Volcanoes of our Globe-That Planet abounds with very high Mountains. -X. The ftriking Contraft between the great Elevation of the Volcanoes on Land, and the Lownefs of the fubmarine Volcanoes.-XI. Islands rendered uninhabitable by their Volcanoes-The fingular State of Iceland, in respect to its Fires, and the Heat of its Waters.-XII. Volcanoes are not Vents for a grand Refervoir of Fire in the Centre of the Globe--The aftonishing Quantity of the Fires of Kamtchatka.-XIII. Volcanoes render the Places around them fertile and healthy-The Danger of their Vicinity.-XIV. What are the Causes of the Convulsions of a VolcanoTheir Effects upon the Mountain, upon the adjacent Places, and often at a very great Distance.--XV. The Sea, when near, partakes the Mctions of the Earth-Prodigious Ofcillation of the Sea at Awatcha--The Eruption of a Volcano puts an end to the great Conflict of Nature.-XVI. The Eruption of a Volcano one of the grandeft Sights a Man can behold -The Fall of the ejected Substances -The prodigious Distance to which they are fometimes carried.-XVII. Of the dry Fog in 1783-It did not proceed either from the Convulfions in Calabria, or from those in Iceland -The Opinion of the Abbé Bertholon of the Cause of that Phenomenon. -XVIII. Of the Nature of the Subftances ejected at the Time of an Eruption. XIX. The incredible Quantity of Lava that iffues from a Volcano--The principal fiery Pits of Volcanoes must have horizontal Branches. XX. The Crater of a Volcano fometimes vomits boiling Water-Of the Water Volcano of St. Jago de Guatimala.--XXI. Nature proceeds uniformly in the Discharge from Volcanoes-Wherever the Lava flows, it creates a Sterility of an indefinite Duration.—XXII. Volcanoes become extinct, from the Mines being exhaufted; from the Falling of the Summit, &c.- -XXIII. The Earth has been defolated by a great Number of Volcanoes.-—XXIV. The Giants' Caufeway-Its wonderful Formation--Various Opinions refpecting its Origin.--XXV. The Volcanoes known to be burning on the Globe--The Volcanoes on the Continent and in the Iflands of Europe.-XXVI. Volcanoes on the Continent and in the Islands of Afia. --XXVII. Volcanoes on the Continent and in the Islands of Africa.--XXVIH. The Volcanoes of America. -XXIX.Obfervations on the general Proximity of Volcanoes to the Sea. --XXX. An extinguifhed Volcano may be rekindled--Vefuvius, after lying apparently extinguished for feveral Centuries, took fire again in the Reign of the Emperor Titus→→→ The Death of Pliny the NaturaliftVefuvius, after burning about a thoufand Years, was again apparently fuppreffed.-XXXI. The great Antiquity of Vefuvius and Etna as Volcanoes- -Grounds for thinking that Etna has been formerly extinguifhed. -XXXII. Of the Mud-Volcano at Maccalouba--Its extraordinary Eruptions.--XXXIII. Difcovery of a Phenomenon of a fimilar Kind made by M. Pallas-Its Eruption in 1794.XXXIV. The Hydropyric Volcanoes of England-Reflections on those Phenomena.--XXXV. In what Cafes, and where, it is to be feared that Volcanoes may again break out.- -XXXVI. Of fubmarine Volcanoes-- -Volcano of Santorin-Periods of its firft eight Eruptions in the Course of more than two thousand Years, and what they produced-Particulars of the ninth Eruption in 1767--Production of Black Island. -XXXVII. The maritime Volca, noes of the Azores.-XXXVIII. Submarine volcanic Mountains not the Productions of central Fires--Buffon's Opinion refpecting their Origin.-XXXIX. Why does not the Sea inundate a submarine Volcano when it opens.-XL. Where was the ancient Atlantic Territory fituated-Of what Extent was it--Its Destruction, and the Confequences that must have folGga saved lowed-The reafons for which it has been prefumed that its Ruin was caused by its volcanic Fires. EXTRACTS. OF THE CRATER-THE INTREPIDITY "THE opening at the fummit of a mountain through which a volcano, when raging, vomits its fires, and from which finoke continually iffues, is called the crater, or mouth. This in fome volcanoes is more than a league in circumference, and in others not fo much. The crater of Vefuvius is upwards of two English miles, that of Etna confiderably more. The crater of the fame volcano is not always of the fame dimenfion. It is larger after a violent eruption, because the eruption throws off from the top, or precipitates to the bottom, the fubftances with which the continuance of a thick fmoke, in the course of the years of reft, gradually contracts very confiderably, and fometimes entirely chokes up the head of the volcanic shaft. "This contraction has fome remarkable peculiarities. From the burning bottom of the abyfs there are conftantly rifing very greafy fuliginous fubftances, which, flowly at firft, contract the upper circle of the gulf. As the mouth diminishes, the lefs are the greafy vapours, alhes, and pumice ftones which rife, difperfed; fo that in time the work increases prodigiously by them, always contracting the head of the fhaft. The action of the fire being thus more and more concentrated, this excrefcence neceffarily affumes the form of a real cone whofe bafe adheres to and refts on the crater, but on the infide, fo that to come at it one muft defcend fome way from the brink of the