The two volcanic regions known to the medieval world were Southern Italy and Sicily on the one hand and Iceland on the other. Gervase of Tilbury describes Vesuvius and the volcanic features about Naples;[1008] he says that in the vicinity of Pozzuoli there are hills with sands near the summit so hot that they hinder persons from ascending across them. On the very outskirts of Naples he speaks of a high mountain, called Mons Virginum, overlooking the sea and the surrounding country. In the month of May it belches forth a terrifying smoke with firebrands that turn to the color of carbon when burnt out. This would seem to indicate the presence of a vent connecting the mountain with the infernal regions. (“Unde illic quoddam inferni terreni spiraculum asserunt ebullire.”) The south wind blows a hot dust from the volcano which ruins the crops and fruits of the neighborhood and tends to render the land barren and sterile. To this fairly clear description of a volcano Gervase adds a fantastic tale about the preventive measures which Virgil[1009] took to avert the disaster caused by the hot winds; the poet erected a statue holding a horn which automatically tooted whenever the south wind began to blow, and for some reason repulsed the blast.[1010] Recently, however, the statue had either gone to pieces with age or else had been destroyed by malice, for the damage done by the volcanic blasts was once more repeated as in bygone days. The traveler Conrad of Querfurt looked with interest upon the volcanic features of the Phlegraean Fields to the northwest of Naples and drew attention to the confused labyrinth of passages in the interior of Monte Barbaro and to the hot springs, subterranean channels of boiling water, and other wonders of the region.[1011] Guy of Bazoches, who passed through Sicily on the way to the Holy Land, included in a letter to his nephews a striking word picture of Etna. “Sicily,” he wrote, “fears not to pierce the clouds with its immense mountain summits. Etna towers above all of these with its flaming crests upon which the opposing elements strive with each other tirelessly and indomitably in an immense conflict. For though Etna incessantly sends forth scorching heat, its summit, none the less, is white with snow, and with a wintry garment it covers its burning shoulders.”[1012] Guy mentioned also the “Isles of Vulcan” in the Sicilian Sea, “the interior of which were said to glow with eternal fires. Eolus once dwelt in these isles and was in the habit of dispensing their smokes, which were stirred up by the winds, and hence he came to be called the king of the winds.”[1013] The _Image du monde_ refers to a volcano two leagues distant at sea from Sicily; this may have been Vulcano or possibly Stromboli, though in any case the distance was underestimated.[1014] _Michael Scot on the Eolian Isles and Etna_