This great crater was also visited by Messrs. Dana and Wilkes of the United States' exploring expedition. They describe the light from the glowing lava to be so intense as to form rainbows on the passing rainclouds. The lava appears almost as liquid as water, and its surface is agitated by waves resembling those of the sea, and breaking, like them, upon the shore formed by the bordering terraces of solid lava. Sometimes they rise to a height of between sixty and seventy feet. The lava, thus tossed into the air, cools in its descent, and falls solidified on the surface of the molten lake, like pieces of broken ice. One peculiarity of this volcano is its tendency to throw out its lava in jets to an enormous height. The lava seems to be first forced up in the interior of the mountain nearly to the top of the great crater; but instead of overflowing its brim, it opens a passage through the sides of the cone at a considerably lower elevation, so that the pressure of the liquid in the interior forces it from the orifice in a jet, whose height is in proportion to that of the inner column.

Blood-Red Rivers of Destruction.

The lava-jets thrown up from Mauna Loa during a great eruption in 1852, are estimated to have reached a height of 500 feet-those of some later eruptions double that height. The lava, as it ascends, is described as being white-hot; but in its descent it acquires a blood-red tint, and it comes down with a fearful noise. The quantities of lava ejected during some of the recent eruptions have been enormous. One stream is described as having travelled fifty miles, with an average breadth of three miles. A great stream, which burst forth from the side of the mountain in 1855, reached a distance of sixty miles from its source-burning its way through the forests, and advancing at the rate of about a mile in a fortnight. In 1859 this volcano was again in vigorous action, throwing up intermitting jets of lava to the estimated height of 800 or 1000 feet. From this great fiery fountain the lava flowed down in numerous streams, spreading over a width of five or six miles. One stream, probably formed by the junction of several smaller, attained a height of from twenty to twenty-five feet, and a breadth of about an eighth of a mile. Great stones were also thrown up along with the jet of lava, and the volume of smoke, composed probably of fine volcanic dust, is said to have risen to the height of 10,000 feet.

An eruption described as having been of still greater violence took place in 1865, characterized by similar phenomena, particularly the throwing up of jets of lava. This fiery fountain is said to have continued to play without intermission for twenty days and nights, varying only as respects

the height to which the jet arose, which is said to have ranged between 100 and 1000 feet, the mean diameter of the jet being about 100 feet. This eruption was accompanied by explosions so loud as to have been heard at a distance of forty miles. A cone of about 300 feet in height, and about a mile in circumference, was accumulated round the orifice whence the jet ascended. It was composed of solid matters ejected with the lava, and it continued to glow like a furnace, notwithstanding its exposure to the air. The current of lava on this occasion flowed to a distance of thirty-five miles, burning its way through the forests, and filling the air with smoke and flames from the ignited timber. The glare from the glowing lava and the burning trees together was discernible by night at a distance of 200 miles from the island.

In the early part of 1887, Mauna Loa was again in action, presenting startling spectacles similar to those just described. It is literally a mountain of fire, roaring and thundering, and belching out lurid flames and immense rivers of lava. This is one of the amazing phenomena which have so long rendered the group of the Sandwich Islands an object of surpassing interest to the whole civilized world. Here we find one of the great breathing places of the inside world, that tremendous furnace upon which we live. What gigantic forces, what red hot, burning materials, what awful abysses of flame and fury this world of ours holds in its deep, mysterious and unknown recesses!

Connection Between Earthquakes and Volcanoes.

