broke out in the sea, at about thirty-five miles from the main land; this produced an island, which, for some time, continued to emit fire and smoke, but, in about a twelvemonth, the ocean again swallowed up this portentous production, and nothing remained but a rocky reef under the surface of the sea.

"On landing, I visited the crater: it is continually burng, with frequent explosions, and a constant throwing up of ry matter. When the smoke cleared away, we perceived heaving burning substance, which at short intervals rose d fell in great agitation. When swollen to the utmost ight, it burst with a violent explosion; and discharged 1-hot stones in a half-melted state, with showers of ashes, companied with a strong sulphureous smell. These asses are usually thrown up to the height of from seventy three hundred feet; but I computed that some of them ust have ascended above a thousand feet. I enjoyed this perb sight until nearly ten o'clock, and as it was uncomonly dark, our situation was the more dreadful and grand: r every explosion showed the abrupt precipice beneath , and the foam of the waves broke furiously against e rocks, although so far below us as to be unheard; while e explosions of the volcano shook the very ground on ich we sat."

MOUNT HECLA,

IN THE ISLAND OF ICELAND.

11s volcano, which has three summits, is 5000 feet, or arly a mile, above the level of the sea, and lies about ar miles inland from the southern coast: it is neither so evated nor so picturesque as several of the surrounding ountains; but it has been more noted than many volnoes of similar extent, on account of its situation, which poses it to the view of ships sailing to Greenland and orth America. The surrounding territory has been so evastated by its eruptions, as to be entirely deserted; nd the natives assert, that it is impossible to ascend he mountain, on account of the number of dangerous ogs which are constantly emitting sulphureous flames nd smoke. The more elevated and central summit covered over with boiling springs, and large craters, hich continually propel fire and smoke.

When Sir Joseph Banks and his companions visited it, in 772, they found a tract of land of about seventy miles in xtent, entirely ruined by the lava which had burst forth in 766; and, in order to ascend the mountain for the purose of examination, they had to travel many miles over the ame destructive material. Sir G. Mackenzie, who has given us the best account of Mount Hecla, in proceeding o the southern extremity, descended by a dangerous path nto a valley, which had a small lake in one corner, whilst he opposite extremity was bounded by a perpendicular ace of rock, resembling in its broken and rugged, but glassy appearance, a stream of hardened lava. On ascending one of the abrupt pinacles, which rise out of this extraordinary mass of rock, he beheld a region, the desolation of which can scarcely be paralleled! Fantastic groups of hills, craters, and lava, leading the eye to distant snowcrowned jockuls, or inferior mountains; mists arising from waterfalls; lakes embosomed among bleak mountains; all marked the furious action of fire!

The earliest eruption of Mount Hecla is said to have occurred in 1004; since which time there have been about twenty others. That of 1693 was the most dreadful, and occasioned the most terrible devastations; the ashes having been thrown over the island, in every direction, to the distance of more than 100 miles. There has been no eruption of lava from the mountain since 1766; but for some years afterwards, flames continued to issue in considerable quantity.

SUB-MARINE VOLCANO.

THE most tremendous eruption of the Icelandic volcanoes that has occurred in modern times, took place in the year 17 83. As a prelude to what followed, a sub-marine volcano,

On the 11th of June, in the before-mentioned year, the cone called SKAPTA JOKUL, threw out a torrent of lava, which flowed into the river Skapta, and completely dried it up, occupying the whole bed of the stream, which, in many places, was from 400 to 600 feet in depth, and 200 in width. This enormous flood of fire flowed along this rocky

flowed, and the body of water was entirely dissipated by the rival element, which filled up the whole space. The torrent proceeded till it reached some beds of ancient lava, which were perforated with caverns; the hot torrent rushing into these, converted the water in them into steam, which, finding no vent, blew up masses of rock by its elastic power to upwards of 150 feet in height. On the 18th, another torrent of lava issued from the same crater, and flowed with fearful rapidity over the surface of the former, damming, by its course, some tributary streams of the Skapta, and, by causing them to overflow villages, produced great devastation and ruin. The stream of lava, after flowing many days, precipitated itself over a cataract, and filled up an enormous gulf, which this great waterfall had been hollowing out for ages. This eruption did not entirely cease till the end of two years from its commencement, and destroyed no less than twenty villages, while nearly 9000 human beings became either its immediate prey, or were suffocated by the noxious vapours which filled the air, and afterwards by a famine, produced by the destruction of the cultivated regions by showers of ashes.

This convulsion is remarkable for having produced the largest body of lava ever witnessed since the period of authentic records. The largest stream of lava was fifty, the other forty miles in length, and varied from seven to fifteen miles in breadth, its ordinary thickness was 100 feet, while in some defiles it was as much as 600!

Cotopaxi.

ALTHOUGH CHIMBORAZO, the king of the Andes, which is 22,000 feet, or more than four miles high, is evidently of volcanic origin and character, our limits will not permit us to enter into a description of it; we shall, therefore, pass on to COTOPAXI, the loftiest of the American mountains, which, at recent epochs, have undergone eruption.

Although this tremendous volcano lies near the equator, its summits, like those of Chimborazo, are covered with perpetual snows. the height, to the top of its immense crater, is almost 19,000 feet, or three miles and a half. The explosions and eruptions from Cotopaxi are more frequent and disastrous than those of any others in cinders, thrown out of it, cover a surface of several square the kingdom of Quito: the masses of rock, and scoriæ or leagues; and would of themselves form, were they heaped together, a prodigious mountain.

