372 COSMOS. 



According to the most exact enumeration we yet possess, 

 the range of the Aleutian Isles, stretching over 960 geo- 

 graphical miles, seems to contain above thirty-four volcanoes, 

 the greater part ol them active in modern historical times. 

 Thus we see here (in 54 and 60 latitude, and 160 

 196 west longitude) a stripe of the whole floor of the 

 ocean between two great continents in a constant state of 

 formative and destructive activity. How many islands in 

 the course of centuries, as in the group of the Azores, 

 may there not be near becoming visible above the surface of 

 the ocean, and how many more which, after having long 

 appeared, have sunk either wholly or partially unobserved ! 

 For the mingling of races, and the migration of nations, 

 the range of the Aleutian Islands furnishes a channel from 

 thirteen to fourteen degrees more southerly than that of 

 Behring's Straits, by which the Tchutches seem to have 

 crossed from America to Asia, and even to the other side of 

 the river Anadir. 



The range of the Kurile Islands, from the extreme point 

 of Kamtschatka to Cape Brought on (the northernmost pro- 

 montory of Jesso) in a longitudinal space of 720 geographi- 

 cal miles, exhibits from eight to ten volcanoes, still for the 

 most part in a state of ignition. The northernmost of 

 these, on the island of Alaid, known for its great eruptions 

 in the years 1770 and 1793, is well worthy of being accu- 

 rately measured, its height being calculated at from 12,000 

 to 15,000 feet. The much less lofty Pic Sarytshew (4193 

 feet according to Horner) on Mataua, and the southernmost 

 Japanese Kuriles, Urup, Jetorop, and Kunasiri, have also 

 been very active volcanoes. 



We now come in the order of succession of the volcanic 

 range to Jesso, and the three larger Japanese Islands, re- 

 specting which the celebrated traveller, Herr von Siebold, 

 has kindly communicated to me a large and important work 

 for assistance in my Cosmos. This will serve to correct what- 

 ever was defective in the notices which I borrowed from the 

 great Japanese Encyclopedia in my Fraqmens de Geologic 

 et de Climatologie Asiatiques (t. i, pp. 217 234), and in 

 Asie Centrale (t. ii, pp. 540552). 



The large island of Jesso, which is very quadrangular in 

 its northern portion (lat. 41^ to 45jJ), separated by the 



