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Introduction to coding theory 2nd Edition Bierbrauer
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Author(s): Bierbrauer, Jürgen
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 Introduction to
CODING THEORY
Second Edition
 DISCRETE
MATHEMATICS
ITS APPLICATIONS
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 DISCRETE MATHEMATICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS

Introduction to
CODING THEORY
Second Edition

Jürgen Bierbrauer
Michigan Technological University
Houghton, USA
CRC Press
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Title: Introduction to coding theory / Jürgen Bierbrauer.
Description: Second edition. | Boca Raton : Taylor & Francis, 2017. | Series:
Discrete mathematics and its applications | “A CRC title.” | Includes
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To Stella, Daniel and my mother
Contents

Preface xxiii

Acknowledgments xxiv

About the author xxvi

I An elementary introduction to coding 1

1 The concept of coding 3
1.1 Bitstrings and binary operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 The Hamming distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3 Binary codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4 Error-correcting codes in general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.5 The binary symmetric channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.6 The sphere-packing bound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

2 Binary linear codes 23

2.1 The concept of binary linear codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2 Block coding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.3 The effect of coding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.4 Duality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.5 Binary Hamming and Simplex codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.6 Principle of duality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

3 General linear codes 41

3.1 Prime fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.2 Finite fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.3 Linear codes over finite fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.4 Duality and orthogonal arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.5 Weight distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.6 The game of SET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.7 Syndrome decoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

4 Singleton bound and Reed-Solomon codes 71

5 Recursive constructions I 81
5.1 Shortening and puncturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.2 Concatenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

ix
x Contents

6 Universal hashing 93

7 Designs and the binary Golay code 97

8 Shannon entropy 101

9 Asymptotic results 113

10 Three-dimensional codes, projective planes 125

11 Summary and outlook 131

II Theory and applications of codes 133

12 Subfield codes and trace codes 135
12.1 The trace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
12.2 Trace codes and subfield codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
12.3 Galois closed codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
12.4 Automorphism groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

13 Cyclic codes 151

13.1 Some primitive cyclic codes of length 15 . . . . . . . . . . . 151
13.2 Theory of cyclic codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
13.3 Decoding BCH codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
13.4 Constacyclic codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
13.5 Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

14 Recursive constructions, covering radius 189

14.1 Construction X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
14.2 Covering radius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

15 The linear programming method 205

15.1 Introduction to linear programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
15.2 The Fourier transform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
15.3 Some explicit LP bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
15.4 The bound of four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

16 OA in statistics and computer science 239

16.1 OA and independent random variables . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
16.2 Linear shift register sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
16.3 Cryptography and S boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
16.4 Two-point-based sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
16.5 Resilient functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
16.6 Derandomization of algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
16.7 Authentication and universal hashing . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
 Contents xi

17 The geometric description of linear codes 285

17.1 Linear codes as sets of points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
17.2 Quadratic forms, bilinear forms and caps . . . . . . . . . . 312
17.3 Caps: Constructions and bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

18 Additive codes and network codes 349

18.1 Basic constructions and applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
18.2 The cyclic theory of additive codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
18.2.1 Code equivalence and cyclicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
18.2.2 The linear case m = 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
18.3 Additive quaternary codes: The geometric approach . . . . 373
18.4 Quantum codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
18.5 Network codes and subspace codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

III Codes and algebraic curves 395

19 Introduction 397
19.1 Polynomial equations and function fields . . . . . . . . . . . 397
19.2 Places of the rational function field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

20 Function fields, their places and valuations 405

20.1 General facts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
20.2 Divisors and the genus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
20.3 The Riemann-Roch theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
20.4 Some hyperelliptic equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

21 Determining the genus 421

21.1 Algebraic extensions of function fields . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
21.2 The hyperelliptic case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
21.3 The Kloosterman codes and curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
21.4 Subrings and integrality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
21.5 The Riemann-Hurwitz formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

22 AG codes, Weierstraß points and universal hashing 431

22.1 The basic construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
22.2 Pole orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
22.3 Examples of function fields and projective equations . . . . 433
22.4 The automorphism group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
22.5 AG codes and universal hashing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
22.6 The Hasse-Weil bound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

23 The last chapter 447

23.1 List decoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
23.2 Expander codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
23.3 tms-nets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
23.4 Sphere packings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
xii Contents

23.5 Permutation codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

23.6 Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
23.7 Nonlinear codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
23.8 Some highly symmetric codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
23.9 Small fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
23.10 Short codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

References 487

Index 503
Preface

The theory of error-correcting codes is a branch of discrete mathematics with

close ties to other mathematical disciplines, like design theory, combinatorial
theory, linear algebra, finite fields, rings, Galois geometry, geometric algebra,
algebraic curves over finite fields and group theory. The best known appli-
cation is in the transmission of messages over noisy communication channels.
Other fields of application are to be found in statistics (design of experiments),
cryptography (authentication, the design of ciphers) and in many areas of
theoretical computer science.
In this textbook we present a self-contained introduction to mathematical
coding theory and to its major areas of application. High school algebra
and some exposition to basic linear algebra are sufficient as mathematical
background. Part I is designed for use in a one semester undergraduate course.
A second semester would start with the theory of cyclic codes. In Part II the
emphasis is on cyclic codes, applications of codes, liear programming bounds
and the geometric description of linear codes. The mathematical tools are
developed along the way. Part III offers a brief introduction to some of the
basics of the theory of function fields in one variable (algebraic curves) over
a finite field of constants, a basic construction of codes (algebraic-geometric
codes) and the properties of some interesting families of examples.

