and mountains of Russian America, the the case of Mount Elias, to 17,000. There great central plain or valley of the Missis- are many active volcanoes in the branch sippi, the Alleghany Mountains, the Atlan-running to Bristol Bay; and in the Prince tic Slope, and the Atlantic Plains. The of Wales' Archipelago, there are no fewer table land of Mexico is 1600 miles long, then seven active volcanoes. equal to the distance between the north ex- The great central plain of North Ametremity of Scotland and Gibraltar! About rica, between the Rocky and Alleghany 7,000 feet high on the cast, it rises to 9,000 Mountains, has an area of 3,240,000 miles. at the city of Mexico, and declines to 4,000 It is 5,000 miles long, and rarely more than towards the Pacific.

700 feet high, and nowhere more than 1500 "One of the singular crevices through which feet. In part of its northern portion it the internal fire finds a vent, stretches from the contains the most fertile territory in the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific, directly across the United States-in its middle are intermitable-land in a line about sixteen miles south of nable grassy savannahs, or prairies, or enorthe city of Mexico. A very remarkable row of mous forests; in the south are sandy deactive volcanoes occurs along this parallel. Tur-serts 400 or 500 miles wide; and in the far tla, the most eastern of them is in the 95th degree of north are deserts rivalling those of Siberia West longitude near the Mexican Gulf, in a low range of wooded hills. More to the west, the snowshrouded cone of Orizabo is 17,000 feet high; and its ever-fiery crater, seen like a star in the darkness of the night, has obtained it the name of Citlaltepetel, the Mountain of the Star.'

·

in dreariness.

When America was discovered, an uninterrupted forest spread over the country, from the Canadian lakes to the Gulf of Popocatepetl, the Mexico, and from the Atlantic into the valloftiest mountain in Mexico, 17,884 feet above the ley of the Mississippi, "forming an ocean sea, lies still farther west, and is in state of con- of vegetation of more than one 1,000,000 stant eruption. A chain of smaller volcanoes unites the three. On the western slope of the ta- square miles, of which the greater part still ble-land, thirty-six leagues from the Pacific, remain." For hundreds of miles the mighty stands the volcanic cone of Jorullo, on a plain Ohio flows through magnificent forests with 2,890 feet above the sea. It suddenly appeared an undergrowth of rhododendrons, azaleas, and rose 1683 feet above the plain on the night of and other beautiful shrubs. "There the the 29th of September, 1759. The great cone of American forests appear in all their glory; Colima, the last of this volcanic series, stands in the gigantic deciduous cypress, and the tall sulated in the plain of that name, between the western declivity of the table-land and the Pacific. tulip-tree overtopping the forest by half its height; a variety of noble oaks, &c., &c., "Some points of the Sierra Madre are said to and the liriodendron, the most splendid of be 10,000 feet high and 4,000 above their base: the magnolia tribe, the pride of the forest." and between the parallels of thirty-six and forty- In describing the immense forests of Canatwo degrees, where the chain is the watershed be- da, consisting of spruce and pine trees, tween the Rio Colorado and the Rio Bravo del which grow to a great height, like bare spars Norte, they are still higher, and perpetually cov- with a tufted crown, Mrs. Somerville deered with snow.

*

Deep cavities, called Barancas, are a charac- scribes, after Mr. Taylor, the effects proteristic feature of the table-lands of Mexico. They duced upon a forest by a heavy fall of are long narrow rents, two or three miles in snow. breadth, and many more in length, often descending 1000 feet below the surface of the plain, with a brook or the tributary of some river flowing through them. Their sides are precipitous and rugged, with overhanging rocks covered with large trees. The intense heat adds to the contrast between these hollows and the bare plains, where the air is more than cool."-Pp. 169–171.

"After a heavy fall of snow, succeeded by rain and a partial thaw, a strong frost coats the trees and all their branches with transparent ice often an inch thick: the noblest trees bend under the frost, and icicles hang from every bough which come down in showers with the least breath of wind. The hemlock spruce, especially, with its long drooping branches, is then like a solid mass. If The Rocky Mountains stretch in two par- the wind freshens, the smaller trees become like allel chains, occasionally united by a trans-corn beaten down by the tempest, while the large verse ridge from the Sierra Verde to the ones swing heavily in the breeze. The forest at mouth of Mackenzie River. The east-last gives way under its load; tree comes down ern line rises even to the snow-level, and in after tree with sudden and terrific violence, crushmountains Hooper and Brown, to 15,590 ing all before them, till the whole is one wide upand 16,000 feet above the sea. The chains along the shores of Russian America, are still more Alpine in their character, rising in

artillery. Nothing, however, can be imagined more roar, heard from afar, like successive discharges of brilliant and beautiful than the effect of sunshine in a calm day on the frozen boughs, where every par

ticle of the icy crystal sparkles, and nature seems | tum of trachyte is covered with lava, sand, and decked in diamonds." Pp. 178, 179.