crater: in a defent made fome years ago into that of Vefuvius, the depth was from eighty to ninety feet. A very accurate idea of this ftate of that volcano was given by a painting of it, exhibited at No. 160, in Oxford Street. However, when the -mountain remains long at reft, this void alls, the bafe of the cone becomes more folid, and it increafes its own height, which adds to that of the mountain. There have been cones formed on Etna, which have rifen a mile above its immeafe crater. Sometimes they are fo overloaded as to fall by their own weight, at others they are thrown down by a violent quaking of the mountain; and in fome cafes a fudden eruption of the volcano has shivered them to pieces, part falling into the abyfs, part on the fides, and even beyond the bafe of the mountain: and indeed nothing is more variable than the external afpect of a volcano: a violent eruption is enough to produce fuch a change as renders it hardly to be known again. Ten thousand men, fays Sir William Hamilton, working for a century, could not effect fuch an alteration on the furface of Vefuvius, as was produced by the hand of Nature in a few hours, by the eruption of 1794. "There have been men, and there are many now, bold enough to venture to the very extremities, to expose themfelves upon the brittle lips of these formidable mouths for fire, in order to found the myfterious depths with the eye. The Emperor Adrian vifited the crater of Etna twice, although a tedious and very laborious undertaking. The first time he faw it, it was in a ftate of reft; but fome years after he happened to be in Sicily when an eruption took place. On a fimilar occafion Caligula, as we are told by Suetonius, fled in a cowardly manner from the illand. Adrian, on the contrary, eagerly embraced fuch an opportunity, and again afcended Etna, the better to enjoy the grand phenomenon it offered to view. There are perfons who have even endeavoured to fcale the burning and cracked cones of which we have been speaking: and feveral have loft their lives in attempting to gratify this dangerous curiofity. Some, bolder fill, have been known to have themselves lowered into the abyfs, fufpended to long ropes fixed to the cinder brinks of the crater. This was done in 1770, by Soufflot, the celebrated architect. About thirty years ago, or a little more, an English bishop caufed himself to be lowered to a rock which projected in Vefuvius, whence he contemplated as much as he could of the vaft infide of that volcano. Its bottom, which he judged to be very low, appeared to of him to be a lake of fire, at the top which ran bluish flames. By the gloomy light they gave, which was rendered fill more feeble by the finoke that refe from them, he obferved that the fides within were in many places fuccoed with a fulphur partly yellow and partly of a reddith colour. He alfo perceived a quantity of fal-ammoniac. Being by his pofition confined to a perpendicular view, he could of courle form no judgment as to the extent of this lake of fire, which he reafonably prefumed had retreats, and extended itself widely in the hollow bafe of the mountain." P. 8. ISLANDS RENDERED UNINHABITABLE BY VOLCANOES-THE HOT SPRINGS OF ICELAND. "THERE are islands of a moderate fize, which the almost conftant working of their volcanoes renders uninhabitable, fuch as that of Amsterdam, of which we have already spoken, on account of the exhausted state of its volcano. That ifland is only feven leagues round. The fire appears to act throughout it with inconceivable violence. We have before feen what Mr. Eneas Anderfon reports of the exceffive heat of its springs. It is in truth nothing more than a defert mountain, burning by itself, in the middle of the ocean. "The Portuguese have made feveral attempts to form eftablishments in the island of Fuego, one of the Cape de Verd islands; but the frequency and violence of the eruptions of its volcano, and of its earthquakes, have always compelled them to leave it. "The island of Sorca, one of the Moluccas, has a volcano in the middle of it. The inland was formerly well cultivated. A prodigious ejection of lava from the top of the mountain, flowing all round, took place towards the end of the feventeenth century, 1693, which covered the whole ifland. All the inhabitants were deftroyed; and Sorca has been ever fince an enormous barren rock, from ten to twelve leagues round, an immenfe Pharos in that part of the ocean. "Among the Ladrone, or Mariannas, the islands of St.. Antonio, St. Francis, the great Volcano, St. Denis, and Affumption (I name them according to their proximity to the line), are all rendered nearly barren by the different overflowings of their volcanoes. That in the inland of Affumption is very remarkable in one respect, as obferved in the part of M. de la Pey roufe's voyage which is published, and that is, that the infide of its crater is covered with a glafs of a footy black. "I thall here refrain from particularizing many other inds, fcattered over the world, that are in a fimilar state to the foregoing, fuch as the above-mentioned ifland of Volcano, fixty leagues due fouth of Jeddo; one of the Likeyo; that of Kao, in the Friendly iflands, and feveral