408

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

oilier volcanic mountains! ■ Wliat could ever have given;rise- to . so :absurd :‘and preposterous i an ; idea,' I. cannotconceive! All mounts and.mountains of.volcanic origin,are formed preciselyAn . the :same;wav,;and' all must.be ofthe. same’ angle -of. elevation ’until altered. :by -rains, and;winds. Earth or stones (not smooth spheres): being allowedto fall gradually on the ground will’form a leone, the sides,of which .must, through a natural law, assume a. constantangle of . elevation, which' angle, is,', if I remember.; rightly,that of thirty-three degrees. This , can easily be seen by anhour glass, t A* volcanic. explosion takes place ; the scoriaestones, cinders, .'&c., ' are : projected .upwards, and in fall-ing form a cone just like that of the sand in an.hour, glass,with the only difference of its being hollow : The. sides of theinterior inverted cone. or. crater 'having of necessity thesame inclination'as the exterior... Thus in.'the. formationof the far greater number of the islands of our globe, ameruption first took place at the. bottom of the sea. Thematter, falling down again forms a cone, which at length isseen above the surface and finally becomes an' Island . Theangle of a cone formed' under water is not quite the sameas that produced An the. air ;..but. I .do: not remember,the difference which : I ascertained by experiment to exist:Before I forget: it, I will state that I one ' day:: took , abasket full of oysters from Fusaro and:cast them into thebay of Baja, on-a bottom'.covered..with’ rocks and ruins,with about five : fathoms water,; about half a mile. fromMontenuovo, in a.line: with, it and Nero’s bridge. :. Shouldany person who reads this book ever visit Baja; Iidoubt.notbut they will find a large, track covered with the produceof the oysters l east in therein 1810. # ■

* From the convex formation of the bottom shell, oysters 'are sureto fall and settle with’their top'shell uppermost. In the oppositeposition they, cannot live.