16 Historical 



measures 4020 meters; but I object to including among them this 

 Mount Hercules, 10,929 meters high, the discovery of which an 

 English captain, M. Lawson, very recently announced, and on which 

 he claims to have ascended to 8435 meters. In the island of Hawaii, 

 among several still active volcanoes, Mauna Loa is 4250 meters 

 high, and Mauna Kea 4195; on the neighboring island of Maui, 

 Mauna Haleakala reaches an altitude of 3110 meters. The innumer- 

 able volcanoes which form the island of Java also have lofty sum- 

 mits; Gounong-Simeron measures 3300 meters, Semeroe 3730 me- 

 ters. In Sumatra, I will mention Indrapura (3870 meters) and 

 Dempo (3300 meters); in Borneo, Kini Ballu (4175 meters). The 

 mountainous ridge of Formosa has summits of 3000 to 4000 meters. 

 In Japan, among other lofty mountains, the volcano Fujiyama, the 

 "Unequalled Mountain," with its height of 4320 meters dominates 

 the roadstead of Yeddo. Finally, at the South Pole, the lofty vol- 

 canoes of Victoria Land, Erebus (3800 meters), Melbourne (4500 

 meters), and on the north Polar Circle, those of Kamchatka, the 

 highest of which is Klioutchef (4805 meters), end this volcanic 

 girdle which edges the Pacific Ocean on all its circumference, Amer- 

 ican or Asiatic. 



On the island of Ceylon, the peak to which the pilgrims come 

 to worship the Cri-Pada, the print of the foot of Buddha or Adam, 

 rises only to 2420 meters. The mountains of Madagascar reach 3350 

 meters, at their highest point, Ankaratra. Piton de Neige, on 

 Reunion, measures 3070 meters. Finally, mention of the volcanoes 

 of Teneriffe (3715 meters) and of Etna (3310 meters) ends this 

 long list of all the places on earth the elevation of which is great 

 enough for an ascent of them to cause physiological disturbances 

 the severity of which necessarily attracts the attention of travelers. 



Summary. All of the foregoing can be summarized rapidly in 

 a striking form. Let us suppose that the quantity of water on the 

 earth should increase enough so that the sea level would rise 3000 

 meters. What would remain, emerging above an almost limitless 



ocean 



The largest stretch of land would be formed by the high pla- 

 teaux of Thibet, Vokan, and Pamir, from which would rise numer- 

 ous mountains 4000 to 5000 meters high; its area would be two or 

 three times that of France. From it would diverge series of islands 

 which would mark the chains of Thian-Shang, Indou-kouch, and 

 Soleiman, and the mountains of Yunam and China. 



At the other end of a terrestrial diameter, a long strip extending 

 from the equator to the Tropic of Capricorn, spreading out at its 



