Ixxviii NOTES. 



crater in the crater-lake) which Delamare has described so circumstantially and 

 with so much scientific exactness in his letter to Arago (Nov. 18/42, Comptes ren- 

 dus de 1'Acad. des Sc. t. xvi. p. 756). The great eruption in Dec. 1754 (an earlier 

 and more violent one had taken place in September 1716) destroyed the old village 

 of Taal, situated on the south-western shores of the lake, and which has been sub- 

 sequently rebuilt further from the volcano. The small island in the lake, on 

 which the volcano rises, is called Isla del Volcan (Buzeta's work above referred 

 to). The absolute height of the volcano of Taal is about 890 feet. It is, 

 therefore, like Kosima, one of the very lowest. At the time of the American 

 expedition under Captain Wilkes (1842), it was in full activity. See United 

 States Explor. Exped. vol. v. p. 317. 



( 338 ) p. 242. Humboldt, Examen crit. de 1'Hist. de la Ge'ogr. t. iii. p. 135; 

 Hannonis Periplus in Hudson's Geogr. Grseci Min. t. i. p. 45. 



( 339 ) p. 242. Kosmos, Bd. i. S. 238 (English edition, p. 217). 



( 34 ) p. 244. For the situation of this volcano, which in smallness is only 

 exceeded by the volcanoes of Tanna and of the Mendana, see the fine Map of the 

 Japanese Empire by F. von Siebold, 1840. 



( 341 ) p. 244. I do not here name, with the Peak of Teneriffe, among is- 

 land volcanoes, Mauna-roa, to whose conical form its name does not correspond ; 

 for in the Sandwich island language Mauna signifies mount, and rba signifies 

 long and very. Nor do I name Hawaii, the height of which was long debated, 

 and which was long described as an unopened trachytic dome. The celebrated 

 crater of Kiraueah, a, lake of molten lava, situated to the east of Mauna-roa, 

 near its foot, is 3969 feet high according to Wilkes. Compare the excellent de- 

 scription in Charles Wilkes's Exploring Expedition, vol. iv. p. 165 196. 



( 342 ) p. 245. Letter from Fr. Hoffmann to Leop. von Buch, On the geolo- 

 gical Constitution of the Lipari Islands, in Poggend. Annalen, Bd. xxvi. 1832, 

 S. 59. Volcano, 1268 feet high according to the recent measurement of Ch. 

 Sainte Claire Deville, had strong eruptions of scoriaj and ashes in 1444, at the 

 end of the sixteenth century, in 1731, in 1739, and in 1771. Its fumaroles 

 contain ammonia, borate of selenium, sulphuret of arsenic, phosphorus, and, 

 according to Bornemann, traces of iodine. The three last-named substances are 

 here found for the first time among volcanic products. (Comptes Rendus de 

 1'Acad. des Sc. t. xliii. 1856, p. 683.) 



( 3J3 ) p. 245. Squier, in the American Association (tenth annual meeting, 

 at New Haven, 1850). 



( 344 ) p. 245. See Franz Junghuhn's highly instructive work, Java, seine 

 Gestalt und Pflanzendecke, 1852, Bd. i. S. 99. Ringgit is now almost extinct; 

 many thousand human beings perished in its terrible eruptions in 1586. 



