120 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



of the New Continent (of which I still reckon above 28 in a state of 

 activity) have only continued to burn longer than others, because 

 the lofty mountain ridges, on which they have broken forth in rows 

 or series above long subterranean fissures, are nearer to the sea, and 

 because this proximity seems, with a few exceptions, to affect the 

 energy of the subterranean fires in some way not yet sufficiently 

 explained. Besides, both earthquakes and fire-emitting mountains 

 have periods of activity alternating with periods of repose. At 

 the present moment, (I wrote thus 42 years ago !) " physical dis- 

 quiet and political calm reign in the New Continent, while in the 

 Old the desolating strife of. nations disturbs the enjoyment of the 

 repose of nature. Perhaps a time is coming when, in this singular 

 contrast between physical and moral forces, the two sides of the 

 Atlantic will change parts. Volcanoes are quiescent for centuries 

 before they burst forth anew ; and the idea that in the so-called 

 older countries, a certain peace must prevail in nature, is founded 

 on a mere play of the imagination. There exists no reason for 

 assuming one entire side of our planet to be older or newer than the 

 other. Islands are indeed raised from the bed of the ocean by vol- 

 canic action, and gradually heightened by coral animals, as the 

 Azores and many low flat islands of the Pacific ; and these may 

 indeed be said to be newer than many Plutonic formations of the 

 European central chain. A small district of the earth, surrounded, 

 like Bohemia and Kashmeer (and like many of the valleys in the 

 Moon), by annular mountains, may, by partial inundations, be long 

 covered with water; and after the flowing off of this lake or inland 

 sea, the ground on which vegetation begins gradually to establish 

 itself might be said, figuratively, to be of recent origin. Islands 

 have become connected with each other by .the elevation of fresh 

 masses of land ; and parts of the previously dry land have been sub- 

 merged by the subsidence of the oscillating ground ; but submersions 

 so general as to embrace a hemisphere can, from hydrostatic laws, 

 only be imagined as extending at the same time over all parts of the 

 earth. The sea cannot permanently overflow the boundless plains 

 of the Orinoco and the Amazons, without also overwhelming the 

 plains adjoining the Baltic. The sequence and identity of the sedi- 

 mentary strata, and of the organic remains of plants and animals 



