SINKING DOWN OF VOLCANOES, 



265 



to the northern, along a line of six thousand miles in length. Of the 

 volcanoes in northern Asia, or the interior of Africa, we have little 

 information, and the volcanoes covered by the sea, cannot be esti- 

 mated ; but from the above statement, we are authorized in believ- 

 ing, that volcanic fires are more extensively operative, than many 

 geologists are disposed to admit. 



Many facts might be cited to prove the connection which exists 

 between volcanoes at a vast distance from each other. In 1783, 

 when a submarine volcano near Iceland suddenly ceased its erup- 

 tions, a volcano broke out two hundred miles distant, in the interior 

 of the island. On the night in which Lima and Callao were des- 

 troyed by an earthquake, four new volcanoes broke out in the An- 

 des. The source of volcanic fire is seated deep under the surface 

 of the earth : were it not so, the ground in the vicinity of volcanoes 

 •would sink down. Yet jEtna has continued to pour out streams of 

 lava for three thousand years; and Stromboli has had daily eruptions 

 for nearly as long a period. ''^ 



There are some instances of volcanoes having been entirely en- 

 gulfed in the chasms beneath them. The volcano of the Pic in the 

 Island of Timore, one of the Moluccas, is known to have served as 

 a prodigious watch-light, which was seen at sea at the distance of 

 three hundred miles. In the year 1638, the mountain during a vio- 

 lent eruption entirely disappeared, and in its place there is now a 

 lake. Many of the circular lakes in the south of Italy are supposed 

 to have been formed by the sinking down of volcanoes ; but the best 

 authenticated account we have of the destruction of a volcanic 

 mountain, is given by Governor Raffles in his History of Java, 



" The Papandayang, situated at the western part of the district of 

 Cheribor, in the province of Sukapura, was formely one of the larg- 

 est volcanoes in the island of Java ; but the greatest part of it was 

 swallowed up in the earth, after a short but very severe combustion in 

 the year 1772. The account which has remained of this event as- 

 serts, that near midnight, between the 11th and 12th of August there 

 was observed about the mountain an uncommonly luminous cloud, by 

 which it appeared to be completely enveloped. The inhabitants as 



* Since the period of authentic history, no great changes have taken place in 

 the country round ^tna; but it appears from Virgil, as well as from a passage in 

 Strabo before quoted, that an ancient tradition existed of the sudden separation 

 of Sicily from Italy. 



" Hsec loca, vi quondam et vasta convuls^i ruinsL 

 Dissiluisse ferunt: cum protenus utraque tellus 

 Una foret, venit medio vi pontus, et undis 

 Hesperium Siculo latus abscidit: arvaqne et urbes 

 Littore diductas angusto interluit sestu." jEn. 1. ii'i. 



Probably this separation took place when iEtna emerged from the ocean: the 

 occurrence of beds of limestone with shells upon its sides, proves that it was orig^ 

 inally a submarine volcano, 



84 



