III.—Contributions to the Study of Volcanos

Extract

In no part of Europe, probably, can we find such striking examples of the effects which may be produced by single paroxysmal outbursts of volcanic force, as in the band of igneous rocks which stretches through nearly the whole length of the Italian peninsula, on the western side of, and parallel to the chain of the Apennines. Etna and many of the extinct volcanos of this continent constitute, it is true, mountains of vaster bulk than any in the district to which we have referred; but while the former were evidently built up by the accumulation of the products of igneous forces operating during long periods from the same centres, and with comparatively moderate violence, the enormous craters of the latter bear witness to the occurrence of single outbursts of these forces of far greater intensity.