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VOL 
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that of his letters. They consist of epistles, elegies, sonnets, 
rondeaus, ballads, and songs. Moreri. 
VOL A, Cape, a cape of South America, on the north 
coast of Caraccas. Lat. 12 . N. long. 72. W. 
VOLANO, a small town of Italy, in the States of the 
Church 5 28 miles east of Ferrara. 
VO'LANT, adj. [ volans , Lat.] Flying; passing through 
the air.—’The volant, or flying automata, are such mecha¬ 
nical contrivances as have self-motion, whereby they are 
carried aloft in the air, like birds. Wilkins. —Nimble; 
active. 
His volant touch 
Instinct through all proportions, low and high, 
Fled, and pursu’d transverse, the resonant fugue. Milton. 
VO'LATILE, adj. [polatilis, Latin.] Flying; passing 
through the air.—-The caterpillar towards the end of summer 
waxeth volatile, and turneth to a butterfly. Bacon. — [vo¬ 
latile, Fr.] Having the power to pass off by spontaneous 
evaporation. 
In vain, though by their powerful art they bind 
Volatile Hermes. Milton. 
Lively ; fickle; changeable of mind; full of spirit; airy. 
•—Active spirits, who are ever skimming over the surface of 
things with a volatile temper, will fix nothing in their mind. 
Watts. 
VO'LATILE, s. [volatile, Fr.] A winged animal.—The 
air conveys the heat of the sun, maintains fires, and serves 
for the flight of volatiles. Brown. 
VO'LATILENESS, or Volatility, s. [yolatilite, Fr.] 
The quality of flying away by evaporation; not fixity.— 
Upon the compound body, chiefly observe the colour, fra¬ 
gility, or pliantness, the volatility or fixation, compared 
with simple bodies. Bacon. —Mutability of mind; airiness; 
liveliness.—Had we but the same delight in heavenly objects, 
did we but receive the truth in the love of it, and mingle it 
with faith in the hearing, this would fix that volatilencss and 
flittiness of our memories, and make every truth as indelible 
as it is necessary. Bp. Hopkins. 
VOLATILIZATION, s. The act of making volatile.— 
Chemists have, by a variety of ways, attempted in vain the 
volatilization of the salt of tartar. Boyle. 
To VO'LATILIZE, v. a. [ volatiliser, Fr.] To make 
volatile; to subtilize to the. highest degree.—Spirit of wine 
has a refractive power, in a middle degree between those of 
water and oily substances, and accordingly seems to be com¬ 
posed of both, united by fermentation: the water, by means 
of some saline spirits with which it is impregnated, dissolv¬ 
ing the oil, and volatilizing it by the action. Newton. 
VOLCANELLO, a small islet of the Mediterranean, be¬ 
longing to the Lipari group. It is of volcanic origin, and 
though formerly separated from the larger island of Volcano, 
by a narrow channel, it is now connected with it by a neck 
of land, formed during a violent eruption. It is of a trian¬ 
gular form, and, like Volcano, uninhabited. It continues to 
emit smoke from different parts of its surface. 
VOLCA'NO, s. [Italian.] A burning mountain. 
Why want we then encomiums on the storm, 
OrJamine, or volcanos ? They perform 
Their mighty deeds; they hero-like can slay, 
And spread their ample deserts in a day. Young. 
Many volcanoes are lofty mountains, surmounted by a 
truncated cone, having an aperture at the summit, nearly 
circular, and of greater or less depth, called the crater, from 
which the eruptions issue; but not unfrequently the eruptions 
burst from the side or the foot of the mountain, and they 
sometimes break forth at a great depth under the sea. The 
greatest number of active volcanoes are situated near the sea 
or large lakes, from which circumstance it has been supposed, 
by some geologists, that w’ater is an agent in all volcanic 
eruptions. Most isolated volcanic mountains have a pyrami¬ 
dal or conical form, ascending- at a moderate angle of incli¬ 
nation from the base to an elevated plain, from the centre of 
which rises the cone in which the principal crater is situated. 
