Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 118

Table of Contents

Among the wonders of mountains there is Ætna, which always burns in the night707, and for so long a period has always had materials for combustion, being in the winter buried in snow, and having the ashes which it has ejected covered with frost. Nor is it in this mountain alone that nature rages, threatening to consume the earth708; in Phaselis, the mountain Chimæra burns, and indeed with a continual flame, day and night709. Ctesias of Cnidos informs us, that this fire is kindled by water, while it is extinguished by earth and by hay710. In the same country of Lycia, the mountains of Hephæstius, when touched with a flaming torch711, 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 Bactria712, burns during the night; and this is the case in Media and at Sittacene713, on the borders of Persia; likewise in Susa, at the White Tower, from fifteen apertures714, the greatest of which also burns in the daytime. The plain of Babylon throws up flame from a place like a fish-pond715, an acre in extent. Near Hesperium, a mountain of the Æthiopians716, the fields shine in the night-time like stars; the same thing takes place in the territory of the Megalopolitani. This fire, however, is internal717, mild, and not burning the foliage of a dense wood which is over it718. There is also the crater of Nymphæum719, which is always burning, in the neighbourhood of a cold fountain, and which, according to Theopompus, presages direful calamities to the inhabitants of Apollonia720. It is increased by rain721, and it throws out bitumen, which, becoming mixed with the fountain, renders it unfit to be tasted; it is, at other times, the weakest of all the bitumens. But what are these compared to other wonders? Hiera, one of the Æolian isles, in the middle of the sea, near Italy, together with the sea itself, during the Social war, burned for several days722, until expiation was made, by a deputation from the senate. There is a hill in Æthiopia called Θεῶν ὄχημα723, which burns with the greatest violence, throwing out flame that consumes everything, like the sun724. In so many places, and with so many fires, does nature burn the earth!