A brief overview
The historical origins of coding theory are in the problem of reliable com-
munication over noisy channels. This is a typical problem of the discipline
now called Information Theory. Both disciplines, Coding Theory and
Information Theory, originated with Claude Shannon’s famous 1948 paper
[183]. It contains the celebrated channel coding theorem (see Chapter 9)
which states roughly that good long codes are guaranteed to exist, without
giving a clue how to construct them. Closely related is the development of
Cryptography. Its aim is to ensure reliable communication in the presence
of ill-willed opponents. These problems are rather different. In the coding the-
ory scenario we have to overcome a technical problem (the shortcomings of a
communication channel), whereas in Cryptography we have to beat an oppo-
nent. Nonetheless the mathematical tools used in these two areas have a large

xiii
xiv Preface

intersection. Historically the development of both disciplines was boosted by

the efforts of World War II. Another famous paper of Claude Shannon, [184]
from 1949, is perceived as the origin of modern cryptography.
The information-theoretic problem prompted the definition of a mathemat-
ical structure called error-correcting code or simply code. Coding theory
can be seen as the study of error-correcting codes, their construction, bounds
on their parameters, their implementation and so forth. The most important
parameter is the minimum distance. It measures the code’s capability of
correcting transmission errors.
Progress in coding theory was slow but steady. One important development
was the theory of cyclic codes, which is traditionally couched in the language
of ring theory. Cyclic codes are particularly useful because they admit a fast
decoding algorithm. The theory of cyclic codes is a core topic of Part II.
It is developed in Chapter 13, preceded by an introduction to some relevant
features of finite fields in Chapter 12. Our approach is different from the
traditional approach. It is based on the trace and the action of the Galois
group. Ring theory does not come into play at all.
Only the single most famous cyclic code, the binary Golay code, is intro-
duced in Part I, along with a closely related structure, the large Witt design
(Chapter 7).
The ties between coding theory and several areas of pure mathematics have
grown stronger all the time. The most important insight goes back to the
early 1980s. It is the discovery, by Goppa and Manin [97, 138], of a close re-
lationship between codes and algebraic curves (in algebraic language func-
tion fields). Algebraic curves are objects of number theory and algebraic
geometry, mainstream mathematical disciplines with a long and rich his-
tory. The observation by Goppa and Manin makes it possible to use these
number-theoretic tools for the construction of codes. The theory of those
algebraic-geometric codes (AG-codes) is the objective of Part III. In fact
we develop only some of the basics of the theory of algebraic curves with fi-
nite fields of constants, just enough to understand the basic construction of
algebraic-geometric codes and to study some interesting families of examples.
Coding theory and combinatorics are closely connected. As an example,
block designs are important objects of modern discrete mathematics. For
more information see the CRC Handbook of Combinatorial Designs
[106]. We will encounter them repeatedly in the text. A formal definition
is in Chapter 7, where we also derive the large Witt design from the binary
Golay code. Other examples of block designs in the text include projective
planes, projective and affine geometry over finite fields (Chapter 17), the small
Witt design, which is derived from the ternary Golay code in Section 17.1,
and the Denniston arcs in the same section.
Linear codes can be studied from a geometric point of view. From this
perspective coding theory can be seen as part of Galois geometry. The
basic objects of Galois geometry are affine and projective spaces defined
over finite fields (see Hirschfeld [113] or the beginning of Chapter 17). Linear
 Preface xv

