340 COSMOS. 



rich in granite, of the valley of the River Backsan, has a 

 crater lake. Similar crater lakes occur in the rugged high- 

 lands of Kely, from which streams of lava flow out between 

 eruption-cones. Moreover, the basalts are here, as w^ell as 

 in the Cordilleras of Quito, widely separated from the tra- 

 chyte system ; they commence from twenty-four to thirty-two 

 miles south of the chain of the Elburuz, and of the Tsehe- 

 gem, on the upper Phasis or lihion valley. 



p. The Northeastern Portion {the Peninsula of Kamtschatka). 



The peninsula of Kamtschatka, from CapeLopatka, which, 

 according to Krusenstern, is in lat. 51° 3^, as far north as to 

 Cape Ukinsk, belongs, in common with the island of Java, 

 Chili, and Central America, to those regions in which the 

 greatest number of volcanoes, and it may be added, of still 

 active volcanoes, are compressed :vvithin a very small area. 

 Fourteen of these are reckoned in Kamtschatka within a 

 range of 420 geographical miles. In Central America I find 

 in a space of 680 miles, from the volcano of Coconusco to 

 Turrialva, in Costa Rica, twenty-nine volcanoes, eighteen of 

 which are still burning ; in Peru and Bolivia, over a space 

 of 420 miles, from the volcano Chacani to that of San Pedro 

 de AlRcama, fourteen volcanoes, of which only three are at 

 present active ; and in Chili, over a space of 960 miles, from 

 the volcano of Coquimbo to that of San Clemente, twenty- 

 four volcanoes. Of the latter, thirteen are known to have 

 been active within the periods of time embraced in historical 

 records. 



Our acquaintance with the Kamtschatkan volcanoes, in 

 respect to their form, the astronomical determination of their 

 position, and their height, has been vastly extended in recent 

 times by Krusenstern, Horner, Hoffman, Lenz, Liitke, Pos- 

 tels, Captain Beechey, and, above all, by Adolph Erman. 

 The Peninsula is intersected lengthwise by two parallel 

 mountain chains, in the most easterly of which the volcanoes 

 are accumulated. The loftiest of these attain a height of 

 from 11,190 to 15,773 feet. They lie in the following order 

 from south to north. 



The Opalinskian volcano (the Pic Koscheleff of Admiral 

 Krusenstern), lat. 51* 21'. According to Captain Chwos- 

 tow, this mountain rises to the height of the Peak of Tene- 

 riffe, and was extremely active at the close of the 18th cen- 

 tury. 



