"254 THE WORLZJ. 



water was thirty fathoms in depth. At the same time the cliffs? 

 of St. Michael were shattered by an earthquake. This island , 

 which was called Sabrina, from the ship of Capt. Tillard, rose 

 200 feet above the water, but soon after disappeared being corn- 

 posed almost entirely of ashes and cinders. We have already 

 noticed the Aleutian islands, as the theatre of volcanic action. In 

 the year 1806, a new island, which still remains, and consists of 

 solid rock, about four miles in circumference, was thrown up from 

 the bottom of the sea; and in 1814, another of the same charac- 

 ter, but much larger, being 3000 feet in height, was added to the 

 same group. We might enumerate many other islands formed by 

 volcanic agency did our limits permit, but we hasten to consider 

 next trie volcanoes of South America. 



In noticing the great chain of mountains which runs along the 

 western coast of America, we alluded to the five volcanic vents 

 in about the parallel of the City of Mexico, arranged in a line at 

 right angles nearly to the general direction of the mountainous 

 chain. One of these volcanoes, that of Jorullo, is particularly 

 remarkable, being the product of an eruption which occurred in 

 1759, and lasted about nine months. The volcanoes of Tuxtla, 

 Orizava, and Popocatapetl, are on the eastern side of Mexico, the 

 latter is continually burning, but seldom emits anything more 

 than smoke and ashes. At the west of the city, are the volcanoes 

 of Colima, and Jorullo, the former about 9000 feet in height, and 

 emitting smoke and ashes; between the city and this volcano lies 

 the plain of Jorullo, in which a crater was formed in 1759. In 

 that year according to Humboldt, who has minutely described the 

 phenomena, in the month of June, a subterranean noise was 

 heard in the district of Jorullo; hollow sounds of the most fright- 

 ful nature, which were accompanied by frequent earthquakes, 

 succeeded each other for from forty to fifty days ; causing great 

 terror to the inhabitants of that district. From the beginning of 

 September everything seemed to announce the complete re- 

 establishment of tranquility, when, in the night of the 28th and 

 29th, the horrible subterranean noise recommenced. The af- 

 frighted Indians fled to the mountains, soon a tract of ground, 

 from three to four square miles in extent, began to swell like waves 



