Through the mountain vent came the black smoke and lurid glow from
the fires of Vulcan's forge. This old myth is in many respects more
consonant with the facts of nature than myths usually are. In agreement
with the theory of its internal forces, the mountain in question was
given the name of Volcano. To-day it is scarcely known at all, but its
name clings to all the fire-breathing mountains of the earth.
As before said, at the present day we are little in advance of the
ancients in actual knowledge of what is going on so far beneath our
feet. We speak of forces where they spoke of fettered giants, but can
only form theories where they formed myths. Is the earth's centre made
up of liquid fire? Does its rock crust resemble the thick ice crust on
the Arctic Seas, or is the earth, as later scientists believe, solid to
the core? Is it heated so fiercely, miles below our feet, that at every
release of pressure the solid rock bursts into molten lava? Is the steam
from the contact of underground rivers and deep-lying fires the origin
of the terrible rending powers of the volcano's depths? Truly we can
answer none of these questions with assurance, and can only guess
and conjecture from the few facts open to us what lies concealed far
beneath.
RARITY OF ANCIENT ACCOUNTS
In the history of earthquakes nothing is more remarkable than the
extreme fewness of those recorded before the beginning of the Christian
era, in comparison with those that have been registered since that time.
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