On Subterranean Sounds heard at Nakous. 153 



self into the sea, or under the low land on the shore. The 

 grey, and in some places apparently calcined sides of the 

 great crater before us, the fissures which intersected the sur- 

 face of the plain on which we stood, — the long banks of sul- 

 phur on the opposite side of the abyss ; — the vigorous action 

 of the numerous small craters on its borders ; the dense co- 

 lumns of vapours and smoke that rose at the north and south 

 ends of the plain, together with the ridge of steep rocks by 

 which it was surrounded, rising perpendicularly in some 

 places 300 or 400 feet, presented an immense volcanic panora- 

 ma, the effect of which was greatly increased by the constant 

 roaring of the vast furnaces below. 



Beside the volcano now described, there are several extinct 

 ones in Owhyhee. * Captain King makes one of these, viz. 

 Mouna Roa 16,020 feet high, while he makes Mouna Kaa, 

 whose peaks are constantly covered with snow, 18,400 feet. 

 Mr Ellis reckons the height of this at between 15,000 or 

 16,000 feet. 



Mr Ellis regards the whole Island of Owhyhee, (of about 

 4000 square miles,) as one complete mass of lava. " Perfo- 

 rated,"" says he, " with innumerable apertures in the shape of 

 craters, the island forms a hollow cone over one vast fur- 

 nace, situated in the heart of a stupendous marine mountain 

 rising from the bottom of the sea ; or possibly the fires may 

 rage with augmented force beneath the bed of the ocean, 

 rearing through the superincumbent weight of water the base 

 of Hawaii, and at the same time forming a pyramidal funnel 

 from the furnace to the atmosphere." 



Art. XXIII. — On the Subterranean Sounds heard at Na- 

 kous, on the Red Sea. 



Baron Humboldt informs us, on the authority of most credible 

 witnesses, that subterranean sounds like those of an organ are 

 heard towards sunrise, by those who sleep upon the granite 

 rocks on the banks of the Orinoco. Messrs Jomard, Jollois, and 

 Devilliers, three of the naturalists who accompanied Bonaparte 



* See the Scientific Intelligence under General Science in this Num- 

 ber. 



