about it, Graham Island vanished, and so settled the dispute in its own simple way.

After the destruction of Krakatoa by the great Javan earthquake of 1883, twenty-one new islands appeared in the Sunda Straits, and only last year, one hitherto unknown, rose above the sea off the shores of Alaska.

In all these cases, volcanic action has been the ostensible cause of the formation of these specks in the ocean, But in 1871 Captains Luzen and Mack discovered to the north of Nova Zembla, a group of islets just above the sea, on the very spot where, in 1854, William Barrant had found soundings. On the two largest, which were named Brown and Hellwalld's Islands, tropical fruits were picked up, tossed hither by the northern extension of the Gulf Stream. Hence the group was named the Gulf Stream Islands, and as the land in this portion of the Polar basin is undergoing a slow secular elevation, just as in other places it is sinking, in the course of a century or two the Arctic navigator may find in that direction something worthy of a flag and an entry on his chart.

From the latest date at hand, the islands formed in the Straits of Sunda, alluded to in the above article, have disappeared in the sea, and smooth navigable waters roll above their tombs.

VOLCANIC AND EARTHQUAKE LORE.

A small island lying off the northeast coast of Sumbawa, named Gunong Api, must here be mentioned, because it contains a volcano, and forms a part of that "belt of fire" to which we have adverted as one of the most remarkable physical features of the Indian Archipelago.

It is recorded that the inhabitants of Java, when the eruption began (on the above island), mistook the explosion for discharges of artillery, and at Jayokarta, a distance of 480 miles, a force of soldiers was hastily dispatched to the relief of a neighboring port that was supposed to have been attacked by an enemy. At Surabaya, gun-boats were ordered off to the relief of ships which were defending themselves, it was thought, against pirates in the Madura Strait; while at two places on the coast, boats put off to the assistance of supposed ships in distress. For five days these reports continued, and on the fifth the sky over the eastern part of Java grew dark with ashy showers, so that the sea was invisible. According to Mr. Crawford, the sky at Surabaya did not become as clear for several months, as it usually is in the southeast monsoons.

Eastward, the din of the explosions reached the island of Ternate, near Gilolo, a distance of 720 geographical miles, and so distinctly was it heard that "the resident sent out a boat to look for the ship which was supposed to have been firing signals." Westward, it was heard at Moko-moko, near Bencoolen, or 970 geographical miles.

Dr. Junghuhn thinks that within a circle described by a radius of 210 miles, the average depth of the ashes was at least two feet, a circumstance which will enable the reader to form some idea of the tremendous character of the eruption. The mountain, in fact, must have ejected several times its own mass, and yet no subsidence has been observed in the adjoining area, and apparently the only change is, that during the outbreak, Tamboro lost two-thirds of its previous height.

The Rajah of Sangir, a village about fourteen miles southeast of the volcano, was an eye-witness of the eruption, and thus describes it:

About 7 P. M., on the 10th of April (1815), three distinct columns of flame burst forth near the summit of the mountain, all of them apparently within the verge of the crater: and after ascending, separately, to a very great height, united their tops in the air in a troubled, confused manner. In a short time the whole mountain next to Sangir appeared like a mass of liquid fire, extending itself in every direction. The fire and columns of flame continued to rage with unabated fury until the darkness, caused by the quantity of falling matter, obscured it about 8 P. M. Stones at this time fell very thick at Sangir, some of them as large as a man's two fists, but generally not exceeding the size of walnuts.

Between 9 and 10 P. M. showers of ashes began to fall, and soon afterwards a violent whirlwind ensued, which overthrew nearly every house in the village of Sangir, carrying along with it, their lighter portions and thatched roofs. In that part of the district of Sangir, adjoining the volcano, its effects were much more severe; it tore up by the roots the largest trees, and whirling them in the air, dashed them around in the wildest confusion, along with men, houses, cattle, and whatever else came within the range of its fury. The sea rose nearly twelve feet higher than it had ever been known before, and completely destroyed the only small spots of rice lands in Sangir, sweeping away houses and everything within its reach.

The captain of a ship dispatched from Macassar, to the scene of this awful phenomenon, stated, that as he approached the coast, he passed through great

quantities of pumice stone floating on the sea, which had at first the appearance of shoals, so that he was deceived into sending a boat to examine one, which at the distance of a mile, he supposed to be a dry sandbank, upwards of three miles in length, with black rocks projecting above it here and there.

Mr. Bickmore speaks of seeing the same kind of stones floating over the sea, when approaching (in April, 1865) the Strait of Sunda. He adds: Besides the quantities of this porous, foam-like lava that are thrown directly into the sea by such eruptions, great quantities remain on the declivities of the volcano and in the surrounding mountains, much of which is conveyed by the rivers, during the rainy season, to the

ocean.

(Bickmore: Travels in the Eastern Archipelago.)

VOLCANIC FIRE-BELT OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE.

Humboldt gives a list of the volcanoes of the world, calculated many years ago. It therefore may be accepted as under-estimated, as there are some 900 volcanoes, extinct and active, to be found in the Eastern Archipelago alone.

As will be seen by the map accompanying this work, the volcanic fire-belt very nearly surrounds and

outlines the western hemisphere. At Mount Erebus, but a few hundred miles from the South Pole, we see one of Nature's grandest outbursts-one of the world's greatest volcanoes in ceaseless eruption. With its lurid glare reflected back in a hundred ways by the icy mirrors of frozen seas, and the prismatic colorings of towering icebergs, it forms a spectacle too grand for description. Based and capped in the regions of perpetual ice and snow, its fiery peak, 13,000 feet, reaching up in the clouds, is a beacon light in an unknown, untrodden land.

THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA.

From this source we shall trace the volcanic, eruptic fire-belt. Making its way north, the great subterranean fire-stream-one branch of which passes under the South Shetland Islands, and on under the restless Atlantic; the other passes through Terra del Fuego, and across the Straits of Magellan into South America. Here the fiery current forces its resistless way under the towering peaks of the Chilean Andes, breaking out at the volcanic peaks of Acacagua, Hulliaciaca, Villarica, San Jose, Peteroa, Antuco, Hamatua, Chillan, Calbuco, Corcovado, Osomo and Zandeles. Through Bolivia, appearing in the volcanoes of Isluya, and Sajama, whose peaks tower 22,350 feet above the sea, and on into Peru, breaking out in angry flames in Arequipa, from the towering peaks of Mesta, Chacarni, Pan de Azucar, burying the cities of Arequipa and Orite, Tultapace and Ubinos, in burning lava and ashes, in the sixteenth century. And again, at Cotopaxi, 19,500 feet above the sea, boiling over and forcing its fiery way out of a height of 17,000 feet at