And in the first place let us take a passing glance at the probable formative process of a terrestrial volcano. Rejecting the hypothesis of Von Buch, which geologists have on the whole found to be untenable, and which ascribes the formation of all mountains to the elevation of the earth’s crust by some thrusting power beneath, we are led to regard a volcano as a pyramid of ejected matter, thrown out of and around an orifice in the external solid shell of the earth by commotions engendered in its molten nucleus. What is the precise nature and source of the ejective force geologists have not perfectly agreed upon, but we may conceive that highly expanded vapour, in all probability steam, is its primary cause. The escaping aperture may have been a weak place since the foundations of the earth were laid, or it may have been formed by a local expansion of the nucleus in the act of cooling, upon the principle enunciated in our Third Chapter; or, again, the expansile vapour may have forced its own way through that point of the confining shell that offered it the least resistance. The vent once formed, the building of the volcanic mountain commenced by the out-belching of the lava, ashes, and scoria, and the dispersion of these around the vent at distances depending upon the energy with which they were projected. As the action continued, the ejected matter would accumulate in the form of a mound, through the centre of which communication would be maintained with the source of the ejected materials and the seat of the explosive agency. The height to which the pile would rise must depend upon several conditions: upon the steady sustenance of the matter, and upon the form and weight of the component masses, which will determine the slope of the mountain’s sides. Supposing the action to subside gradually, the tapering form will be continued upwards by the comparatively gentle deposition of material around the orifice, and a perfect cone will result of some such form as that represented below, which is the outline ascribed by Professor Phillips to Vesuvius in pre-historic, or even pre-traditional times, and which may be seen in its full integrity in the cases of Etna, Teneriffe, Fussi-Yamma, the great volcanic mountain of Japan, and many others. The earliest recorded form of Vesuvius is that of a truncated cone represented in Fig. 17, which shows its condition, according to Strabo, in the century preceding the Christian Era.