226 Connecticut River Valley. 
dykes, and others which are doubtless concealed by superincumbent 
earth and rock, furnish a clew and point toa connection between the 
mineral stores below, and the trap mountains above the surface of 
the earth. 
Volcanic fires.—That fires of vast intensity and extent, melting 
rocks and burning them to ashes, exist within the earth, and have 
existed from ancient times, is universally-known. Herculaneum was 
overwhelmed by the liquid lava of one eruption, and Pompeii buried 
in the ashes of another. During the last year, a volcanic island was 
thrown up in the Mediterranean, where ships were wont to sail. In 
the craters of-some volcanoes the lava is raised to a height of several 
miles. 
Earthquakes.—Earthquakes are but different effects of the same 
subterranean fires which produce volcanic eruptions, and invariably 
attend them. ‘They rend the earth, swallowing men and their habi- 
tations in fearful chasms. They reach from continent to continent, 
proving the vast extent of subterranean fire and communication. ‘The 
earthquake which overthrew Lisbon in 1755, extended to New Eng- 
Jand, and was the severest which has been felt here, since the arrival 
of Europeans. Probably many of my audience. have heard from 
the people of that day,.of the awe produced by the rumbling and 
quaking of the earth, and the shaking of houses and their contents, 
here, at a distance of three thousand miles from the seat of the great- 
est power, and most destructive effects of the earthquake of 1755. 
Imagination can hardly conceive the extent and fluctuations of melt- 
ed rock within, when it sees that the craters of A®tna and Vesuvius, 
of Teneriffe and the Andes, are but vents to relieve occasional ex- 
cesses of the expanding fires below. 
Extinct Volcanoes.—Such being the effects of subterranean fires 
within the time of authentic records, what must they have been in 
more ancient periods? Several hundred extinct volcanoes have been 
discovered by their craters and lava which remain. ‘The extinct 
volcanic mountains, in the middle and southern parts of France, are. 
said to cover several thousand square miles. ‘The ancient crater of 
Teneriffe contains a surface of more than one hundred square miles. 
The whole of the mountainous part of Quito, occupying more than 
six thousand square miles of surface, is considered, by Humboldt, as 
one immense volcano. 
Effects of subterranean fires.—If such are the number and extent 
of ancient extinct volcanoes, their subterranean fires must have been 
