A 



JOURNAL, 



or 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS 



JUNE, 1810, 



ARTICLE I. 



On the Volcanoes of Jorulio ; by Alexander Humboldt*. 



JL HE grand catastrophe in which this volcanic mountain Large bill 



issued from the earth, and by which the face of a consi- th r ownu . p ya 



11 volcano m 



derable extent of ground was totally altered, was perhaps 1759. 



one of the most extensive physical changes, that the history 



of our globe exhibits. Geology points out spots in the 



ocean, where, within the last two thousand years, volcanic 



islets have arisen above the surface of the sea, as near the 



Azores, in the Archipelago, and on the south of Iceland: 



but it records no instance of a mountain of scoriae and 



ashes, 517 niet. [063 yards} above the old level of the 



neighbouring plains, suddenly formed in the centre of a 



thousand small burning cones, thirty-six leagues from the 



seashore, [and forty-two leagues from any other volcano. 



This phenomenon remained unknown to the mineralogists 



and natural philosophers of Europe, though it took place 



* Extracted from his Essay on New Spain. Journal tie Physique, 

 toI. LXIX, p. 149. 



Vol. XXVI. No. 117.—-June, 1810. G but 