In her nineteenth chapter, Mrs. Somerville includes the arctic and antarctic regions of Greenland, Spitzbergen, Iceland, Jan Mayen's land, and the antarctic lands recently discovered by Sir James Ross. The coasts of Greenland, with which we are acquainted, are indented by fiords stretching into the interior often for one hundred miles. These inlets, hemmed in by walls of rock, often two thousand feet high, terminate in glaciers, which are sometimes pressed down by the superincumbent ice, so as often to fill the fiord, and project like bold headlands into the sea. Undermined by the action of the waves, huge masses, like little mountains, fall into the sea, with a crash like thunder, and form the icebergs, which are either stranded by currents on the arctic coast, or driven into lower latitudes till they are thawed under a tropical sun. In 68° of N. latitude a great fiord is supposed to stretch across the table-land and divide the country into S. and N. Greenland, "which last extends indefinitely to the very pole" of the earth.

*

ashes, studded with low volcanic cones. It is a tremendous desert, never approached without dread even by the natives; a scene of perpetual conflict between the antagonist powers of fire and frost, without a drop of water or a blade of grass: no living creature is to be seen, not a bird nor even an insect. The surface is a confused mass of streams with occasional glaciers, complete the scene of deof lava rent by crevices; and rocks piled on rocks, solation. The extremities of the valley are more especially the theatres of perpetual volcanic activity. At the southern end, which opens to the sea in a wide plain, there are many volcanoes, of which Hekla is most known, from its insulated position, its vicinity to the coast, and its tremendous eruptions. The cone is divided into three peaks by crevices which are filled with snow: one of these fissures cleaves the mountain from the summit to the base; it is supposed to have been produced by the great eruption of 1300. Between the years 1004 and 1766, twenty-three violent eruptions have taken place, one of which continued six years, spreading devastation over a country once the abode of a thriving colony, now covered 1846 it was in full activity. The eruption of with lava, scoriæ, and ashes; and in the year Skaptar, which broke out on the 8th of May, 1783, and continued till August, is one of the most dreadful recorded. The sun was hid many days by dense clouds of vapor, which extended to EngIceland, two hundred miles E. of Green- land and Holland, and the quantity of matter thrown land, though a fifth part larger than Ireland, out in this eruption was computed at fifty or sixty is, generally speaking, a country of volca-thousand millions of cubic yards. Some rivers noes and ice, only about 4,000 square miles condensed vapor fell in snow and torrents of rain: were heated to ebullition, and others dried up: the of it being habitable.* "The peculiar fea- the country was laid waste, famine and disease enture of Iceland lies in a trachytic region, sued, and in the course of the two succeeding which seems to rest on an ocean of fire." It years 1300 people and 150,000 sheep and horses consists of two parallel ranges of Jokul or perished. The scene of horror was closed by a Ice Mountains, rising from table-lands, dreadful earthquake. Previous to the explosion passing through the very centre of the an ominous mildness of temperature indicated the island, from N.E. to S.W., and separated of the earth: similar warnings had been observed approach of the volcanic fire towards the surface by a longitudinal valley. The most exten- before in the eruptions of Hekla "-Pp. 193, 194. sive of these ranges is the eastern one, which contains Oræfa Jokul, the highest mountain in Iceland. Many thousand square miles are covered with glaciers which de-ago well described by Sir John Stanley, Sir

scend far into the lowlands.

"The longitudinal space between the mountainous table-lands is a low valley one hundred miles wide, extending from sea to sea, where a substra

The Boiling Springs or aqueous eruptions of Iceland, called Geysers, which were long

W. Hooker, and Sir George Mackenzie, are among the most interesting phenomena in physical geography, and have been ranked even among "the greatest wonders of the world." As Mrs. Somerville has devotIn treating of Iceland, Mrs. Somerville quotes ed to them only a brief paragraph, and has by mistake," Trevelyan's Travels in Iceland." Sir Walter Trevelyan never was in Iceland, and never scarcely described the Great Geyser itself, wrote any book of travels, or any work upon Iceland. we must endeavor to supply this defect, The work to which Mrs. S. has, by an oversight, re- trusting that in another edition she will enferred, is a Memoir On the Vegetation an! Tempera-large this portion of her work. These volture of the Faroe Islands, published in the Ed. New Phil. Journal, Jan. 1837, and re-printed with corrections at Florence, in 1837. Sir Walter visited Faroe in 1821; and in a letter, dated July 24, 1822, addressed to the writer of this article, and published in the Edinburgh Transactions, vol. ix., p. 461, he has given a very interesting notice of the Mineralogy of the