The sides of this cone are generally steep, and are covered 
with volcanic sand, pumice, or scoriae. • The matter of 
which it is composed, as well as the shape, evidently indi¬ 
cate that it has been formed by substances thrown out of the 
volcano in a perpendicular direction, which in their descent 
have accumulated round the aperture, and from the laws of 
gravity have assumed a conical form. The shape of the cone 
is changed during great eruptions, sometimes they have been 
known to sink down and disappear, new volcanic cones 
forming in other parts of the mountain. A considerable 
part of the cone of Vesuvius fell down during the eruption 
of 1794. In 1727, when M. d’Orville visited Volcano, one 
of the Lipari oriEolian isles, there were two distinct volcanic 
cones, each placed on an eminence, and containing a crater 
in a state of active eruption; whereas, at present, there is 
but one cone conspicuous in the island, the summit being- 
single. Spallanzani, who visited these islands about sixty 
years after M. d'Orville, made inquiries of some of the old¬ 
est inhabitants respecting the double cone and crater of Vul- 
cano, and he found 'some few persons who retained a re¬ 
collection of it. The regular conical form does not cha¬ 
racterize all volcanoes. The volcanic mountains in America, 
according to Humboldt, present a considerable diversity, 
both in shape and situation, from those, in the old world. 
In Europe and in Asia, as far as the interior of the latter 
continent is known, no burning volcano is situated in a chain 
of mountains; all being at a greater or less distance from 
these chains. In the new world, on the contrary, the vol¬ 
canoes, the most stupendous for their masses, form a part of 
the Cordilleras themselves. The mountains of micaslate and 
gniess, in Peru and New Granada, immediately touch the 
volcanic porphyries of the province of Quito and Pasto. To 
the south and north of these countries, in Chili and in the 
kingdom of Guatimala, the active volcanoes are grouped in 
rows. They are the continuation of the chains of primitive 
rocks; and if the volcanic fire has broken out in some plains 
far from the Cordilleras, as in mount Sangay and Jorullo, 
we must consider this phenomenon as an exception to the 
law which nature seems to have imposed on these regions. 
The Peak of Teneriffe forms a pyramidal mass like Etna, 
Tungurahua, and Popocatapetl, but this character is far from 
being common to all volcanoes. We have seen, says Hum¬ 
boldt, some in the southern hemisphere, which, instead of 
having the form of a cone or bell, are lengthened in one 
direction, having the ridge sometimes smooth, at others 
rough, with small pointed rocks. This structure is peculiar 
to Antisan and Pichinca, two burning mountains of the 
province of Quito, and the absence of the conical form ought 
never to be considered as opposed to a volcanic origin. 
M. Humboldt deduces the following inferences from his 
observations on the shape of different volcanoes. That 
mountains with slender conical peaks, are those which are 
subject to eruptionsof the greatest violence, and at the near¬ 
est periods to each other. Mountains with lengthened sum¬ 
mits, rugged, with small stony masses, are very old vol¬ 
canoes nearly extinguished. Rounded summits, in the form 
of domes or bells, indicate those doubtful kinds of porphyries 
which are supposed to have been heated in their original 
place, and forced up in a softened state without ever having 
flowed as lavas. To the first of these mountains belong 
Cotopaxi, the Peak of Teneriffe, and that of Orizava, in 
Mexico. The second is common to Carguarazo and 
Pichinca, in the province of Quito, and to the volcano of 
Puracy, near Popayan, and perhaps also to Hecla, in Ice¬ 
land. The third and last form is seen in the majestic figure 
of Chimborazo, and in the great Sarcony, in Auvergne. See 
./Etna and Lava. 
VOLCANO, an island of the Mediterranean, belonging to 
Sicily, the most southern of the Lipari group, situated betw een 
the island of Lipari and the Sicilian coast, and separated from 
the former by a narrow' channel. The circumference of its 
base is about 12 miles. In all parts of the island, the traces 
of fire are distinctly visible. The portion of it opposite to 
Lipari is sterile, w ithout the smallest trace of vegetation ; 
towards the south and east, however, it is covered with trees 
and 
