122 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



open up, ejecting torrents of mud or sulphu- 

 reous winds. Clouds of black smoke, fountains 

 of boiling liquids, gusts of deadly gases, jets of 

 steam, and up-springing flames, form its dreadful 

 accompaniments, and spread desolation and de- 

 spair around, while thousands of overwhelmed 

 men and animals rend the air with their cries. 

 Shoals of poisoned fish are cast upon the uneasy 

 shore, and myriads of reptiles and vermin die 

 suffocated by the streams of carbonic acid and 

 other gases which issue from the earth. 



These terrible phenomena plainly indicate 

 the violence of the strugglings of the chemistry 

 of the interior. Hence the up-heaving move- 

 ments of the solid earth, reeling, we might sup- 

 pose, under the accumulated pressure of elastic 

 vapours, originating from sudden or it may be 

 more gradual chemical decompositions within. 

 The clouds of steam, the emissions of different 

 gases, the concussions, and the out-bursting 

 flames, these are all indicative of the existence 

 of chemical phenomena, probably not materially 

 different from the experiments of the laboratory, 

 except in quantity, duration, and force. It 

 would be vain to attempt to define the nature 

 or mode of origin of the elastic vapour, or 

 vapours, the enormous pressure of which is 

 supposed to be equal to the production of 

 such tremendous physical phenomena. In the 