of the Ladrone; in order that I may dwell a little on two, which, from the prodigious abundance of their fires, and the fingularity of the phenomena attending them, must attract the obfervation of those who are interested by this part of natural hiftory: I mean the ifland of Iceland, and Kamtchatka. "Next to the illands that are rendered uninhabitable, there is not, perhaps, one more agitated by its fires than Iceland. Befides Hecla, M.Valmont de Bomare reckons there are, five other volcanoes emitting fire, namely, craife, Krafle, Portland-boukt, Wefteriakel, and Kotlegau. craife, or Oraife, as it is called by Horrebow in his Natural History of Iceland, chap. 7, vomited flames in 1724. According to the fame author Krafie had eruptions almoft conftantly from 1726 to 17.2, and Kotlegau had a violent one in 1721. "In June 1782, it was feared that this island would fall to pieces; and it was even reported for fome days that it had been fwallowed up, fo dreadful and multiplied were the convulfions produced by its volcanoes and internal fires. A thick fulphureous smoke rendered the island abfolutely invifible to mariners at fea, while the people on fhore were all in danger of being fuffocated by it: and in fact a number of men and beafts died in confequence of it. The fog which about that time fpread all over Europe, was confidered as an effect of thofe exhalations. Frightful hollow roarings proceeded from the bowels of the earth, and from the bottom of the fea. From Mount Shaptan Gluver, a feventh volcano in the island, there poured a terrific torrent of fire, which flowed for fix weeks. It ran a distance of fixty miles to the fea: its breadth was nearly twelve miles; and in its courfe it dried up the river Shaptaga, which in fome' places is thirty, and in others fix-andthirty feet deep. These particulars were were published at the time, and they have been confirmed by Mr. Stanley, in his excellent Memoirs. This gentleman has vifited Iceland twice fince the year 1789, for the express purpose of making himfelf acquainted with that interefting ifland. "It is of confiderable extent, forming a parallelogram of about 264 miles in length, and 150 in breadth, containing a furface of 13,200 miles. Had it been fmaller, it would, in all probability, have been no longer in existence, but would have been swallowed up by the ocean; whence Vontroil, in his Letters on Iceland, fuppofes it to have rifen. Almoft in every part of it fulphur is collected on the furface of the ground, and is inexhauftible, efpecially in the north-eaft of the island, where Mount Krafle is fituated. Horrebow, who spent several years in Iceland, affures us, that at many places eighty horfes may be loaded with it in the courfe of an hour, each horfe carrying two hundred and fifty pounds. He agrees with Anderson, that, notwithstanding the great number of burning volcanoes, there are twenty more in Iceland which are extinguished. A great part befides of its level ground ftands over abyffes of fire. According to the laft-mentioned authors, the little town of Myconfu and its environs were fwallowed up in 1729. Thefe fiery abyffes run out under the furrounding fea, and there keep up a fubmarine volcano, as we fhall fee, by and by, when we come to treat of that kind of volcano. It was that volcano which, in 1783, produced, amidst the boiling waters of the ocean on the fouth of the island, a number of fmall cinder iflands, which have fince, one after the other, difappeared. "On no- part of the earth are hot fprings at prefent found in more abun dance than in Iceland. In a fpace of two miles round, Mr. Stanley reckoned more than two hundred boiling springs, feveral of which were very large. Moft of them fpring twenty, thirty, and forty feet into the air. That of the new Giezer throws itself up even a hundred and thirty feet, with inconceivable rapidity. Several of them intermit, and among others the laft-mentioned. The time of intermiffion is from five to twenty minutes, rarely more. Every time that an eruption of the new Giezer takes place, the adja cent ground is violently fhaken, and a dead noife, refembling a brisk cannonade, heard at a diftance, strikes thofe that are not accustomed to it. "The inhabitants frequently drefs their meat and all their victuals in the water of the Giezer, and in many other fprings of the island; which are almoft all warmed by the fires of the volcanoes." P. 82. THE GIANTS' CAUSEWAY. "IT has been difcuffed, but never yet decided, whether there have been volcanoes in Ireland. There does not feem to be any other grounds for the affirmative than the exiftence of the Giants' Caufeway. The common people, ftruck with the regularity of that immenfe object, judged it to be the work of men; and on account of the extraordinary ftrength it must have required, they fuppofed thofe men to have been giants. But why should we be aftonished to find nature regular in great as well as in small objects? Confequently, in this Causeway, as well as in the grains of the various falts, and in all the other smaller crystals? Allow this, and there is no farther occafion to have recourse, on this subject, either to the fkill of man, or to a race fuperior to