codes can be equivalently described as sets of points in projective spaces. In

many cases the geometric language is more appropriate than the algebraic
approach. In Part I we study 3-dimensional codes from this point of view
(Chapter 10). This case is particularly easy to understand as the underlying
geometrical structures are classical projective planes P G(2, q). The general
mechanism is developed and used in Chapter 17. In many cases this leads
to a better understanding of the codes. For instance, we use the geometric
method to construct the ternary Golay code in Section 17.1. As a natural
generalization, the additive codes (network codes) of Chapter 18 are described
geometrically by families of subspaces of a fixed projective space. As a special
case, the binary quantum codes of Chapter 18 are described by families of
lines in binary projective spaces.
Caps are sets of points in projective or affine geometry no three of which are
on a line. They are formally equivalent to linear codes of minimum distance
d = 4. It turns out that caps are best understood from a geometric point
of view. This is why we study caps in Chapter 17. The case of caps in
projective planes and 3-spaces leads to another link with classical algebra. In
fact, parabolic and elliptic quadrics yield canonical examples of caps in those
dimensions. We include a self-contained introduction to geometric algebra
in Section 17.2 which gives a better understanding of those caps.
Duality is emphasized throughout the text. The dual of a linear code with
minimum distance d is an orthogonal array of strength d − 1. Originally
orthogonal arrays were defined in the framework of design of experiments,
in statistics. The same is true of block designs. The defining properties
of orthogonal arrays and of block designs are both uniformity conditions.
They look very similar. Orthogonal arrays can be interpreted as families of
random variables (functions defined on sample spaces), which satisfy certain
statistical independence conditions (see Chapter 6). The strength measures
the degree of statistical independence. Such families of random variables are
heavily used not only in statistics but also in the theory of algorithms.
Whenever we construct a good linear code, we also obtain such a statistical
object.
Typically in coding theory duality is defined with respect to the usual dot
product, the Euclidean bilinear form. However, each non-degenerate bilinear
(or sesquilinear) form defines a notion of duality. An application to the
construction of quantum codes in Chapter 18 demands the use of a special
bilinear form, the symplectic form. This is another motivation for covering
the theory of bilinear forms in Chapter 17.
Some of the classical bounds, the Singleton bound, the Hamming bound,
the Plotkin bound and the Griesmer bound on codes as well as the Bose-Bush
bound on orthogonal arrays of strength 2, are derived when they are needed
in the text. In fact, there is a multitude of bounds, each of which is better
than all the others in certain parameter ranges, both for codes (when the
minimum distance is the central parameter) and for orthogonal arrays (when
the strength is in the center of attention). A general algebraic mechanism for
Exploring the Variety of Random
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crater, where the eruptive channel finds its vent. Craters are
sometimes regularly funnel-shaped, descending with slanting sides
to the eruptive mouth, but more commonly they are surrounded
with high precipitous rock-walls, while their bottom forms a plain,
which is frequently completely horizontal, and sometimes of a
considerable extent. Its surface is rough and uneven, from the
mounds of volcanic sand, of scoriæ, or of hardened lava with which
it is covered, and generally exhibits a scene of dreadful desolation,
rendered still more impressive by the steam and smoke, which, as
long as the volcano continues in an active state, issue from its
crevices.
Within this plain, the eruptive orifice or mouth of the volcano is
almost universally surrounded by an elevation, composed of ejected
fragments of scoriæ thrown from the vent. Such cones are forming
constantly at Vesuvius, one being no sooner destroyed by any great
eruption, before another begins to take shape and is enlarged, till
often it reaches a height of several hundred feet.
Thus the crater of an active volcano is the scene of perpetual
change—of a continual construction and re-construction, and the
sands of the sea do not afford a more striking image of inconstancy.
 The various craters are of very different dimensions. While the
chief crater of Stromboli has a diameter of only fifty feet, that of
Gunong Tenger, in Java, measures four miles from end to end; and,
though the depth of a crater rarely exceeds 1,000 or 1,500 feet, the
spectator, standing on the brink of the great crater of Popocatepetl,
looks down into a gulf of 8,000 feet.
From the colossal dimensions of the larger craters, it may well be
imagined that their aspect exhibits some of the sublimest though
most gloomy scenery in nature—the picture of old Chaos with all its
horrors.
The volcano Gunong Tjerimai, in Java, which rises to the height of
9,000 feet, is covered with a dense vegetation up to the crater’s
brink. On emerging from the thicket, the wanderer suddenly stands
on the verge of an immense excavation encircled with naked rocks.
He is obliged to hold himself by the branches of trees, or to stretch
himself flat upon the ground, so as to be able to look down into the
yawning gulf. The deep and inaccessible bottom of the crater loses
itself in misty obscurity, and glimmers indistinctly through the
vapours which are there slowly and incessantly ascending from its
mysterious depths. All is desolate and silent, save when a solitary
falcon, hovering over the vast chasm, awakes with her discordant
screech the echoes of the precipice. Through a telescope may be
seen, in various parts of the huge crater walls, swarms of small
swallows, which have there built their nests, flying backwards and
forwards. The eye can detect no other signs of life, the ear
distinguish no other sound.
Humboldt describes the view down the crater of the Rucu-
Pichincha—a volcano which towers above the town of Quito to a
height of 15,000 feet—as the grandest he ever beheld during all his
long wanderings. Guided by an Indian, he ascended the mountain in
1802, and after scaling, with great difficulty and no small danger, its
steep and rocky sides, he at length looked down upon the black and
dismal abyss, whence clouds of sulphurous vapour were rising as
from the gates of hell.
The descent into the crater of an active volcano is at all times a
difficult and hazardous enterprise, both from the steepness of its
encircling rock walls, and the suffocating vapours rising from its
bottom; but it is rare indeed that a traveller has either the temerity
or the good fortune to penetrate as far as the very mouth of the
eruptive channel, and to gain a glimpse of its mysterious horrors.
When M. Houel visited Mount Etna in 1769, he ventured to scale the
cone of stones and ashes which had been thrown up in the centre of
the crater, where thirty years before there was only a prodigious
chasm or gulf. On ascending this mound, which emitted smoke from
every pore, the adventurous traveller sunk about mid-leg at every
step, and was in constant terror of being swallowed up. At last,
when the summit was reached, the looseness of the soil obliged him
to throw himself down flat upon the ground, that so he might be in
less danger of sinking, while at the same time the sulphurous
exhalations arising from the funnel-shaped cavity threatened
suffocation, and so irritated his lungs as to produce a very
troublesome and incessant cough. In this posture the traveller
viewed the wide unfathomable gulf in the middle of the crater, but
could discover nothing except a cloud of smoke, which issued from a
number of small apertures scattered all around. From time to time
dreadful sounds issued from the bowels of the volcano, as if the roar
of artillery were rebellowed throughout all the hollows of the
mountain. They were no doubt occasioned by the explosions of
pent-up gases striking against the sides of these immense caverns,
and multiplied by their echoes in an extraordinary manner. After the
first unavoidable impression of terror had been overcome, nothing
could be more sublime than these awful sounds, which seemed like
a warning of Etna not to pry too deeply into his secrets.
Dr. Judd, an American naturalist, who, in 1841, descended into the
crater of Kilauea, on Mauna Loa, in Hawaii, well-nigh fell a victim to
his curiosity. At that time, the smallest of the two lava pools which
boil at the bottom of that extraordinary pit appeared almost inactive,
giving out only vapours, with an occasional jet of lava at its centre.
Dr. Judd, considering the quiet favourable for dipping up some of the
liquid with an iron ladle, descended for the purpose to a narrow
ledge bordering the pool. While he was preparing to carry out his
plans, his attention was excited by a sudden sinking of its surface;
the next instant it began to rise, and then followed an explosion,
throwing the lava higher than his head. He had scarcely escaped
from his dangerous situation, the moment after, by the aid of a
native, before the lava boiled up, covered the place where he stood,
and, flowing out over the northern side, extended in a stream a mile
wide to a distance of more than a mile and a half!
In extinct volcanoes, the picture of desolation originally shown by
their craters has not seldom been changed into one of charming
loveliness. Tall forest trees cover the bottom of the Tofua crater in
Upolu, one of the Samoan group; and in the same island, a circular
lake of crystal purity, belted with a girdle of the richest green, has
formed in the depth of the Lanuto crater.

EXTINCT CRATER OF HALEAKALA.