The connection between earthquakes and volcanoes is so evident that it hardly admits of any doubt. But a number of facts have been collected which evidently show that there must exist a subterraneous connection between these phenomena, even when they occur at great distances from each other. Some of these facts are very interesting and curious. Stromboli, a small volcano situated on one of the Lipari Islands, which is in continual activity, and never ceases to eject volcanic matter and smoke, fell suddenly into a state of inactivity when the plain of Calabria was visited by the great earthquake. The distance between the volcano and the centre of the earthquake does not much exceed fifty miles. Humboldt mentions that for many months the volcano of Pasto had uninterruptedly continued to emit a column of thick smoke, which suddenly disappeared just at the moment when the valley of Hambato was convulsed by the earthquake which levelled the town of Riobamba to the ground. In this case the distance was two hundred and twenty miles. On the 1st of November, 1755, a whirling column of smoke ascended from the crater. of Mount Vesuvius, which is commonly a sign that the volcano is in a

state of disturbance; but all at once the flow of smoke was stopped, and that which had issued reëntered the crater. The distance between Lisbon and Mount Vesuvius exceeds one thousand two hundred miles. As it is a well-established fact that the strong oscillation of the earth during the great earthquake of Lisbon extended to the centre of England, Lombardy, and the Alps, and even to Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, it can hardly be considered a bold assumption, when it is supposed that this change in the crater of Mount Vesuvius was effected by that earthquake,

FLAMES BURSTING FROM THE CRATER OF STROMBOLI.

thus showing a connection between the earth's convulsions and its volcanoes. Similar coincidences have been repeatedly observed.

When Hoffman the great Prussian geologist, ascended the peak of Stromboli, and reached the crater, he lay down and hung over its precipitous side, while held firmly by his companions. He was thus enabled to look right down into its fiery depths, and of the scene which they presented he has left on record a vivid description: At the bottom of the crater were three mouths in a state of activity. The central and principal one was 200 feet in diameter; it was in no way remarkable: it smoked

slightly, and its sides were encrusted with several coats of yellow sulphur. By the side of this main vent, but nearer the precipice, was another, only twenty feet wide, in which I observed the glow of the liquid column of lava that at intervals played upon the surface. The lava was not, as an ardent imagination depicts it, a burning mass, vomiting forth flames; but shone like molten metal, like iron flowing from the furnace, or like silver at the bottom of a heated crucible. This molten mass oscillated to and fro, and rose and sank.

A Scene of Awful Grandeur.

The surface regularly rose and fell at rhythmic intervals. A peculiar noise was audible, like the rush of air entering by gusts through the door of a mining furnace. A cloud of white vapors rose, upheaving the lava, which fell back after each commotion. These vapor-clouds carried off the surface of the lava numerous fragments of red-hot scoria, which danced in the air as if tossed to and fro by invisible hands, in a rhythmic measure, above the edge of the opening. This regular and attractive movement was interrupted at intervals of fifteen minutes by more violent vibrations. The mass of whirling vapors then remained immovable for a moment, or even sank back a little, as if it was inhaled by the crater, from whose depths the lava surged up more furiously, as if to encounter it. Then the ground trembled, and the sides of the crater shivered as they inclined inwards. It was a veritable earthquake. From the mouth of the crater proceeded a hoarse reverberating bellow, and at the end an immense balloon of vapor grew on the surface of the lava rising up with a sonorous and thundering clash. The whole surface of the lava splintered into fragments was then ejected into the air. The heat now became insupportable; and a sheaf of flames shooting suddenly upwards, fell back in a fiery rain on the surrounding district. A few balls rose to a height of 1200 feet, and described, as they swept over the heads of Hoffman and his companions, parabolic curves of fire. Immediately after each of these explosions, the lava retired into the bottom of the crater, which yawned like a black and awful gulf; but speedily its glittering surface rose again, and recom menced its ordinary rhythmic play.

Volcanic Mountains Bursting from the Sea.

The most remarkable phenomenon produced by the concurrence of earthquakes and volcanic agency is the emerging of new islands from the sea. They rise suddenly, and their appearance is attended with nearly all the phenomena accompanying eruptions; they exist for some time, and then they commonly disappear gradually. It is a circumstance worthy to be noticed, that such islands make their appearance repeatedly on the

same spot, and that such spots may be pointed out in each of the vol canic systems of Europe, and have been repeatedly discovered.

VOLCANO UNDER THE OCEAN NEAR THE AZORE ISLANDS.

In the volcanic system of the Azores the spot where the volcanic islands appear is about a mile west of the western extremity of the Island