the prefent fpecies. "This famous Caufeway is in the county of Antrim. It is a collection of columns regularly difpofed, each adapted to those that are round it, so as to leave no vacancy in the whole. It extends vifibly without interruption about fourteen English miles, part on land and part in the fea, where the end of it is by no means afcertained, for it finks by degrees the farther it is traced under the water. "The regularity is not confined to the compofition of the general pile, but defcends to the formation of each column. The fubftance is throughout of the fame nature; and is a fpecies of marble of an iron-gray colour, with which the ancients were acquainted under the name of bafaltes. This fubftance in its weight, durability, and colour, is very much like lava dug from the bottom of a quarry; which has induced many men to give the name of bafaltes to the currents of lava: a denomination I am not inclined to adopt, because, not only the bafaltes, efpecially that of the Giants' Caufe way, way, is fo compact, that the eye perceives no vacuity in its fubftance, whereas lava is evidently porous; but there is still a much more essential difference between that and lava; for bafaltes has no mixture of any metal, and lava, on the contrary, particularly that at the bottom, is always amalgamated. The denomination, neverthelefs, feems generally admitted, with a distinction that has been introduced, of jointed, cryftallized, or prismatic bafaltes, and of not jointed or common bafaltes. Of course the lava must be of the latter kind. "The Giants' Caufeway is all of jointed basaltes; that is to fay, ift, That each column in it prefents feparately a regular folid body of three, four, five, and even fo many as nine faces; but the figures most usual are, the pentagonal, hexagonal, and heptagonal. The common height of the columns is forty feet above the ground; the depth below has not been inquired into, and the diameters are from a foot to two feet and a half. 2dly, That each column is compofed of dif tinct pieces, the shape and dimenfions of which are always equal, and exactly fit the hollow, in the pieces adapted to receive the lengthened and rounded extremity of the piece which joins into it. Each of these pieces is nearly a foot; so that in general the height may be known from the number of pieces. 3dly, That immediately next to a pilJar in which the convex part is above the concave, one is frequently found that has all its joints directly the reverle; that is to fay, the concave parts are on the contrary above the convex. Thefe particulars are given in a difcourfe on cryftallization, by Dr. Alexander Eaton, in the Memoirs of the Literary and Philofophical Society of Manchester. "The regularity of this admirable ftructure goes even farther. There is a point where, in a finking of the height, fifty of thefe columns appear difpofed in fuch a manner, that the higheft, which is forty feet high, and has forty-four joints, ftands in the centre, and the reft, to the right and left of it, flope off gradually till they meet the line on each fide. From which appearance, that part has been called the Organ-pipes. "There are other peculiarities in this Causeway, which fome may think interefting; but I have confined myfelf to what feems to me fufficient to give an idea of it. Two fine prints were published by Mr. Drury, prefenting different views of the Giants' Caufeway. Productions of a fimilar kind are found in Merioneththire, and in fome of the Hebrides or Western Isles. Sir Jofeph Banks conjectures that the fmall island of Staffa, one of the Hebrides, thirty leagues north of the Giants' Caufeway, is a mafs of basaltic prifms. They are to be found in many other places, but no where on fo large a fcale as in the county of Antrim.” P. 189. XLII. A Dialogue on the distinct Cha racters of the Picturefque and the Beautiful; in anfwer to the Objections of Mr. Knight. Prefaced by an introductory Effay on Beauty; with Remarks on the Ideas of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr. Burke upon that Subject. By UVEDALE PRICE, Efq. 8vo. pp. 229. 3s. 6d. Hereford printed; Robfon, London. EXTRACT FROM THE PREFACE. THE following Dialogue is written in answer to a Note, which my friend Mr. Knight has inferted in the fecond edition of The Landscape. In that Note he has stated it as his opi nion, that the diftinction which I have endeavoured to establish between the Beautiful and the Picturesque, is an imaginary one; and has given his reafons for thinking fo. Now, as that diftinction forms a principal part of my Effay, I have, perhaps, too long neglected to anfwer fuch an antagonist. "Great part of what I have now printed, was written immediately after the publication of the Note; but being at that time very much occupied in preparing a fecond edition of my firft volume, and in finishing my fe cond, I laid the Dialogue by, till they were both completed: and having left. what I had written in its unfinished ftate, I hould never have resumed it, if a perfon, on whofe judgment I have the greateft reliance, had not been of opinion, that it placed the whole of my diftinction in a new, and, in fome refpects, in a more ftriking point of |