The lakes of Averno near Naples, and of Bolsena, Bracciano, and

Ronciglione, likewise fill the hollows of extinct craters, constituting
scenes of surpassing beauty, rendered still more impressive by the
remembrance of the stormy past which preceded their present
epoch of tranquillity and peace. Mr. Mallet describes, with glowing
colours, the singular beauty of
 the forest scenery around the two extinct craters of Mount Vultur
in Apulia, which time has converted into two deep circular lakes.
‘I descend amongst aged trunks and overarching limbs, and pass
over masses of rounded lava-blocks and cemented lapilli. All is
quietude; the soft breeze of a quiet winter’s afternoon fans across
the embosomed water, from the early wheat-fields and the furrowed
acres of the opposite steep slopes, and brings the gentle ripple
lapping amongst the roots of the old hazels at my feet.
‘Off before me, and to my left, crowning the slope, are the grey
ruins of some ancient church or castle, and far above me to the
right, nestled against the lava crags, behind and above it, standing
out white and clear, I see the strong buttressed mass of the
monastery of St. Michael. How hard it is to realise that this noble
and lovely scene, full of every leafy beauty, was once the innermost
bowl of a volcano; that every stone around me, now glorious in
colour with moss and lichen, sedum and geranium, was once a
glowing mass, vomited from out that fiery and undiscovered abyss,
which these placid waters now bury in their secret chambers.’
The line of demarcation between active and extinct volcanoes is
not easily drawn, as eruptions have sometimes taken place after
such long intervals of repose as to warrant the belief that the vents
from which they issued had long since been completely obliterated.
Thus, though nearly six centuries have passed since the last eruption
of Epomeo in the island of Ischia, we are not entitled to suppose it
extinct, since nearly seventeen centuries elapsed between this last
explosion and the one which preceded it. Since the beginning of the
fourteenth century Vesuvius also enjoyed a long rest of nearly three
hundred years. During this time the crater got covered with grass
and shrubs, oak and chestnut trees grew around it, and some warm
pools of water alone reminded the visitor of the former condition of
the mountain, when, suddenly, in December 1631, it resumed its
ancient activity, and seven streams of lava at once burst forth from
its subterranean furnaces.
While, in many volcanic districts, such as that of the Eifel on the
left bank of the Rhine, and of Auvergne, in Central France, the once
active subterranean fires have long since been extinguished, and no
eruption of lava has been recorded during the whole period of the
historic ages, new volcanoes, situated at a considerable distance
from all previously active vents, have arisen from the bowels of the
earth, almost within the memory of living man. From the era of the
discovery of the New World to the middle of the last century, the
country between the mountains Toluca and Colima, in Mexico, had
remained undisturbed, and the space, now the site of Jorullo, which
is one hundred miles distant from each of the above-mentioned
volcanoes, was occupied by fertile fields of sugarcane and indigo,
and watered by two brooks. In the month of June 1759, hollow
sounds of an alarming nature were heard, and earthquakes
succeeded each other for two months, until, at the end of
September, flames issued from the ground, and fragments of
burning rocks were thrown to prodigious heights. Six volcanic cones,
composed of scoriæ and fragmentary lava, were formed on the line
of a chasm, which ran in the direction of N.E. to S.W. The least of
the cones was 300 feet in height, and Jorullo, the central volcano,
was elevated 1,600 feet above the level of the plain. The ground
where now, in Central America, Isalco towers in proud eminence,
was formerly the seat of an estancia or cattle-estate. Towards the
end of the year 1769, the inhabitants were frequently disturbed by
subterranean rumblings and shocks, which constantly increased in
violence, until on February 23, 1770, the earth opened, and pouring
out quantities of lava, ashes, and cinders gave birth to a new
volcanic mountain.
Besides those volcanic vents which are situated on the dry land,
there are others which, hidden beneath the surface of the sea,
reveal their existence by subaqueous eruptions. Columns of fire and
smoke are seen to rise from the discoloured and agitated waters,
and sometimes new islands are gradually piled up by the masses of
scoriæ and ashes ejected from the mouth of the submarine volcano.
In this manner the island of Sabrina rose from the bottom of the
sea, near St. Michael’s in the Azores, in the year 1811; and still more
recently, in 1831, Graham’s Island was formed in the Mediterranean,
between the coast of Sicily and that projecting part of the African
coast where ancient Carthage stood. Slight earthquake shocks
preceded its appearance, then a column of water like a water-spout,
60 feet high and 800 yards in circumference, rose from the sea, and
soon afterwards dense volumes of steam, which ascended to the
height of 1,800 feet. Then a small island, a few feet high with a
crater in its centre, ejecting volcanic matter, and immense columns
of vapour, emerged from the agitated waters, and in a fortnight
swelled to the ample proportions of a height of 200 feet, and a
circumference of three miles. But both Sabrina and Graham’s Island,
being built of loose scoriæ, were soon corroded by the waves, and
their last traces have long since disappeared under the surface of
the ocean.
Near Pondicherry, in India; near Iceland, in the Atlantic Ocean;
half a degree to the south of the equator in the prolongation of a
line drawn from St. Helena to Ascension; near Juan Fernandez, &c.,
similar phenomena have occurred within the last hundred years, but,
probably, nowhere on a grander scale than in the Aleutian
Archipelago, where, about thirty miles to the north of Unalaska, near
the isle of Umnack, a new island, now several thousand feet high
and two or three miles in circumference, was formed in 1796. The
whole bottom of the sea between this new creation of the volcanic
powers and Umnack has been raised by the eruptive throes which
gave it birth; and where Cook freely sailed in 1778, numberless cliffs
and reefs now obstruct the passage of the mariner.
The famous subaqueous volcano which, in the year 186 before the
Christian era, began its series of historically recorded eruptions, by
raising the islet of Hiera (the ‘Sacred’) in the centre of the Bay of
Santorin, opened two new vents in 1866. Amid a tremendous roar of
steam and the shooting up of prodigious masses of rock and ashes,
two islets were formed, which ultimately rose to the height of 60 and
200 feet. The eruption continued for many months, to the delight
and wonder of the numerous geologists who came from all sides to
witness the extraordinary spectacle. Thus, in many parts of the
ocean, we see the submarine volcanic fires laying the foundations of
new islands and archipelagos, which, after repeated eruptions
following each other in the course of ages, will probably, like Iceland,
extend over a considerable space and become the seats of civilised
man.

Map of the World

Showing the Distribution of
VOLCANOES
& the Districts visited by
EARTHQUAKES
.li
[Larger view]
.li-

