2GG ' ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



Wasliinp:tnn Territorios. Tho .su1)liinitv ami jjrandeur of that 

 view 1 luust h-ave to the iniaji^iuation of the reader. 

 • •• A caflon of enonuous deplli pUmges down ah)n^ the south- 

 east bank, and is filh'd in part hy a <rlaeier evich'.nlly in iiiotion, and 

 liavin<j l)i'lo\v a very aljrupt termination. Terminal and lateral 

 moraines mark its conrse, and a torrent of water issues from 

 beneath. While we delayed here, an avalanehe of roeks, an im- 

 mense mass, started by tlie wind, thundired down the left wall 

 of this caiion sevt-ral thousand fe»'t, and its traek was marked l)y 

 a trail of while smoke. On the west side of tho aneient crater, 

 at the base of a vast cra<:;gy pinnacle of rocks (a portion of the 

 aneient rim of the crater), is still an ojx'n abyss, wlu-nee ^ssue 

 consUmtly volumes of sir(>n<;ly snlpimrons smoke. That there is 

 also heat there, is evident from tlie inira«'nse depression of the 

 snow about this place, — depressed not less tlian one thousand 

 feet below the snows which lill to the brim other portions of tho 

 ancient crater." 



MUD VOLCANOES. 



Prof. Ansted communicated a paper to the Geolopfical Society 

 on the mud volcanoes and salt lakes ol' the Crimea, j^ivin<^ an 

 account of his recent explorations of the seat of the great Russian 

 cami)aign. He thinks that mud volcanoes are due to causes not 

 ditferent in their nature from those of ordinary volcanoes, though 

 far less powerful in degree. He concIud(!S that the facts, 1, 

 That the volcanic axis is identical with the great elevation axis ; 

 2, That the axis of the smallest and most recent action of mud 

 volcanoes is, in like manni-r, parallel to the most imi)ortant move- 

 ments that have ail'ected the surface of the globe ; ;], That chem- 

 ical changes and results, mineral waters, napiitha, and eruptions 

 of various gases, are all connected very direct!}' with similar lines 

 of action ; — are all sufliciently indicative of a general causation. 



VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN THE BAY OF THERA (SANTORIN). 



From Greece, intelligence has arrived that a new island began 

 to rise above tlie level of the sea in the Bay of Tliera (Santoiin) 

 on the 4th of Februarj', 18G0, and in live days attaintul the height 

 of from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty feet, 

 Avith a length of upwards of tliree hundred and fifty feet, and a 

 bi'cadth of one hundretl feet. It continues to increase, and consists 

 of a rusty black metallic lava, very heavy, and resemljling half- 

 smelted scoria which has boiled up from a furnace. It contains 

 many small whitish semi-transi^arent particles disseminated 

 through the mass like quartz or I'elspar. 



The island of Santorin, or Tliera, is of a crescent shape, and is 

 apparently part of the crater of an enormous volcano, eighteen 

 miles in circumference. The islands of Therasia and Aspronisi 

 were sej^arated from Calliste, the Beautiful, as Santorin was tiieii 

 called, by an earthquake, described by riiuy. Three small 

 islands, thrown up at ditferent periods, are situated nearly at the 

 centre of the crater, and it is to the south of one of these, Neo- 