In 1738, the flames of this volcano arose 3000 feet above the brink of the crater; and, in 1744, its bellowings were heard at the distance of several hundred miles. On the 4th of April, 1768, the quantity of ashes was so great, that the air was completely darkened over a great part of Quito, until three o'clock in the afternoon!

During twenty years before 1803, no smoke or vapour had issued from the crater; but then, the snows began sud dently to melt; and, in a single night, the subterranean fires became so active, that the outer walls of the cone

were quite naked and of the dark colour of vitrified scoria, or lava. "At the port of Guayaquil," says Humboldt, "which is fifty-two leagues distant, in a straight line, we heard, day and night, the roaring and explosions of this volcano, like continued discharges of a battery of powerful artillery; and we distinguished these tremendous sounds even while sailing on the Pacific Ocean!"

The plain of MALPAIS, in Mexico, is part of an elevated table land, raised from 2000 to 3000 feet above the level of the sea, surrounded by hills, indicating, by their structure, that the region had been formerly the seat of volcanic agency; but since the discovery of America, no convulsion of this kind had been known; and, at the middle of the last century, the place now occupied by the volcano of Jorullo, presented to the view fertile fields, watered by the brooks Cuitemba and S. Pedro. In June, 1759, began a succession of earthquakes, which terminated, after a continuance of more than two months, in an eruption of flames from the surface of the ground, while fragments of heated rocks were projected to great heights in the air. Baron Humboldt, who visited this spot twenty years afterwards, found a mass of matter, covering four miles square, surrounding the cones as a centre, and 550 feet in height, and still, at this interval of time, so hot that he could light a cigar when inserted into the fissures at a depth of a few inches! The two streams above mentioned disappeared on the eastern side of this mass, and reappeared as hot springs on the western limits.

ERUPTION OF SUMBAWA. SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES, in his History of Java, describes one of the most awful eruptions recorded in history, which occurred in the mountain of Tomborow, in the island of SUMBAWA. It commenced on the 5th of April, 1815, reached its acmé on the 12th, and did not entirely cease till July. The sound of the terrific explosions was heard in Sumatra, at the distance of upwards of 900 miles; and at Ternate, in another direction, more than 700 miles off. Of 12,000 persons who were on the island, only six-andtwenty survived the catastrophe. This fearful visitation was accompanied by hurricanes, which carried up into the air men, horses, and other animals, and, uprooting the largest trees, scattered them on the surrounding sea; such a fall of ashes occurred during the eruption that they rendered houses uninhabitable which were situated forty miles from the volcano, and were carried in sufficient quantities towards Java and Celebes as to darken the air for 300 miles; while those which fell into the sea to the west of Sumatra, formed a bed of two feet thick, and several miles in extent, which impeded ships in their progress. In Java, in the day time, these ashes produced a darkness more perfect than that of any night. The sea rose suddenly on the coast of Sumbawa, and the adjoining islands from two to twelve feet, causing a wave, which rushed up the rivers, and then as suddenly subsided; and, in one place, over

flowed a town called Tomboro, and remained permanently at a depth of eighteen feet, on a spot where there had before been dry land. The area over which noises and other indirect effects of this convulsion were perceived, was 1000 English miles in circumference.

THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. THE whole island of Hawaii, or OwHYHEE, covering 4000 square miles, and from the summit of its lofty mountains down to the beach, 15,000 or 16,000 feet above the level of the sea, may be considered one complete mass of volcanic matter, in various stages of decomposition; but the principal volcano now in activity is that of KIRAUBA, about twenty miles from the sea shore, the crater of which is surrounded by steep rocks, forming an immense wall many miles in extent.

On visiting this crater, says, Mr. Ellis, " astonishment and awe for some moments rendered us mute, and like statues we stood fixed to the spot, with our eyes riveted on the abyss below. Immediately before us yawned an im mense gulf, in the form of a crescent, about two miles in length from N.E. to S.W., nearly a mile in width, and ap parently about 800 feet deep. The bottom was covered with lava and the S.W. and Northern parts of it were one vast flood of burning matter, in a state of terrific ebullition, rolling to and fro its " fiery surge" and flaming billows. Fiftyone conical islands, of varied form and size, containing so many craters, rose either round the edge, or from the sur face of the burning lake. Twenty-two constantly threw out columns of grey smoke, or pyramids of brilliant flame; and several of these at the same time vomited from their burning mouths, streams of lava, which rolled in blazing torrents down their black and rugged sides into the boiling

mass below."

The natives suppose Kirauea to be the residence of some of their deities, who came from the neighbouring island of Tahiti, and who, whenever they were disappointed of receiving the tribute due to them from the inhabitants of the island, vented their displeasure by filling Kirauea with lava, and spouting it out upon the surrounding district.

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SULPHUR ISLAND IN THE JAPANESE SEA. "THE sulphuric volcano, from which this island takes its name, says Captain Basil Hall, "is on the north-west side; it emits white smoke, and the smell of sulphuris very strong on the lee side of the crater. The cliffs near the volcano are of a pale-yellow colour, interspersed with brown streaks; the ground in this place is very rugged, as the strata lie in all directions, and are much broken; on the top is a thin coat of brown grass. The south end of the island is of considerable height, of a deep blood-red colour, with here and there a spot of bright green; the strata which are here nearly horizontal, are cut by a whin dyke, running from the top to the bottom of the cliff, projecting from its face like a wall.