As a very considerable part of the globe has never yet been

scientifically explored, it is, of course, impossible to determine the
exact number of the extinct and active volcanoes which are
scattered over its surface. Werner gives a list of 193 volcanoes, and
Humboldt mentions 407, of which 225 are still in a state of activity.
The newest computation of Dr. Fuchs, of Heidelberg,[7] increases the
number to a total of 672, of which 270 are active. Future
geographical discoveries will, no doubt, make further additions to
the list, and show that at least through a thousand different vents
the subterranean fires have, at various periods of the earth’s history,
piled up their cones of scoriæ and lava.
The volcanoes are very unequally distributed over the surface of
the globe, for, while in some parts they are thickly clustered together
in groups or rows, we find in other parts vast areas of land without
the least sign of volcanic action.
An almost uninterrupted range of volcanoes extends in a sinuous
line from the Gulf of Bengal, through the East Indian Archipelago,
the Moluccas, the Philippines, Formosa, Japan, and the Kuriles, to
Kamtschatka. This desolate peninsula is particularly remarkable for
the energy of its subterranean fires, as Ermann mentions no less
than twenty-one active volcanoes, ranged in two parallel lines
throughout its whole length, and separated from each other by a
central range of mountains, containing a large and unknown number
of extinct craters.
In Java, where more than thirty volcanoes are more or less active,
the furnaces of the subterranean world are still more concentrated
and dreadful.
The immense mountain-chains which run parallel to the western
coasts of America are likewise crowned with numerous volcanic
peaks. Chili alone has fourteen active volcanoes, Bolivia and Peru
three, Quito eleven. In Central America we find twenty-one
volcanoes, which are chiefly grouped near the Lake of Nicaragua,
and to the west of the town of Guatemala.
The peninsula of Aljaska, and the chain of the Aleütes, possess no
less than thirty-six volcanos, scattered over a line about 700 miles
long; and thus we find the eastern, western, and northern
boundaries of the Pacific encircled with a girdle of volcanic vents,
while the subterranean fires have left the western shores of the
Atlantic comparatively undisturbed.
With the exception of Iceland, which is famous for the widely
devastating eruptions of its burning mountains, the volcanic energies
of Europe are at present limited to the submarine crater of Santorin,
and to the small area of Etna, Vesuvius, and the Lipari Islands. But,
situated in the centre of the ancient seats of civilisation, and for so
many centuries the object of the naturalist’s researches, of the
traveller’s curiosity, and of the poet’s song, they surpass in renown
all other volcanic regions in the world. Most other volcanoes vent
their fury over lands either so wild or so remote that the history of
their eruptions almost sounds like a legend from another planet; but
thousands of us have visited Etna and Vesuvius, and the explosion of
their rage menaces towns and countries which classical
remembrances have almost invested with the interest of home.
Some volcanoes are in a continual state of eruption. Isalco, born,
as we have seen, in 1770, has remained ever since so active as to
deserve the name of the Faro (lighthouse) of San Salvador. Its
explosions occur regularly, at intervals of from ten to twenty
minutes, and throw up a dense smoke and clouds of ashes and
stones. These, as they fall, add to the height and bulk of the cone,
which is now about 2,500 feet high. For more than two thousand
years, the fires of Stromboli have never been extinct, nor has it ever
failed to be a beacon to the mariner while sailing after nightfall
through the Tyrrhenian Sea. Mr. Poulett Scrope, who visited
Stromboli in 1820, and looked down from the edge of the crater into
the mouth of the volcano, some 300 feet beneath him, found the
phenomena precisely such as Spallanzani described them in 1788.
‘Two rude openings show themselves among the black chaotic rocks
of scoriform lava which form the floor of the crater. One, is to
appearance, empty, but from it there proceeds, at intervals of a few
minutes, a rush of vapour, with a roaring sound, like that of a
smelting furnace when the door is opened, but infinitely louder. It
lasts about a minute. Within the other aperture, which is perhaps
twenty feet in diameter, and but a few yards distant, may be
distinctly perceived a body of molten matter, having a vivid glow
even by day, approaching to that of white heat, which rises and falls
at intervals of from ten to fifteen minutes. Each time that it reaches
in its rise the lip of the orifice, it opens at the centre, like a great
bubble bursting, and discharges upwards an explosive volume of
dense vapour, with a shower of fragments of incandescent lava and
ragged scoriæ, which rise to a height of several hundred feet above
the lip of the crater.’
 The volcanoes of Masaya, near the lake of the same name in
Nicaragua; of Sioa, in the Moluccas; and of Tofua, in the Friendly
Islands, are also, like Stromboli, in a state of permanent eruption.
But far more commonly the volcanoes burst forth only from time to
time in violent paroxysms, separated from each other by longer
phases of moderate activity, during which their phenomena are
confined to the exhalation of vapours and gases, sometimes also to
the ejection of scoriæ or ashes; to the oscillations of lava rising or
subsiding in the shaft of the crater, to the gentle outflow of small
streams of lava from its eruptive cone, and to slight commotions of
its border. A continual or periodical exhalation of steam and gases
from the shaft of the crater or from chasms and fissures in its
bottom, is the commonest phenomenon shown by an active volcano
while in a state of tranquillity. Aqueous vapours compose the chief
part of these exhalations, and along with other volatile substances,
such as sulphuretted hydrogen, sulphurous acid, muriatic acid, and
carbonic acid, form the steam-jets or fumaroles, which escape with a
hissing or roaring noise from all the crevices and chasms of the
crater, and, uniting as they ascend in a single vapour-cloud,
ultimately compose the lofty column of steam which forms so
conspicuous a feature in the picturesque beauty of Etna or Vesuvius.
High on the summit of Mauna Loa, where all vegetation has long
since ceased, the warm steam of the fumaroles gives rise to a
splendid growth of ferns in crevices sheltered from the wind; and on
the island of Pantellaria, the shepherds, by laying brushwood before
the fumaroles, condense the steam, and thus procure a supply of
water for their goats.
The gentle fluctuations of lava in a crater while in a state of
moderate activity are nowhere exhibited on a grander scale than in
the pit of Kilauea on Mauna Loa. The mountain rises so gradually as
almost to resemble a plain, and the crater appears like a vast gulf
excavated in its flanks. The traveller perceives his approach to it by a
few small clouds of steam, rising from fissures not far from his path.
While gazing for a second indication, he stands unexpectedly upon
the brink of the pit. A vast amphitheatre seven miles and a half in
circuit has opened to view. Beneath a gray rocky precipice of 650
feet, a narrow plain of hardened lava extends, like a vast gallery,
around the whole interior. Within this gallery, below another similar
precipice of 340 feet, lies the bottom, a wide plain of bare rock more
