HIGH LANDS OF THE EARTH. 211 



of Sumatra the sea was coated with a mass of cinders two feet thick, and many miles in 

 extent, and ships with difficulty forced their way through it. " We grounded," says one 

 of Sir Stamford's correspondents, " on the bank of Bima town. The anchorage of Bima 

 must have been altered considerably, as, where we grounded, the Ternate cruiser lay at 

 anchor in six fathoms a few months before." The area over which the effects of the 

 eruption extended was upwards of two thousand English miles in circumference : the 

 surface of Sumbawa was considerably altered ; acclivities were turned into valleys, and 

 valleys into elevations ; and of its unfortunate inhabitants, out of a population of twelve 

 thousand, only twenty-six persons escaped. 



The volcanic regions include those where there are active vents and extinct craters, 

 with intervening districts often shaken by earthquakes and abounding with hot springs, 

 the evidences of subterranean igneous action. There are three large continuous areas of 

 this kind. 



To the island at the southern extremity of America, Magalhaens gave the name of Terra 

 del Fuego, or the land of fire, no doubt from the sensible display of igneous activity ; for 

 the assertion of Malte Brun is corroborated by the evidence of Captain Hall with reference 

 to the existence of an active volcano at the present time. Proceeding northward along 

 the coast which fringes the Pacific Ocean, there is scarcely one degree of latitude from 

 46 to 27 in which there is not an active vent. The Chilian volcanoes rise up through 

 granitic mountains. Villarica, one of the principal, is always burning, and so lofty as to 

 be distinguished at the distance of a hundred and fifty miles. A year never passes 

 without some slight shocks of earthquakes in the province, and about once in a century, 

 or oftener, tremendous convulsions shake the land from one end to the other. In Peru 

 there is the same continual disturbance of the surface, more or less violent, though only 

 one active volcano is at present known. Still further north, about the middle of Quito, 

 where the Andes attain their loftiest altitude, the peaks of Tunguragua, Cotopaxi, and 

 Antisana are in frequent play. From the sides of the former a mass of mud was ejected 

 in 1797, which dammed up rivers, occasioned new lakes, and filled up valleys a thousand 

 feet wide to the depth of six hundred feet. In the province of Pasto, farther north, there 

 are three volcanoes ; in Papayan, three others ; in Guatimala and Nicaragua, no less than 

 twenty are in an active state. Hitherto we have followed this great volcanic chain 



almost due north. In Mexico, however, 

 it turns off in a side direction, extending 

 on the west to the isles of Revilagido and 

 the Californian peninsula, and embracing 

 eastward the whole of the West Indian 

 isles. The length of this enormous chain, 

 from Cape Horn to New Madrid in the 

 United States, is greater than from the 

 pole to the equator. Its westward ex- 

 tent is hid from us by the waters of the 

 Pacific; but probably it reaches across 

 the whole of its immense bed. Cotopaxi 

 is described by Humboldt as the most 

 beautiful and regular of all the colossal 

 summits of the Andes, being a perfect 

 cone, which is covered with snow, and 

 shines with dazzling splendour at sunset. 

 There are no rocks projecting through its icy mantle, except near the edge of the crater, 

 which is surrounded by a small circular wall. The traveller tried to reach the summit, 



