VOLCANO 



6112 



VOLGA 



now about 350 active volcanoes in the world 

 and many times that number that are classed 

 inct. This cla.vMik'ution. however, can- 

 not be considered as fixed. Dormant and even 

 extinct volcanoes may become active, and 

 those that are active may become extinct. 

 Lassen Peak, near Mount Shasta in California, 

 for instance, had been dormant for more than 

 sixty years when in May, 1914, it began to show 

 signs of activity. From June 8 to July 18 it 

 discharged a column of steam that sometimes 

 extended 10,000 feet above the summit of the 

 mountain, and about a year later this was fol- 

 lowed by a river of mud which flowed down the 

 north side of the mountain, causing serious 

 damage to the farms and forests in the vicinity. 



Location of Volcanoes. The map on page 

 1906 shows that most volcanoes are on or near 

 the coast, or on islands. The great mountain 

 ranges of North and South America, the Rocky 

 Mountains, the Cascades, the Sierra Nevadas 

 and the Andes contain many noted peaks that 

 are extinct volcanoes. Among these are Mount 

 Mazama, in Oregon, whose crater is the cup 

 that holds the celebrated Crater Lake, more 

 than 2,000 feet deep; Mount Rainier, in Wash- 

 ington; Mount Shasta in California, and numer- 

 ous .others in the United States, Canada and 

 Alaska. 



In Mexico is Popocatepetl, 17,500 feet; Ori- 

 zaba, 18,250 feet, and a number of other peaks 

 of nearly equal altitude; a number of the vol- 

 canic cones of the Andes are of even greater 

 altitude. Mauna Loa and Kilauea in Hawaii 

 have a world-wide recognition; Japan is noted 

 for Fujiyama, the most perfdct volcanic cone 

 in the world, and there are numerous volcanoes, 

 active and extinct, in the islands of the South 

 Pacific. Etna, Stromboli and Vesuvius, all in 

 the Mediterranean Sea, comprise the noted 

 volcanoes of Europe. Those named above, a 

 number in the Aleutian Islands, those of Ha- 

 waii and the Philippine Islands include most 

 active volcanoes of the present time. W.F.R. 



Consult Bonney's Volcanoes: Their Structure 

 d)i (I Significance. 



Related Subjects. In connection with this 

 discussion, the reader will find much that i.s of 

 interest in the following articles : 

 Aconcagua Lava 



Ararat Mauna Loa 



Cotopaxi Mountain 



Earthquake Pompeii 



Etna Popocatepetl 



Fujiyama Rainier, Mount 



Herculaneum Shasta, Mount 



Hood, Mount Vesuvius 



Kilimanjaro 



VOLE, an English name for several species 

 of small rodents belonging to the rat family, 

 particularly the watir role and the field vole, 

 which inhabit the temperate zones of both 

 hemispheres. Water voles have small ears and 



THE VOLE 



short, hairy tails. In swimming they use only 

 the hind legs, and in spite of their water habits 

 do not have webbed feet. Their fur is dark 

 brown or black. Field voles, or short-tailed 

 field mice, have stumpy tails and thick bodies, 

 and are about the size of common mice. Their 

 fur is a grayish-tan. They are so numerous 

 at the harvesting season that they become a 

 plague and do great damage to the grain crops. 

 Bank voles resemble them, but have larger 

 ears and long tails, and are in color a rusty 

 brown, somewhat resembling the color of mud. 



VOL'GA, a Russian river, the longest in Eu- 

 rope. With its tributaries it furnishes more 

 than 20,000 miles of navigable waterway to a 

 region in which live 50,000,000 people. The 

 Volga itself is about 2,300 miles long; two of 

 its branches, the Oka and the Kama, are each 

 longer than any other European rivers except 

 the Danube. Rising near Petrograd, the Volga 

 flows southeast and empties into the Caspian 

 Sea, eighty-six feet below sea level. Its delta 

 has over 200 mouths, of which only eight are 

 of considerable size. 



Commerce. The Volga has on its banks Sara- 

 tov, a city of over 200,000 people, and six other 

 cities each with a population of over 100,000. 

 It is connected by canal with Petrograd, the 

 Baltic Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Nearly all 

 the shipping goes upstream. Much of the 

 downstream traffic is in lumber, as Ihe three 

 southernmost provinces on its banks are tree- 

 less. The delta and the adjacent Caspian 

 waters are one of the world's greatest fishing 

 grounds. See map, following page 2092. 



History. The Volga is mentioned in the 

 geography of Ptolemy (which see), and Astra- 

 khan, at its mouth, is an ancient town. The 

 river basin was prominent in the history of the 

 great migrations. A powerful Bulgarian empire 



