186 DISTRIBUTION OF CORAL-REEFS. Ch. VI. 



matter, they do not offer a single active volcano. In 

 these cases the volcanos seem to have come into action 

 or to have been extinguished, in accordance with the 

 latest movements of elevation or subsidence. 



Within the limits of our map, active volcanos occur 

 on or near other coasts besides those which are fringed 

 with reefs and coloured red ; and some of these coasts 

 are known to have been upraised within the recent 

 period. Thus I have shown in my Geological Observa- 

 tions on S. America (1846) that the whole western shore 

 of this great continent, for a space of between 2,000 and 

 3,000 miles south of the equator, has undergone an up- 

 ward movement during the period of existing marine 

 shells ; and the Andes here form the grandest volcanic 

 chain in the world. The islands on the north-western 

 side of the Pacific, forming the second grandest volcanic 

 chain, are very imperfectly known ; but Luzon, in the 

 Phillippines, and the Loo Choo islands, have been re- 

 cently elevated ; and at Kamtschatka 1 there are exten- 

 sive tertiary beds of modern date. The co-existence 

 in other parts of the world, of active volcanos with 

 upraised beds of a modern origin, will occur to every 

 geologist. Nevertheless, until it could be shown that 

 volcanos were absent or inactive in subsiding areas, the 

 conclusion that their distribution depended on the 

 nature of the subterranean movements in progress, 

 would have been hazardous. But now, viewing the 



1 Namely, at Sedanka, in lat. 58° K (Von Buch's Descript. des Isles 

 Canaries, p. 455). 



