THE EAkTH. Ij 



■'ost famous is that of Alboiiras, near Mount Taurus, the sum. 

 mit of which is continually on fire, and covers the whole adja- 

 cent country with asl.es. In the island of Teniate there is a 

 volcano, which, some travellers assert, biu'ns most furiously i i 

 the times of the equinoxes, because of the winds which thdi 

 contribute to increase the flames. In the Alolucro islands, 

 there are many burning mountains ; they are also seen in Japan 

 and the islands adjacent; and in Java and Sumatra, as well a< 

 ill other of the Philippine Islands. In AtVica there is a cavern, 

 near Fez, which continually sends forth eitlier smoke or flamesj 

 In the Cape de V^erde islands, one of them, called the Island d •■ 

 Fuego, continually burns ; and the Portuguese, who frequently 



from their ignited mouths streams of lava, which rolled in blass'.ng torrents 

 down f'leir black indented sides into the boiling mass below. The exi^ten<■l• 

 of these conical craters led us to conclude, that the boiling caldron of lava 

 before us did not form the focus of the volcani) ; that this mass of melted lava 

 was Ciimparatively shallow ; and that the basin in which it was contained 

 was separated, by a stratum of solid matter, from the great volcanic abyss, 

 which constantly poured out its melted contents through these numerona 

 craters into tliis upper reservoir. We were further inclined to this opinion, 

 from the vast columns of vapour continually ascending from the chasms in 

 the vicinity of the sulphur banks and pnols of water, for they must have been 

 produced by oilier fire than that which caused the ebullitidn in the laia at 

 the bottom of the great crater ; and also by noticing a number of smHll era. 

 ters, in vigorous action, situated high up the sides of the great gulf, and 

 apparently quite detached from it. The streams of lava which they emitted 

 Fulled down into the lake, and mingled with the melted mass there, which, 

 though thro.\ n up by difi'erent apertures, had perhaps been originally fused 

 in one vast furnace. The sides of the gulf befure us, although composed of 

 ditierent strata of ancient lava, were perpendicular fur about 400 teet, and 

 rose from a wide horizDntiil ledge nf solid black lava of irregular breadth, 

 but exti'iidiiig completely round. Beneath this ledi<e the sides sloped grad 

 ually towanis the b^irning lake, wliirh w;is, as nearly as we could judge, :JOC 

 or 100 feet loiver. It was ev dent that the large crater had been recently 

 filled with liquid lava up to this black lidge, and had, by some subterranean 

 ranal, emptied itself into the sea, or upon the low hind on the shore ; and in 

 all prohabiUty this evacuation hu'i caused the inundation of the Kapapala 

 coast, wh ch took place, as we afterwards learned, about throe weeks prior 

 to our visit. The gray, and in some places apparently calcined, aides of tlio 

 great crater before ua ; the fissures which intersected the surface ot the plain 

 oil which we were standing; the long banks of sulphur on the opposite side 

 of the abyss ; the vigorous action of the numerous small craters on its bor. 

 ders ; the dense columns of vapour and smoke that rose at the north and south 

 end of the plain ; together with the ridi;e of steep rocks by which it wassur. 

 rounded, risin? probably in some places 300 <ir 4U0 feet in perpendicular 

 height, presented an immense volcanic panorama, the eflect of which waa 

 KTC-itly Hgumcnted by the otnstant ro:)ri>i8^ of t!ie vast furnaces below." 



G 'i 



