92 
SHAPE OF VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS. 
must consider this phenomenon as an exception to the law 
winch nature seems to have imposed on these regions I may 
here repeat these geological facts, because this presumed 
isolated situation ot every volcano lias been cited in oppo- 
sition to the idea that the peak of Teneriffe, and the other 
volcanic summits of the Canary Islands, are the remains or 
a submerged chain of mountains. The observations which 
have been made on the grouping of volcanoes in Amo- 
r ca, prove that the ancient state of things represented in 
the conjectural map ot the Atlantic by j\[. Jiory de St 
, mccnt,* is by no means contradictory to the acknowledged 
IhPH l’ natUre -i. an( ] !. hat r '? tilin S opposes the supposition 
that the summits of Porto Santo, Madeira, and the Port u- 
mate Islands, may heretofore have formed, either a distinct 
toedtahi oftheAtlir UntainS ’ " **“ Western extM,lit T of 
the peak ot Tevde forms a pyramidal mass like Etna 
lungurahua, and Popocatepetl. This physiognomic cha- 
racter is very far from being common to all' volcanoes We 
have seen some in the southern hemisphere, which instead 
ot liar mg the form ot a cons or a bell are lenofhennri 
direction, having the ridge sometimes smooth^ and at others 
bristled with small pointed rocks. This struct-nm ; ^ r 
to Antiaanjv and rUincta, h,„ 
iievri' 1 to °l! ^ Ult0 ’ 1 and , the “>™«« of the cooic form ou-ht 
Cl to be considered as a reason excluding the ide-i°of 
a volcanic origin. I shall deveiope, in the proWess of this 
work, S01 „e ol the analogies, which I think l h.S perceived 
between the physiognomy of volcanoes and the antiquity 
ot then rocks. It is sufhcient to state, generally snea?cin.r 
that the summits, which are still snhio f t y 1 talun 0 , 
with Jgi S**-- 
whetlier the archipelago of the cinarte/'airt’'. f ™‘“ tlle ,T««tion 
vestiges of a chain of mountains rent a f a ‘ l a< e,,t lsla " (I « are the 
the great convulsions of gVobe. 1 do „ot 'I'wn t 7 ^ ° : ‘ e 0< 
ill favour of the existence of the Atlantis - hot I e ,onn a " y 
the Canaries have no more been “reate’l h ‘ ll "“I *° l ' rove ' 
body of the smaller Antilles has been fonne/by inXporis!" * hule 