than two miles in length. Here all is black monotonous desolation,
excepting certain spots of a blood-red colour, which appear to be in
constant yet gentle agitation.
When Professor Dana visited Kilauea (December 1840), he was
surprised at the stillness of the scene. The incessant motion in the
blood-red pools was like that of a cauldron in constant ebullition.
The lava in each boiled with such activity as to cause a rapid play of
jets over its surface. One pool, the largest of the three then in
action, was afterwards ascertained by survey to measure 1,500 feet
in one diameter and 1,000 in another; and this whole area was
boiling, as seemed from above, with nearly the mobility of water. Still
all went on quietly. Not a whisper was heard from the fires below.
White vapours rose in fleecy wreaths from the pools and numerous
fissures, and above the large lake they collected into a broad canopy
of clouds, not unlike the snowy heaps or cumuli that lie near the
horizon on a clear day, though their fanciful shapes changed more
rapidly.
On descending afterwards to the black ledge or gallery at the
verge of the lower pit, a half-smothered gurgling sound was all that
could be heard from the pools of lava. Occasionally, there was a
report like that of musketry, which died away, and left the same
murmuring sound, the stifled mutterings of a boiling fluid.
Such was the scene by day—awful, melancholy, dismal—but at
night it assumed a character of indescribable sublimity. The large
cauldron, in place of its bloody glare, now glowed with intense
brilliancy, and the surface sparkled with shifting points of dazzling
light, occasioned by the jets in constant play. The broad canopy of
clouds above the pit, which seemed to rest on a column of wreaths
and curling heaps of lighted vapour, and the amphitheatre of rocks
around the lower depths, were brightly illuminated from the boiling
lavas, while a lurid red tinged the distant parts of the inclosing walls
and threw their cavernous recesses into deeper shades of darkness.
Over this scene of restless fires and fiery vapours, the heavens by
contrast seemed unnaturally black, with only here and there a star,
like a dim point of light.
A paroxysmal eruption is generally announced by the
intensification of the phenomena above described. Slight
earthquakes are felt in the neighbourhood of the volcano, and follow
each other in more rapid succession and with greater violence as the
catastrophe draws near. A deep noise like the rolling of thunder, or
like the roar of distant artillery, is heard under the ground; the white
steam from the crater ascends in denser clouds, which soon acquire
a darker tinge; and now the bottom of the crater suddenly bursts
with a terrific crash, and with the rapidity of lightning, an immense
column of black smoke shoots up into the air, and, expanding at its
upper end into a broad horizontal canopy, assumes a shape which
has been compared with that of the Italian pine, the graceful tree of
the South. As the column of smoke spreads over the sky, it obscures
the light of the sun and changes day into night. Along with the
smoke, showers of glowing lava are cast high up into the air, and,
rising like rockets, either fall back into the crater or rattle down the
declivity of the cone.
At night the scene assumes a character of matchless grandeur,
when the column of smoke—or, more properly speaking, of scoriæ,
vapour, and impalpable dust—is illuminated by the vivid light of the
lava glowing in the crater beneath. It then appears as an immense
pillar of fire, rising with steady majesty in the midst of the uproar of
all the elements, and ever and anon traversed by flashes of still
greater brilliancy from the masses of liquid lava hurled forth by the
volcano.
The detonations which accompany an eruption are sometimes
heard as single crashes, at others as a rolling thunder or as a
continuous roaring. They are frequently audible at an astonishing
distance, over areas of many thousand square miles, and with such
violence that they may be supposed to proceed from the immediate
neighbourhood. Thus, during the eruption of Cosiguina in Nicaragua,
which took place in the year 1834, the detonations were heard as
loud as a thunderstorm in the neighbourhood of Kingston in
Jamaica, and even at Santa Fé de Bogota, which is a thousand miles
distant from the volcano. With the increase of steam generated
during an eruption, the quantity of ejected scoriæ likewise increases
in an astonishing manner, so that the volcano’s mouth resembles a
constantly discharging mine of the most gigantic dimensions.
The stones and ashes projected during a volcanic eruption vary
considerably in size, from blocks twelve or fifteen feet in diameter to
the finest dust. Both their immense quantity, and the force with
which they are hurled into the air, show the utter insignificance of
the strength displayed by the most formidable engines invented by
man when compared with elementary power. Huge blocks are shot
forth, as from the cannon’s mouth, to a perpendicular elevation of
6,000 feet, and La Condamine relates that in 1533 Cotopaxi hurled
stones of eight feet in diameter in an oblique direction to the
distance of seven miles. The lighter scoriæ, carried far away by the
winds, not seldom bury whole provinces under a deluge of sand and
ashes; and their disastrous effects, spreading over an immense area,
are frequently greater than those of the lava-streams, whose
destructive power is necessarily confined to a narrower space. To
cite but a few examples, the rain of sand and ashes which in 1812
menaced the Island of St. Vincent with the fate of Pompeii soon
buried every trace of vegetation, and the affrighted planters and
negroes fled to the town. But here also the black sand, along with
many larger stones, fell rattling like hail upon the roofs of the
houses, while at the same time a tremendous subterranean thunder
increased the horrors of the scene. Even Barbadoes, though eighty
miles from St. Vincent’s, was covered with ashes. A black cloud,
approaching from the sea, brought with it such pitchy darkness that
in the rooms it was impossible to distinguish the windows, and a
white pocket-handkerchief could not be seen at a distance of five
inches.
The fall of ashes caused in April 1815 by the eruption of the
Temboro, in Sumbawa, not only devastated the greater part of the
island, but extended in a westerly direction to Java, and to the
north, as far as Celebes, with such an intensity that it became
perfectly dark at noon. The roofs of houses at the distance of forty
miles were broken in by the weight of the ashes that fell upon them.
To the west of Sumatra the surface of the sea was covered two feet
deep with a layer of floating pumice or scoriæ, through which ships
with difficulty forced their way.
By the terrific eruption of Cosiguina in the Gulf of Fonseca, in
Central America, in 1835, all the ground within a radius of twenty-
five miles was loaded with scoriæ and ashes to the depth of ten feet
and upwards, while the lightest and finest ash was carried by the
winds to places more than 700 miles distant. Eight leagues to the
southward of the crater the ashes covered the ground to the depth
of three yards and a half, destroying the woods and dwellings.
Thousands of cattle perished, their bodies being in many instances
one mass of scorched flesh. Deer and other wild animals sought the
towns for protection; birds and beasts were found suffocated in the
ashes, and the neighbouring streams were strewed with dead fish.
