244 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE chap. 



they are, volcanoes must yet be regarded as 

 due mainly to local and superficial causes. 



A glance at the map shows that volcanoes 

 are almost always situated on, or near, the sea 

 coast. From the interior of continents they 

 are entirely wanting. The number of active 

 volcanoes in the Andes, contrasted with their 

 absence in the Alps and Ourals, the Hima- 

 layas, and Central Asian chains, is very strik- 

 ing. Indeed, the Pacific Ocean is encircled, 

 as Ritter has pointed out, by a ring of fire. 

 Beginning with New Zealand, we have the 

 Volcanoes of Tongariro, Whakaii, etc. ; thence 

 the circle passes through the Fiji Islands, Sol- 

 omon Islands, New Guinea, Timor, Flores, 

 Sumbava, Lombock, Java, Sumatra, the Philip- 

 pines, Japan, the Aleutian Islands, along the 

 Rocky Mountains, Mexico, Peru, and Chili, to 

 Tierra del Fuego, and, in the far south, to the 

 two great Volcanoes of Erebus and Terror on 

 Victoria Land. 



We know that the contraction of the 

 Earth's surface with the strains and fractures, 

 the compression and folds, which must inevi- 

 tably result, is still in operation, and must 



