322 COSMOS. 



Since I described the Hornitos which surround the vol* 

 cano of Jorullo, many analogous platforms in various regions 

 of the world, have been compared with these oven-like little 

 hills, To me, the Mexican ones, from their interior con- 

 formation, appear still to stand in a very contrasting and 

 isolated condition. If all upheavals which emit vapours are 

 to be called eruptive -cones, the Hornitos certainly deserve 

 the appellation of Fumaroles. But the denomination, erup- 

 tive-cones, would lead to the erroneous notion that there is 

 evidence that the Hornitos have thrown out scoriae, or even, 

 like many eruptive-cones, poured forth lava. Yery different, 

 for example (to advert to a great phenomenon) are the three 

 chasms in Asia Minor, upon the former boundaries of Mysia 

 and Phrygia, in the ancient burning country (Katake- 

 kaumene) " where it is dangerous to dwell (on account of 

 the earthquakes)," which Strabo calls (fivaai, or wind-bags, 

 and which the meritorious traveller, William Hamilton, has 

 rediscovered. 13 Eruptive cones such as are exhibited by the 

 island of Lancerote near Tinguaton, or by Lower Italy, or 

 (ot hardly 20 feet in height) by the declivity of the great 

 Kamtschatkan volcano, Awatscha, 14 which was ascended in 

 July, 1824, by my friend and Siberian companion, Ernst 

 Hofmann, consist of scoriae and ashes surrounding a small 

 crater, which has thrown them out, and has been in return 

 buried by them. In the Hornitos nothing like a crater is to 

 be seen, and they consist and this is an important charac- 

 ter merely of basaltic balls, with shell-like separated frag- 

 ments, without any admixture of loose angular scoriae. At 

 the foot of Vesuvius, during the great eruption of 1794 (and 



15 Strabo, lib. xiii, pp. 579 and 628 ; Hamilton, Researches in Asia 

 Minor, vol. ii, chap. 39. The most western of the three cones, now 

 called Kara Devlit, is raised 532 feet above the plain, and has emitted 

 a great lava-stream in the direction of Koula. Hamilton counted more 

 than thirty small cones in the vicinity. The three chasms (fioOpw and 

 <j>vaai of Strabo) are craters situated upon conical mountains composed 

 of scorice and lavas. 



14 Erman, Reiseum die JSrde, Bd. iii, s. 538 ; Cosmos, vol. v, p. 248, 

 Postels ( Voyage autour du Monde par le Cap. Lutke, partie hist. fc. iii, 

 p. 76) and Leopold von Buch (.Description Physique des lies Canaries, 

 p. 448) mention the similarity to the Hornitos of Jorullo. In a manu- 

 script most kindly communicated to me, Erman describes a great 

 number of truncated cones of scoriae in the immense lava-field to the 

 east of the Baidar Mountains on the peninsula of Kamtschatka. 



