in the Pacific, (^c. 73 



having a circuit of twenty, forty, or even eighty miles, are 

 thus based ; it is rather startling to assert that such a multitude 

 of submarine craters, and of such varied and anomalous con- 

 figuration, were grouped together in so small a space as the 

 coral archipelago of Polynesia ; not to mention the still great- 

 er number that, if this theory is correct, must have existed in 

 other parts of the Pacific, and in the Indian Ocean, where 

 similar formations prevail to a great extent. There is, I be- 

 lieve, nothing analogous to this hypothetical huddling togeth- 

 er of craters in any of the present volcanic regions of the 

 globe. It is true, that the Galapagos have been estimated to 

 contain from fifteen to eighteen hundred craters, of various 

 magnitude, but nine-tenths perhaps of these, are rather to be 

 regarded as funnels, or chimnies, composed of scoria, or gravel 

 and ashes, which are constantly crumbling in and becoming 

 obliterated merely through the action of the weather ; and 

 could not have been formed under water at all. It is indeed 

 very probable that at some remote period of the past, the 

 agency of internal fires may have been much more powerfully 

 manifested than at a later day, and the vents therefore much 

 more numerous then than since the earth received its present 

 form. But admitting that submarine volcanoes once existed 

 in the number and limited space required by this theory ; 

 there are still one or two points that would seem to be fatal 

 to it, though they appear to have been overlooked by its 

 advocates. 



From the peculiar adaptation of structure in every other 

 class of animated beings to certain habits and conditions, 

 analogy would certainly lead us to the conclusion, that the 

 organization of creatures flourishing so luxuriantly near the 

 surface, could hardly be capable of supporting the great pres- 

 sure resulting from ^such a column of water as would rest 

 upon them at profound depths. But besides this objection, 

 there was the improbability that beings so frail could exist 

 equally well, amid temjjeratures so widely ditferent as those 

 of the surface of the ocean and its bed or any considerable 

 depth. In the parallel of 16° South, where the surface tem- 

 perature was 82° Fahr., that of six hundred feet below it 



10 



