350 Dr Tilesius on the Volcano Coosima, 
directly in the sight of the Japanese town Matza or Matzmai. 
I have also given a sketch of the sea views of the neighbouring 
coasts. It is necessary to have examined these views and charts, 
and to have read Krusenstern’s account of the neighbouring 
promontories, in order to have a comprehensive and distinct idea 
of the whole of this volcanic archipelago. 
A person who has seen the great volcanoes of islands, which 
rise to a vast height above the sea, as, for instance, the Peak of 
Taide, in the island of Tenerilfe, and the volcanoes of Kams- 
katka, namely. Opals’ Kaia Sopka, Wilnitschinskaia Sopka, 
Tschupanoios’ Kaia, and Awatschinskaia Sopka, but especially 
Straelesohnaja, Kronotzkaia, and Goraeta Sopka, in which the 
process of the formation and raising of a volcano is not so obvi- 
ous, although, from its colossal height, the mountain itself can- 
not be overlooked : — Such a person is astonished at the sight of 
a volcano so small, that, with one glance, he can have a com- 
plete view of it, while its summit, in utter nakedness, rises from 
the sea, — and the cause of its formation, elevation, and erup- 
tion, is also made perfectly obvious, namely, the action of the 
water which surrounds on all sides the higher part of the rock, 
and passing thence into the interior laboratory of the mountain, 
assists in kindling the combustible matters contained in it. 
One of these small islands, Coosima, whose point only pro- 
jects above the surface of the sea, and which forms, perhaps, the 
most diminutive volcano in the world, is a peak or pointed rock 
( Spifzherg ) which smokes incessantly. It was measured on 
the 4th of May 1805 by our astronomer Dr Horner, and was 
found to rise only to the height of 150 fathoms above the level 
of the water. It lies in 41° 21' 30" N. Lat., and 220® 14' 45" 
W. Long., and is naked, and of a dark-blue colour. No herbage 
springs on- this lava-rock, whose weather-beaten, dark-red, and 
porous skirts, lying like terraces in the shape of steps above 
each other, and springing in the form of an amphitheatre above 
the sea, distinctly point out its nature. The other island, Oo- 
sima, not tar from Coosima, probably one of its summits, is 
larger, lies more to the west, and is in 41° 21' 30" Lat. and 
220° 14' W. Long. It is in all respects like the former island, and 
the view through the telescope di^overed the same composition 
