Note 3897 — BOOK V. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED.

See B. ii. c. 110. The flame which continually burned on this mountain has been examined by Beaufort, the modern traveller. The name of the mountain is now Yanar: it is formed of a mass of scaglia with serpentine. Spratt says that the flame is nothing more than a stream of inflammable gas issuing from a crevice, such as is seen in several places in the Apennines. By Homer it is represented as a fabulous monster, which is explained by Servius, the commentator of Virgil, in the following manner. He says that flames issue from the top of the mountain, and that there are lions in the vicinity; the middle part abounds in goats, and the lower part with serpents. Simena appears to be unknown.