VOLCANOES. 703 



granular in texture, not very firm, and usually of a gray, yellowish- 

 brown, or brownish color. 



2. Geographical Distribution. — Volcanoes occur (1) over the bor- 

 der-regions of the continents, — that is, the regions between the 

 oceans and the summit of the border- range of mountains, as between 

 the Pacific and the eastern limit of the summits of the Rocky 

 Mountains ; (2) in the continental islands, or those near sea-coasts ; 

 (3) in oceanic islands, nearly all of which, excepting a few of very 

 large size and the coral islands, are throughout volcanic, — and the 

 coral islands have probably a volcanic basis. (4) Volcanoes are 

 mostly confined to the borders of the larger ocean, the Pacific, and 

 to the seas separating the northern from the southern continents, 

 namely, the West Indies, between North and South America, — the 

 Mediterranean, between Europe and Africa, — the Red Sea, between 

 Asia and Africa, — the East Indies, between Asia and Australia. 

 There are but few about the Atlantic, excepting those of the islands ; 

 and over the interior of continents, remote from the regions men- 

 tioned, they are almost unknown. 



(5.) Volcanoes are very commonly in linear series or groups. 



1. Borders of the Pacific. — The Pacific is almost completely belted with volcanic 

 mountains. They occur in Fuegia, the southern extremity of the Andes; in Patagonia; 

 thirty-two in Chili, — that of Aconcagua, 23,000 feet high; seven or eight in Bolivia 

 and southern Peru, — Arequipa, 18,877 feet; nineteen or twenty about Quito, nearly 

 all over 14,000 feet, and among them Cotopaxi, 19,660 feet in altitude (by barometer, 

 Dr. Reiss, in 1873); in Central America, there are thirty-nine; in Mexico, seven of 

 large size, with others smaller; in California, Oregon, and northwest America, twelve, 

 making a lofty series of snowy summits, 11,000 to 14,000 feet high, — St. Helen's, in 

 Oregon, probably 12,600 feet; Mount Hobd. 11,225; Mount Shasta, 14,440. In the 

 Aleutian Islands, which form a curve like a festoon, across the Northern Pacific, there 

 are twenty-one islands with volcanoes; in Kamtchatka, fifteen to twenty; in the Kuriles, 

 thirteen; in the Japan group, twenty-four, some 10,000 feet high; in the Philippines, 

 fifteen to twenty; several along the north coast of New Guinea; a number in New 

 Zealand; in the Antarctic, on the parallel of 76° 5', and near the meridian of 168° E., 

 Mounts Erebus and Terror, 12,400 and 10,900 feet high, both in full action when seen 

 by Ross in 1841; and, more to the east, south of Cape Horn, Deception Island, and 

 Bridgman's. 



2. Over the Pacific. — At the Hawaian Islands, there are remains of ten or more 

 volcanic mountains; and two on Hawaii are now active. — Mount Loa, 13,760 feet 

 high, and Mount Hualalai, about 10,000 feet; while Mount Kea, on the same island, 

 13,950 feet high, has not been very long extinct. 



There are other volcanic mountains at the Society group, Marquesas, Navigator, 

 Friendly Islands, Feejees, Santa Cruz group, New Hebrides, Ladrones; among which, 

 Tauna and Ambrym in the New Hebrides, Tafoa and Amargura in the Friendly group, 

 Tinakoro in the Santa Cruz group, and two or three in the Ladrones, are in action. 



3. Over the seas that divide the northern and southern continents from one another, 

 and the regions in their vicinity. — (a.) The West. Indies, where ten islands are 

 eminently volcanic, (b. ) The Mediterranean and its borders, as in Sicily and the 

 islands north; Vesuvius, and other parts of Italy; Spain, central France, Germany 

 etc., in Europe; the Grecian Archipelago, which contains five volcanic islands, — San- 

 torin, Milo, Cimolos, Polenos, and Minyros ; in Asia Minor, where are the Catacecau- 



