374 



COSMOS. 



on record is that of February 1793. Vunzen and Aso jama 

 both lie east-south-east of Nangasaki." 



" The volcanoes of the great island of Niphon, again 

 reckoning from south to north, are (1) the volcano of Fusi 

 jama, scarcely 16 geographical miles distant from the 

 southern coast, in the district Fusi, province of Suruga 

 (lat. 35 18', long. 138 35'). Its height, measured in the 

 same way as the volcano of Yunzen, or Kiusiu, by some 

 young Japanese, instructed by Siebold, amounts to 3793 

 metres, or 12,441 feet ; it is therefore fully 320 feet higher 

 than the Peak of Teneriffe, with which it has been already 

 compared by Kampfer (Wilhelm Heine, Reise nach Japan, 

 1856, Bd. ii, s. 4). The upheaval of this conical moun- 

 tain is recorded in the fifth year of the reign of Mikado VI 

 (286 years before our era) in these (geognostically remark- 

 able) words : ' In the country of Omi a considerable tract 

 of land sinks, an inland lake is formed, and the volcano 

 Fusi makes its appearance ' The most violent historically 

 recorded eruptions within the Christian era are those of 

 799, 800, 863, 937, 1032, 1083, and 1707 ; since the latter 

 period the mountain has been tranquil. 2nd. The volcano 

 of Asama jama, the most central of the active volcanoes in 

 the interior of the country, distant 80 geographical miles 

 from the south-south-cast, 52 miles from the north-north- 

 west coast, in the district of Saku (province of Sinano), 

 lat. 36 22', long. 138 38'; thus lying between the meri- 

 dians of the two capitals, Mijako and Jeddo. The Asama 

 jama had an eruption as early as the year 864, contempora- 

 neously with the Fusi jama ; that of the month of July 

 1783 was particularly violent and destructive. Since that 

 time the Asama jama has maintained a constant state of 

 activity. 



"Besides these volcanoes two other small islands with 

 smoking craters have been observed by European mariners, 

 namely, 3rd. The small island of Iv6gasima or Ivosima (sima 

 signifies island, and ivo sulphur ; ga is merely an affix mark- 

 ing the nominative), Krusenstern's lie du Volcan, south of 

 Kiu-siu, in Van Diemen's Strait, 30.43'jN". lat. and 130 18' 

 E. long., distant only fifty-four miles from the above-men- 

 tioned volcano of Mitake ; the height of the volcano is 2364 

 feet (715 met). This island is mentioned by Linschoten so 