When we consider the amazing quantity of stones and ashes
ejected in these and similar instances by volcanic power, we cannot
wonder that considerable mountains have frequently been piled up
by one single eruption. Thus in the Bay of Baiæ near Naples, Monte
Nuovo, a hill 440 feet high, and with a base of more than a mile and
a half in circumference, formed, in less than twelve hours, on
September 29, 1538; and a few days gave birth to Monte Minardo,
near Bronte, on the slopes of Etna, which rises to the still more
considerable height of 700 feet. It would be curious to calculate how
many thousands of workmen, and what length of time, man would
need to raise mounds like these, produced by an almost
instantaneous effort of nature.
In other cases the expansive power of the elastic vapours, which
cast up these prodigious masses from the bowels of the earth, is
such as to blow to pieces the volcanic cone through which it seeks
its vent.
In Quito there is an ancient tradition that Capac Urcu, which
means ‘the chief,’ was once the highest volcano near the equator,
being higher than Chimborazo, but at the beginning of the fifteenth
century a prodigious eruption took place which broke it down. The
fragments of trachyte, says Mr. Boussingault, which once formed the
conical summit of this celebrated mountain, are at this day spread
over the plain. On August 11, 1772, the Pepandajan, in Java,
formerly one of the highest mountains of the island, broke out in
eruption; the inhabitants of the country around prepared for flight,
but, before they could escape, the greater part of its summit was
shivered to pieces and covered the neighbourhood with its ruins, so
that in the upper part of the Gurat valley forty villages were
completely buried. During the dreadful eruption of 1815, the
Temboro, in Sumbawa, is said to have lost at least one-third of its
height from the explosion of its summit, and similar instances are
mentioned as having occurred among the volcanoes of Japan.
In the year 1638 a colossal cone called the Peak, in the Isle of
Timor, one of the Moluccas, was entirely destroyed by a paroxysmal
explosion. The whole mountain, which was before this continually
active, and so high that its light was visible, it is said, three hundred
miles off, was blown up and replaced by a concavity now containing
a lake.
Again, according to M. Moreau de Jonnes, in 1718, on March 6–7,
at St. Vincent’s, one of the Leeward Isles, the shock of a terrific
earthquake was felt, and clouds of ashes were driven into the air,
with violent detonations, from a mountain situated at the eastern
end of the island. When the eruption had ceased, it was found that
the whole mountain had disappeared like the baseless fabric of a
dream.
The disastrous effects of the showers of sand, pumice, and lapilli
ejected by a volcanic eruption are increased by the transporting
power of water. The aqueous vapours which are evolved so
copiously from volcanic craters during eruptions, and often for a long
time subsequently to the discharge of scoriæ and lava, are
condensed as they ascend in the cold atmosphere surrounding the
high volcanic peak; and the clouds thus formed, being in a state of
high electrical tension, give rise to terrific thunderstorms. The
lightning flashes in all directions from the black canopy overhanging
the mountain, the perpetually rolling thunder adds its loud voice to
the dreadful roar of the labouring volcano, while torrents of rain,
sweeping along the light dust and scoriæ which they carry down
with them from the air, or meet with on their way, produce currents
of mud, often more dreaded than streams of lava, from the far
greater velocity with which they move.
It not seldom happens that the eruptions of volcanoes rising
above the limits of perpetual snow are preceded or accompanied by
the rapid dissolution of the ice which clothes their summits or their
sides, owing to the high temperature imparted to the whole mass of
the mountain by the vast conflict raging within. Thus in January
1803 one single night sufficed to dissolve or sweep away the
enormous bed of snow which in times of rest covers the steep cone
of Cotopaxi (18,858 feet high), so that on the following morning the
dark mountain, divested of its brilliant robe, gave warning to the
affrighted neighbourhood of the terrific scenes that were about to
follow. The volcanoes of Iceland, which mostly rise in the midst of
vast fields of perpetual ice, frequently exhibit this phenomenon. On
October 17, 1758, the eruptive labouring of Kötlingia gave birth to
three enormous torrents, which carried along with them such
masses of glacier fragments, sand, and stones as to cover a space
fifty miles long and twenty-five miles broad. Blocks of ice as large as
houses, and partly bearing immense pieces of stone on their backs,
were hurried along by the floods; and soon after the eruption took
place with a terrific noise.
A very singular phenomenon sometimes occurs in the gigantic
volcanoes of the Andes. By the infiltration of water into the crevices
of the trachytic rock of which they are composed, the caverns
situated at their declivities or at their foot are gradually changed into
subterranean lakes or ponds, which frequently communicate by
narrow apertures with the Alpine brooks of the highlands of Quito.
The fish from these brooks live and multiply in these subterranean
reservoirs thus formed, and when the earthquakes which precede
every eruption of the Andes chain shake the whole mass of the
volcano, the caverns suddenly open and discharge enormous
quantities of water, mud, and small fish.
When in the night between the 19th and 20th of June 1698, the
summit of Carguairazo (18,000 feet high) was blown up, so that of
the whole crater-rim but two enormous peaks remained, the
inundated fields were covered, over a surface of nearly fifty square
miles, with fluid tuff and clay-mud enveloping thousands of dead
fish. Seven years before, the malignant fever which prevailed in the
mountain-town of Ibarra to the north of Quito was attributed to the
effluvia arising from the putrid fish ejected by the volcano of
Imbaburu.
Amidst all these terrible phenomena—the dreadful noise, the
quaking of the earth, the ejection of stones and ashes—which, often
continuing for weeks or months, shake the deepest foundations of
the volcano, fiery streams of liquid lava gush forth sooner or later as
from a vase that is boiling over. Their appearance generally indicates
the crisis of the subterranean revolution, for the rage of the
elements, which until then had been constantly increasing,
diminishes as soon as the torrent has found an outlet. The lava
rarely issues from the summit crater of the mountain; much more
frequently it flows from a lateral rent in the volcano’s side, which,
weakened and dislocated in its texture by repeated shocks, at length
gives way to the immense pressure of the lava column boiling within.
From the vast size of these eruptive rents, we may form some idea
of the gigantic power of the forces which give them birth.
Thus during the great eruption of Etna in 1669, the south-east
flank of the mountain was split open by an enormous rent twelve
miles long, at the bottom of which incandescent lava was seen. The
extreme length of the fissure which gave lateral issue to the lava of
Kilauea in 1840 was twenty-five miles, as could distinctly be traced
through the disturbance of the surface rocks above; and in the
terrific eruption of Skaptar Jökul, which devastated the west coast of
