UN THE CRTSTALS IN LAVAS. g^^ 



«f 1494 feet [1592 Eng.] high, surrounded by more than 

 two thousand mouths, which are still smoking." 



If burning volcanoes could manifest themselves atiy Bytthpcontiwi 

 where, without being within reach of the influence of the ry appears from 

 sea, we should not have a single instance of the kind quoted, cir-urasVanoes ' 

 for numbers would exist : and if this had been the case, 1 of Tolcanoes, 

 should not even have thought of the opinion I have ad^ 

 vauced. But after having attended to this general fact, 

 that there is no burning volcano in an inland country, and 

 that no extent of fresh water, however large, has produced 

 one ; all being near the sea, or surrounded by its waters : 

 and having observed, that the vapours of volcanoes deposit 

 abundance of muriatic acid: I hence deduced this indispu- 

 table infereuce, that sea water is absolutely necessary, by 

 the salts it holds in solution, to produce the fermentations 

 that raise and feed volcanoes. 



This conclusion has since been confirmed by the erup- Sea-water 



tions of water from the volcanoes in Iceland, which depo- ^^^o^^^ "P ^J 



Hecia. 

 sited common salt in large quantity ; and lately by an ob- 

 servation of Messrs. von Humboldt and Buch, vvho were Clefts inVesu- 



witnesses of the eruption of Vesuvius in August 1805, and "^'."f encrusted 



with Scilt 

 perceived the sides of a cleft in its crater lined with a crust 



of sea salt two or three inches thick. 



Hence it follows, that the fact quoted by Mr. Fl. de The Mexican 

 Bellevue proves nothing more, than that there may be sub- '^^'cano ac- 

 1 1 f J- ff 4. ^ r \i. counipdfor. 



terranean channels extendmg lorty leagues irpm the sea, 



and that on some occasion its waters penetrated into them ; 

 or perhaps their influence was merely extended gradually 

 to that distance. It is even very probable, that, if all the 

 circumstances accompanying this fact were fully known, a 

 more precise explanation of it might be given. In 1538 aq 

 equally sudden eruption raised up the Monte-nuovo neay 

 Naples. 



" All those who have seen volcanoes in a s^ate of activi- Fires of volca- 

 ty," says Mr. Fl. de Bellevue, "assert, that nothing is ^°JJ,;f^^° ^* 

 equal to the violence and immensity of their fires ; and yet immense. 

 some appear without hesitation, to rate the power of vol- 

 canoes even below that of our paltry furnaces." 



A volcano during an eruption exhibits such a grand and But this ima- 

 |iwful sight, that it lays hold of the gpectatot's imagination, g'^^fy- 