Faroe Islands."

canic fountains are situated about 16 miles north of Skalholt, to the east of a small ridge, separated by a swamp from a group of high mountains. The principal fountains are the Great and Little Geysers and the Tunguhver. The Great Geyser rises

burst with a dreadful explosion in 1367, and again in 1,727, pouring out deluges of hot water, in which 600 sheep and 160 horses perished;-and, finally, the volcanic Jokul Kotlugia, which poured forth such floods of ice and water that the church of Hofdubrecka was observed to swim among the masses of ice to a considerable distance in the sea, before it fell to pieces!*

Mrs. Somerville has mentioned only in a few lines the islands of Jan Mayen and

merous jets of steam. One of the most which is 240 feet from its base ;-the sulremarkable of these springs is the mud vol- phur mountains of Krisuvick;-the woncano of Reykiahlid near Myvat. It issues derful mountain of Oræfa Jokul, which from the crater of Mount Krabla, in the N. E. extremity of the island, and has been well described by Mr. Henderson, who visited Iceland in 1814 and 1815. At the bottom of a deep gulley there is a pool 300 feet in circumference, containing black liquor and mud. From the orifice in the centre of the pool there is emitted, with a loud thundering noise, a huge column of mud, equal in diameter to that of the great Geyser, rising at first to a height of 12 feet, but soon ascending by starts to its Spitzbergen, which are peculiarly interestgreatest elevation, which is often above 30 ing to Englishmen, as they are within the feet. The column rapidly subsides, and when reach of our more adventurous whale ships. it has completely fallen, the orifice can be Captain, now Dr. Scoresby, visited both of recognised only by a gentle bubbling up of these islands, and has published a very valuthe surface. These eruptions lasting only able description of them, from which we about 2 minutes, are repeated every five shall glean a few interesting facts. The minutes. "The above," says Mr. Hen- principal object in Jan Mayen is the volderson, "is an outline of this wonderful canic mountain of Beerenberg, or the Mounpool, but its horrors are absolutely indescrib-tain of Bears, situated at the north extreable. To be conceived they must be seen; mity of the island. It rises from a mounand I am convinced that the awful impres- tainous base, and rears its ice-clad sumsion they left on my mind no length of time mit to the height of 6,870 feet. Captain will ever be able to erase. * M. Mengé Scoresby ascended another volcanic mounof Hanau, who visited Iceland in 1819, in- tain, between 1,000 and 1,500 feet high, forms us that the silicious water of the hot with an elliptical crater, 400 by 240 feet springs contains sulphur, gypsum, alum, wide, on the side of which was a subterbole, &c., that these substances disappear ranean cavern, from which issued a spring as soon as the water cools, and that the of water, that afterwards disappeared in the residuum is trap-porphyry in the Geysers, sea. Between the north-east and south-east lava in those of Reikaness, basalt in those Capes there are three remarkable icebergs, of Kryswick, and even amygdaloid in which occupy three hollows in the almost others! M. Mengé satisfied himself that the Westmanna Islands, 18 miles from Ice*These extraordinary scenes, no doubt, from land, were once continuous with it; and he ville. Regarding Iceland as one of the most extrawant of space, are not described by Mrs. Somerwas informed that the volcano of Heimo-ordinary spots on the surface of the earth, the very Ey, in these islands, was "formed probably focus of subterranean fires still raging beneath it, by a subterran an communicating canal, and producing phenomena of the most gigantic and interesting character, we would strongly recommend during an eruption of Eyafialla Jokul." to the notice of our readers the valuable and able We would willingly linger over this land work of Dr. Henderson, entitled, Iceland, or the of wonders did our limits permit us. We Journal of a Residence in that Island during the years would describe its Odada Hraun, or dis-1814 and 1815. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1818. The object of the author "was exclusively to investigate trict of "Horrible Lavas;"-its moving the wants of its inhabitants with respect to the Holy ice-mountains 20 miles long, 15 broad, and 400 feet high, approaching to and receding from the coast;-its Ale Wells, which intoxicate those who drink a considerable quantity on the spot;-its magnificent Elldborg, or "Fortress of Fire," with its lava battlements 200 feet high and 1800 in circuit;--the Lon-drangur, or two "curious looking natural obelisks, the highest of

* Journal, &c., Vol. I., pp. 171–175. ̈

A plate representing this extraordinary volcanic hill is given by Dr. Hen terson, in Vol. II, ». 28. VOL. XIV. No. IV. 29

Scriptures," and to adopt measures for supplying them: The personal narrative is exceedingly inteof the island correct and scientific; while a tone of resting, and the description of the physical wonders elevated and unobtrusive piety runs, in a gentle under-current, through the whole book. We are surprised that such a work is not better known; and cheap form, we would bespeak for it the especial while we recommend the republication of it in a patronage of the Christian reader. It is impossible to follow the author in his adventurous journey without feeling at every step that the great Architect of our globe is at that moment working with a tremendous agency, before us, above us, and beneath us.