Iceland in 1783, lava gushed forth from several vents along a fissure
of not less than 100 miles in length. In some cases the whole mass
of the volcano has been cleft in two. Vesuvius was thus rent in
October 1822 by an enormous fissure broken across its cone in a
direction N.W.—S.E.
Here and there along the line of such a rent, cones of eruption are
thrown up in succession at points where the gaseous matter obtains
the freest access to the surface, and has power to force up lava and
scoriæ. Few indeed, if any, of the greater volcanic mountains are
unattended by such minor elevations, clustering about its sides like
the satellites of a planet. Professor Dana found Mauna Loa covered
with numerous parasitic cones, and Mr. Darwin counted several
thousands on one of the Gallapagos Islands. On the flanks of Etna,
according to Professor Sartorius von Waltershausen, more than 700
of them are to be seen, almost all possessing craters, and each
marking the source of a current of lava. Though they appear but
trifling irregularities when viewed from a distance as subordinate
parts of so imposing and colossal a mountain, many of them would
nevertheless be deemed hills of considerable height in almost any
other region. The double hill near Nicolosi, called Monte Rossi,
formed in 1669, is 450 feet high and two miles in circumference at
its base; and Monte Minardo, near Bronte, on the east of the great
volcano, is upwards of 700 feet in height.[8]
‘On looking down from the lower borders of the desert region of
Etna,’ says Sir Charles Lyell, ‘these minor volcanoes, which are most
abundant in the woody region, present us with one of the most
delightful and characteristic scenes in Europe. They afford every
variety of height and size, and are arranged in beautiful and
picturesque groups. However uniform they may appear when seen
from the sea, or the plains below, nothing can be more diversified
than their shape when we look from above into their craters, one
side of which, as we have seen, is generally broken down. There are
indeed, few objects in nature more picturesque than a wooded
volcanic crater. The cones situated in the higher parts of the forest
zone are chiefly clothed with lofty pines, while those at a lower
elevation are adorned with chestnuts, oaks, and beech-trees.’
As the point where a lava-current finds a vent is often situated at
a considerable distance below the surface of the liquid column in the
internal chimney of the volcano, the pressure from above not seldom
causes the lava to spout forth in a jet, until its level in the crater
shaft has been reduced to that of the newly-formed orifice. Thus,
when Vesuvius was rent by the dreadful paroxysmal eruption of
1794, the lava was seen to shoot up in magnificent fountains as it
issued from the openings along the fissure.
Further on, the lava flows down the mountain’s side according to
the same laws which regulate the movements of any other stream,
whether of water, mud, or ice: more rapidly down an abrupt
declivity, slower where the slope is more gradual; now accumulating
in narrow ravines, then spreading out in plains; sometimes rushing
in fiery cascades down precipices, and, where insurmountable
obstacles oppose its progress, not seldom breaking off into several
branches, each of which pursues its independent course.
At the point where it issues, the lava flows in perfect solution, but,
as its surface rapidly cools when exposed to the air, it soon gets
covered with scoriæ, which are dashed over each other in wild
confusion, by successive floods of liquid stone, so as to resemble a
stormy sea covered with ice-blocks. But the liquefied stone not only
hardens on its external surface; it also becomes solid below, where it
touches the colder soil, so that the fluid lava literally moves along in
a crust of scoriæ, which lengthens in the same proportion as the
stream advances.
The movements of the lava-current are of course considerably
retarded by the formation of scoriæ, so that, unless where a greater
inclination of the soil gives it a new impulse, it flows slower and
slower. Thus the lava-stream which was ejected by Etna during the
great eruption of 1669, performed the first thirteen Italian miles of
its course in twenty days, or at the average rate of 162 feet per
hour, but required no less than twenty-three days for the last two
miles. While moving on, its surface was in general a mass of solid
rock; and its mode of advancing, as is usual with lava streams, was
by the occasional fissuring of the solid walls. Yet, in spite of the
tardiness of its progress, the inhabitants of Catania watched its
advance with dismay, and rushed into the churches to invoke the aid
of the Madonna and the Saints. One citizen only, a certain Baron
Papalardo, relied more upon his own efforts than upon supernatural
assistance, and set out with a party of fifty men, dressed in skins to
protect them from the heat, and armed with iron crows and hooks
for the purpose of breaking open one of the solid walls of scoriæ
that flanked the liquid current, so as to divert it from the menaced
city. A passage was thus opened for a rivulet of melted matter, which
flowed in the direction of Paterno; but the inhabitants of that town
being alarmed for their safety, took up arms against Papalardo,
whose fifty workmen would hardly have been able to cope with the
powers of nature. Thus, slowly but irresistibly, the lava advanced up
to the walls of Catania, which, being formed of huge Cyclopean
blocks, and no less than sixty feet high, at first stemmed the fiery
stream. But the glowing floods, pressing against the rampart, rose
higher and higher, and finally reaching its summit, rushed over it in
fiery cataracts, and destroying part of the town, at length disgorged
themselves into the sea, where they formed a not inconsiderable
promontory.
A truly gigantic conflict might naturally be expected from the
meeting of two such powerful and hostile bodies as fire and water.
This, however, is by no means the case, for as soon as the lava
enters the sea, the rapid evaporation of the water that comes into
immediate contact with it accelerates the cooling of the surface and
thickens the hard external crust to such a degree that very soon all
communication is cut off between the water and the fiery mass.
While the lava continues to advance from the land, the crust of
scoriæ is prolonged in the same proportion, and should it be rent
here and there, steam is at once developed with such violence as to
prevent all further access of the water into the interior of the
fissures. Thus, Breislak informs us that, in 1794, the eruption of a
lava-stream into the Bay of Naples, near Torre del Greco, took place
with the greatest tranquillity, so that he himself was able to observe
the advancing of the lava into the sea while seated in a boat
immediately near it, without being disturbed by explosions or any
other violent phenomenon.
As the crust of scoriæ is so bad a conductor of heat, it occasions a
very slow cooling and hardening in the interior of the lava-stream,
forming as it were a vessel in which the liquid fire can be retained
and preserved for a long time. When Elie de Beaumont visited the
lava-stream of Etna, nearly two years after its eruption in 1832, its
interior was still so warm that he could not hold his finger in the hot
steam issuing from its crevices. It has also been proved, on
trustworthy evidence, that after twenty-five and thirty years, many
lava-streams of Etna still continued to emit heat and steam; and
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