110 
EAirarO AND SCIXAX. 
and buried sea-shells on the summits of the higher Alps. 
Doubtless, in those remote times which preceded the exist- 
ence of the human race, the raised crust of the globe pro- 
duced those domes of trappean porphyry, those hills of 
isolated basalt ou vast elevated plains, those solid nuclei 
which are clothed in the modern lavas of the Peak, of Etna, 
and of Cotopaxi. The volcanic revolutions have succeeded 
each other after long intervals, and at very different periods: 
of this we see the vestiges in the transition mountains, in 
the secondary strata, and in those of alluvium. Volcanoes 
of earlier date than the sandstone and calcareous rocks 
have been for ages extinguished; those which are yet in 
activity are in general surrounded only with breccias and 
modern tufas; but nothing hinders us from admitting, that 
the archipelago of the Canaries may exhibit some real rocks 
of secondary formation, if we recollect that subterranean 
fires have been there rekindled in the midst of a system of 
basalts and very ancient lavas. 
TVe seek in vain in the Periplus of Hauno or of Scylax 
for the first written notions on the eruptions of the Peak of 
Teneriffc. Those navigators sailed timidly along the coast, 
anchoring every evening in some hay', and had no know- 
ledge of a volcano distant fifty-six leagues from the coast 
of Africa. Hanno nevertheless relates, that he saw torrents 
of light, which seemed to fall ou the sea ; that every night 
the coast was covered with fire; and that the great moun- 
tain, called the Car of the Gods , appeared to throw up 
sheets of flame, which rose even to the clouds, lint this 
mountain, situated northward of the island of the Gorilli, 
formed the western extremity of the Atlas chain; and it 
is also very uncertain whether the flames seen by Hanno 
were the effect of some volcanic eruption, or whether they 
must be attributed to the custom, common to many 
nations, of setting lire to the forests and thy grass of the 
savannahs. In our owu days similar doubts were eutcr- 
tained by the naturalists, who, in the voyage of d’Eutre- 
casteaux,* saw the island of Amsterdam covered with a thick 
smoke. On the coast of the Caracas, trains of reddish 
fire, fed by the burning grass, appeared to me, for several 
nights, under the delusive semblance of a current of lava, 
descending from the mountains, and dividing itself into 
several branches. 