Holland starts from Cape Portland, passes through the Island in the shape of the letter Z, with an average altitude of 3,750 feet, and an average distance of forty miles from the coast.

New Zealand is divided by dangerous and rocky channels into three islands-the Northern, or New Ulster, the Middle, or

perpendicular cliff, which stretches from the base of Beerenberg to the water's edge. Their perpendicular height was about 1,284 feet. These icebergs, unlike any he had seen, resembled cataracts suddenly frozen. A little to the north of Prince Charles's Island, on the east coast of Spitzbergen, there are extraordinary accumulations of ice, known by the name of the Seven Ice- New Munster, and the Southern Island, or bergs. Each of them is about a mile long, New Leinster, which is an exceedingly and nearly 200 feet high at the sea edge; small one. Chains of lofty mountains pass and each occupies a deep valley opening through the islands, rising in New Ulster towards the sea, and flanked by hills 2,000 14,000 feet above the stormy ocean feet high, and terminated in the interior around, buried two-thirds of their height by a chain of mountains, about 3,500 feet in permanent snow and glaciers, and exin height. The largest iceberg which Cap-hibiting, on the grandest scale, all the Altain Scoresby saw was a little to the north pine characters, with the addition of active of Horn Sound, extending eleven miles in volcanoes on the eastern and western length along the coast the highest part of coasts." In New Munster or the middle its sea-front was 2,102 feet, and its breadth island, where, according to Major Bunbury, towards the interior about 1,600 feet. Cap- the bleak and savage appearance of its tain Scoresby had the good fortune to wit- chain of mountains, covered with eternal ness the fall of a mass of ice into the sea, snow, was forcibly contrasted with the real about 50 feet square, and 150 feet high. amenity of its climate, and the fertility of It descended with an awful crash, like that its soil near the coast, is situated the inteof thunder, and broke into a thousand resting Free Church settlement of Otago, pieces. "The water into which it plunged now establishing under the patronage of the was converted into an appearance of vapor New Zealand Company. The river Clutho, or smoke like that from a furious cannonad- which forms the southern boundary of the ing." settlement, is a magnificent river, a quarter Mrs. Somerville concludes her descrip- of a mile broad at its mouth, and winding, tion of the polar regions with an interesting with a navigable channel, six fathoms deep, abstract of the discoveries of Sir James through extended plains of great beauty and Ross in the Antarctic Zone. extraordinary fertility. Coal in thick beds, In the fourteenth chapter of the work be- iron, and copper-the material elements of fore us, and the last which relates to the civilization, are found in this district; and physical description of the EARTH, Mrs. we trust that its better and nobler ingrediSomerville treats of the continent of Austra-ents of churches and schools, will soon conlia, Van Diemen's Island, New Zealand, secrate the sites of Dunedin and Port ChalNew Guinea, and Borneo-a region full of mers, and rear a Christian population who interest both to the philosopher and the will do honor to their Scottish ancestors by statesman. The continent of New Hol- their piety and virtues, and diffuse the land, 2,400 miles long, and 1,700 broad, is blessings of knowledge and religion over marked on its eastern coast by a chain of the benighted regions around. mountains 1,500 miles long, which has gene- After describing very briefly the princirally a meridional direction, and never de- pal islands of the Indian Archipelago the viates much from the coast. Their average largest of them Papua or New Guinea, height is only from 2,400 to 4,700 feet; and 1,400 miles long, by 200 in breadth, and the loftiest of them, Mount Kosciusko, with mountains 16,000 feet high, embracing does not exceed 6,500 feet. The character two active volcanoes; and Borneo, the next of these mountains is peculiarly rugged and in size, with its diamonds, and gold, and savage, in some cases round at top, and spices, and its noble British Rajah-Mrs. crowned with forests; but generally, though Somerville proceeds to give a very interestwooded on their flanks, terminating in bare ing account of the coral formations in the aiguilles, tooth-shaped peaks, and flat crests Pacific and Indian Oceans, presenting a of granite or porphyry, mingled with valuable abstract of the admirable generalipatches of snow. The triangle of Van zations of Mr. Darwin. Although these Diemen's Island contains 27,200 square islands are very numerous, yet there is not miles. The mountainous chain from New one of them within the immense areas of