Page:The Philosophy of Earthquakes, Natural and Religious.djvu/44

 40 this is altogether contrary to experience. For, as the celebrated naturalist: Buffon observes, such are not extensive, as are near Ætna and Vesuvius. He further adds: Histoire naturelle, tom. 1. p. 508. speaking, among many others, of a vulcano in the island of Ternate, he remarks, "That this burning gulph is less agitated when the air is calm, and the season mild, than in storms and hurricanes; and says, "This confirms what I have said in my foregoing discourse, and seems evidently to prove, that the fire which makes vulcano's comes not from the bottom of mountains, but from the tops, or at least from a very little depth; and that the hearth (or floor) of the fire is not far from the summit of the vulcano's; for, if this was not the case, great winds could not contribute to their conflagration." And this, in general, is a corroborative proof of my whole hypothesis. For there can be no great fire in the earth, where there is no great conveyance of air.

We have one vulcano in the cold region of Iceland, and there is sometimes an earthquake there; but, in the countries of that northern latitude, and those of lesser, 'tis obvious in all history, that earthquakes are less frequent than in the more southern. Therefore 'tis easy, and very natural to conclude, from all