212 



COSMOS. 



continent of South America. I reckon as volcanoes, besides 

 those which are still burning and active, those volcanic form- 



Volcan de San Pedro de Atacama, on the northeastern border of the 

 Desierto of the same name, in lat. 22° 16', according to the new 

 plan of the arid sandy desert (Desierto) of Atacama, by Dr. Phi- 

 lippi, 16 miles to the northeast of the small town of San Pedro, 

 not far from the great Nevado de Chorolque. 



There is no volcano from 20|° to 30°, and, after an interruption of 

 more than 568 miles, the volcanic activity first reappears in the vol- 

 cano of Coquimbo ; for the existence of a volcano of Copiapo (lat. 27° 

 28') is denied by Meyen, while it is asserted by Philippi, who is well 

 acquainted with the country. 



II Our geographical and geological knowledge of the group of vol- 

 canoes which we include in the common name of the linear volca- 

 noes of Chili, is indebted for the first incitement to its completion, 

 and even for the completion itself, to the acute investigations of Cap- 

 tain Fitzroy in the memorable expedition of the ships Adventure and 

 Beagle, and to the ingenious and more detailed labors of Charles 

 Darwin. The latter, with his peculiar generalizing view, has grasped 

 the connection of the phenomena of earthquakes and eruptions of 

 volcanoes under one point of new. The great natural phenomenon 

 which destroyed the town of Copiapo on the 22d of November, 1822, 

 was accompanied by the upheaval of a considerable L-act of country 

 on the coast-; and during the exactly-similar phenomenon of the 20th 

 February, 1835, which did so much injury to the city of Concepcion, 

 a submarine volcano broke out, with fiery eruptions, near the shore 

 of the island of Chiloe, near Bacalao Head, and raged for a day and 

 a half. All this, depending upon similar conditions, has also occurred 

 formerly, and strengthens the belief that the series of rocky islands 

 which lies opposite to the Fjords of the main land, to the south of 

 Valdivia, and of the Fuerte Maullin, and includes Chiloe, the Arch- 

 ipelago of Chonos and Huaytecas, the Peninsula de tres Montes, and 

 the Islas de la Campana, De la Madre de Dios, De Santa Lucia and 

 Los Lobos, from 39° 53' to the entrance of the Straits of Magellan, is 

 the crest of a submerged western Cordillera projecting above the sea. 

 It is true that no open trachytic cone, no volcano, belongs to these 

 fractis ex cequore terris ; but individual submarine eruptions, some- 

 times followed and sometimes preceded by mighty earthquakes, ap- 

 pear to indicate the existence of this western fissure (Darwin, On the 

 Connection of Volcanic Phenomena, the Formation of Mountain Chains, 

 and the Effect of the same Powers, by which Continents are elevated: in 

 the Trans. Geol. Society, 2d series, vol. v., pt. 3, 1840, p. 600-615, and 

 629-631 ; Humboldt, Essai Politique sur la Xouvelle Espagne, t. i., p. 

 190, and t. ii., p. 287). 



The series of twenty-four volcanoes included in the group of Chili 

 is as follows, counting from north to south, from the parallel of Co- 

 quimbo to 46° S. lat. : 



(«.) Between the parallels of Coquimbo and Valparaiso : 



Volcan de Coquimbo (lat. 30° 5'). Meyen, th. i., s. 385. 



Volcano of Limari. 



Volcano of Chuapri. 



