide presents it self to view A Plain altogether formidable and full of horror in length they lay 1200 foot in breadth a 1000. Pliny writes that they were called the Phlegraean Plains from their flames and burning for so the word signifies But Cornel. Strabo calls it Vulcan's open Market place publick Theater or Court. For in manner of a huge Theater as it were it sends forth perpetual fires and begets much Sulphur and combustible and inflamable matter and therefore called Sulfatara A place where also some fable the Giants to have been overcome by Hercules Little Hills are beheld there to burn and slame in the very bottom for they alwayes exhale forth great smokes every where with a sulphureous stench through many holes which are carried by the Winds through all the neighbouring Regions even unto Naples also This whole Plain is surrounded with Hills or high steep Rocks whereof the top or Pick once very high being at length devoured by perpetual fires is concluded from the very form of the place to have sunk into a most profound Vale. Therefore that which was once the top is now a deep ditch or hole in a plain Vale. And what were the coasts or sides of the Mountain heretofore are now the tops of Cliffs and Rocks And these heretofore indeed as Dion Cassius witnesleth vomited forth sires and flames in greater quantity The neighbour Mountains also did continually burn and cast forth thick