172 O.N' THE .NATUnAL ORDER Ol-^ THE 



of Steam, which previously arose, returned into the crater. The same 

 happened during the earthquake of Calabria, 1638. Stromboli, which is 

 continually active, subsided and almost ceased smoking. Other facts of 

 a similar character might be adduced, but these will sufficiently illus- 

 trate our point. But facts of this kind, and others which will be pre- 

 sently adduced, suggested to Seneca the true nature of volcanos, for he 

 says concerning them, ''m ipsa monte non alimaitum habcnt, sed rta/n." 

 We are also no less surprised at the simultaneous occurrence of earth- 

 quakes at places immensely distant from each other. Thus the fatal 

 earthquake of 1775, which destroyed Lisbon, was felt over nearly all 

 Europe, the northern coast of Africa, and the West India Islands, or 

 over one-quarter of the Northern hemisphere. On the 16th November, 

 1827, simultaneous shocks were felt at Ochotsk in Eastern Siberia, and 

 at Bogota in South America, nineteen hundred geographical miles dis- 

 tant. On the coast of the southern Pacific their action is almost instan- 

 taneously communicated from Chili to the gulf of Guayaquil, a distance 

 of six hundred miles. In 1812 when Caraccas, South America, was de- 

 stroyed, and the country terribly convulsed, the country along the west 

 bank of the IMississippi was rent, several small villages were nearly de- 

 stroyed and the shocks felt along the upper lakes. Not unfrequently have 

 eruptions in the mountains of Mexico and the West Indies been accom- 

 panied by shocks in the valley of the Mississippi, along the lakes, and 

 the St. Lawrence. Not longer than about five years ago, during a vio- 

 lent earthquake in the island of Martinique, some of the springs in the 

 valley of the Mississippi were rendered turbid. Thus, when we lake 

 into consideration the extensive distribution and communication of vol- 

 canos with each other, the intimate connexion which exists between 

 volcanos and earthquakes ; and the magnitude of the districts in which 

 the latter are felt almost simultaneously, even where no volcanos exist, 

 we advance one step farther towards the conclusion, that the surface of 

 the earth is every where resting on subterranean fires. 



ON THE NATURAL ORDER OF THE ARTICULATE SOUNDS OF THE 

 HUMAN VOICE. 



BY PEOr. S. S. BALDEMA.N, A. M. OF COLOMBIA, PA. 



The order and relations of the letters in a philosophicl alphabet is a 

 very nice problem, the solution of which will afford considerabl aid in 

 the study of philology ; throwing light upon the variations which words 

 undergo with respect to an interchange or replacement of letters. 



The alphabet may properly commence with the vawels, the order of 



