br Tilesius on the Volcano (^Coosima. S5S 
which wfi pass, are active volcanoes, whose laboratories may here 
be seen in many different forms. The vast depth of the sea,— - 
the ffir-sunk bases of the mountains, which rear their naked 
points or summits into the atmosphere, — their white hollow 
vents, through which the water of the sea flows, — the ceaseless 
decomposition of pyrites by the sea^water, — the release of the 
combustible air, which is a consequence of this decomposition, — 
and the neighbouring bituminous and other combustible bodies in 
the interior of the mountain which thus become inflamed, — all 
these appearances assist us in forming a satisfactory idea of the 
manner in which volcanoes are formed, which in this quarter 
may be observed in all stages of their formation and extinction, 
and of whose operation the black and burnt dross of the Kurile 
cliffs are an obvious testimony. 
From these circumstances, there . frequently happen explo- 
sions, gusts of wind, and the deposition of gravel with ashes, by 
which the voyager in these regions is often terrified. From the 
same cause, happen also the earthquakes which in this quarter 
of the world are so often experienced, and also the elevation and 
disappearance of islands, -^-which last often occurs merely from 
the subsiding of a crater which had projected above the surface 
of the deep, especially when the smoking volcano, in so far as it 
overtopped the waters, was only the bare peak or summit of a 
rock, whose base was at a great depth in the bottom of the 
ocean, as is at present the case with Coosima, of which we have 
been speaking. 
It is hence, in my opinion, not unlikely, at least not impose 
sible, that Coosima may again disappear, when its now smoking 
crater shall again subside. Krusenstern is not the first who has 
marked upon his charts both the islands Coosima and Oosima ; 
they are also found in the charts of the discoveries of the Rus- 
sians in the North-eastern Ocean, which the Imperial Institute, 
under the direction of the learned General of Engineers Count 
Vo^ Suchtelen, published with annotations at St Petersburgh. 
in the year 1802. They are here represented as lying right 
opposite to the Strait of Sangar^ which is formed by Cape San., 
gar and Cape Nadeschda. On the N.NW. of Jesso or Mat-^ 
