TRUE VOLCANOES. 349 



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

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

 the greater part of them active in modern historical times. 

 Thus we see here (in 54 and 60 latitude, and 160-196 

 west longitude) a strip of the whole floor of the ocean be- 

 tween 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 min- 

 gling of races, and the migration of nations, the range of the 

 Aleutian Islands furnishes a channel from thirteen to four- 

 teen 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 Broughton (the northernmost prom- 

 ontory of Jesso), in a longitudinal space of 720 geographical 

 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 accurately measured, 

 its height being calculated at from 12,000 to 15,000 feet. The 

 much less lofty Pic Sarytshew (4193 feet according to Homer) 

 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 traveler, Heir 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 Fragmens de Geologic et 

 de Climatologie Asiatiques (torn, i., p. 217234), and in Asie 

 Centrale (torn, ii., p. 540-552). 



The large island of Jesso, which is very quadrangular in 

 its northern portion (lat. 41i to 45-J ) separated by the 

 Strait of Saugar, or Tsugar, from Niphon, and by that of La 

 Perouse from the island of Krafto (Kara-fu-to), bounds by 

 its northeast cape the Archipelago of the Kuriles ; but not 

 far from the northwest Cape Romanzow, on Jesso, which 

 stretches a degree and a half more northward in the Strait 

 of La Perouse, lies, in latitude 45 II 7 , the volcanic Pic de 



