298 CONNEXION OF THE ELEVATOR? [CHAP. xiv. 



mediate district of Valdivia, where the volcano of Villarica was 

 noways affected, whilst in the Cordillera in front of Chiloe, two 

 of the volcanos burst forth at the same instant in violent action. 

 These two volcanos, and some neighbouring ones, continued for 

 a long time in eruption, and ten months afterwards were again 

 influenced by an earthquake at Concepcion. Some men, cutting 

 wood near the base of one of these volcanos, did not perceive the 

 shock of the 20th, although the whole surrounding Province was 

 then trembling; here we have an eruption relieving and taking 

 the place of an earthquake, as would have happened at Concepcion, 

 according to the belief of the lower orders, if the volcano at Antuco 

 had not been closed by witchcraft. Two years and three quarters 

 afterwards, Valdivia and Chiloe were again shaken, more violently 

 than on the 20th, and an island in the Chonos Archipelago was 

 permanently elevated more than eight feet. It will give a better 

 idea of the scale of these phenomena, if (as in the case of the 

 glaciers) we suppose them to have taken place at corresponding 

 distances in Europe : then would the land from the North Sea to 

 the Mediterranean have been violently shaken, and at the same 

 instant of time a large tract of the eastern coast of England would 

 have been permanently elevated, together with some outlying 

 islands, a train of volcanos on the coast of Holland would have 

 burst forth in action, and an eruption taken place at the bottom 

 of the sea, near the northern extremity of Ireland and lastly, the 

 ancient vents of Auvergne, Cantal, and Mont d'Or would each 

 have sent up to the sky a dark column of smoke, and have long 

 remained in fierce action. Two years and three quarters after- 

 wards, France, from its centre to the English Channel, would have 

 been again desolated by an earthquake, and an island permanently 

 upraised in the Mediterranean. 



The space, from under which volcanic matter on the 20th was 

 actually erupted, is 720 miles in one line, and 400 miles in another 

 line at right angles to the first : hence, in all probability, a sub- 

 terranean lake of lava is here stretched out, of nearly double the 

 area of the Black Sea. From the intimate and complicated man- 

 ner in which the elevatory and eruptive forces were shown to be 

 connected during this train of phenomena, we may confidently 

 come to the conclusion, that the forces which slowly and by little 

 starts uplift continents, and those which at successive periods pour 

 forth volcanic matter from open orifices, are identical. From many 



