23rd May.
ComPaRaBLE during the century only with the great emption at Krakatoa in 1883, the recent explosion in the Islands of Martinique and St. Vincent is remarkable not only for the loss of life and the actual damage inflicted, but for the amount of physical change effected. The group of the Lesser Antilles has long been known to be volcanic, but owing to the infrequency of eruptions recorded this fact has been apt te drop into oblivion, At present several of these islands, from Trinidad to St. Thomas, are remarkable from containing hot springs, mud volcanees, solfataras, and the usual accompaniments of half extinct or dormant volcanic action. It is, however, in the central islands of the group stretching from St. Vincent to Guadaloupe that volcanic action proper has been most marked; St. Vincent kas long been marked by its _active volcano, Morne Garou, which twice at least since its discovery has been marked by first-class eruptions. St. Lucia, a much more level island, with its highest pains rising to less than 1,500 feet, has likewise been in eruption during the same period, while boiling interm: ttent springs, resembling in many respects the geysers of Iceland, mark it as still native, Martinique, with its great peak, Mont Pelée, rising some 4,500 feet over the town of St, Pierre, has Jong been noted for its numerous boiling springs, and though no explosion seems hitherto to have been recorded, the evidence of the monntain itself, a vast cone wf pumice, showed that the volcanic forces, if nearly dormant, could by no means be considered as exhausted. In Dominica, a rocky island whose summits rise to the height of nearly 6,000 feet, volcanic activity has been long conspicuous in the shape of large boiling lakes, occasionally assuming a geyser-like nature, while the mountains themselves are essentially composed of recent volcanic rocks.
It is, however, in Guadaloupe that the volcanic forces seem to have had their grand focus; here are counted no less than fourteen volcanic mountains considered extinct, while one some 5,000 feet high has been several timesineruption. Noteworthy eruptions, most of which have been of first-class severity, are recorded as having occurred in one or other of those islands, in 1692, 1718, 1766, 1792, and in 1836, so that, considering that their discovery dates back only four hundred years they may be considered as having a fair record. But though this belt of small islands may be considered as entitled to notice as one of the chief volcanic chains of the world, the interest increases when we come to consi 2 the prolongations of the line east and west. They are, in fact, situated near the crossing place of the two great volcanic bands of the world, both of which are remarkable as forming great circles reaching round the earth. The great Pacific line, which reaches almost without interruption from Java through the Philippines and Japan, and thence through the Aleutians to the Rockies and Central America is well known. Theother, though less marked isno less extensive. Crossing the former line in about 75 west latitude in the great knot of volcanoes of Ecuado:, it runs through the Lesser Antilles to Madeira, passing between the two volcanic groups of the Azores and the Canaries. One of the most destructive of earthquakes on record, that of Lisbo: in 1755, occurred on this tine. Io then passes through the north of Italy, where it is connected with Vesuvius, and doubtless Etna, and then proceeds through the Balkans to the Gaueasus, from which it is scarcely month since we heard of serious earthquakes, From that it continues a short distance from the great and scarcely extinct range of Int. Demavend, and strikes the western extremity of the Himalayas, dipa under the Bey' of Bengel, whence passing through Bengal it
where it is marked by a line of mud volcanoes, of no great importance it is true, yet sufficient to indicate that the force is there. Thence it passes along by Sumatra, Java and the Spice Islands to temporarily disappear in North Australia and Queensland where, however, it has left traces of former activity. I', however, reappears in the North Island of New Zealand, where it has reached its most southern latitude. It then perforce drops beneath the waters of the Southern Pacific, yet not so entirely as n ionally to give evidences of its capa finally reaches its starting place.
Now it is a curious circumstance that nearly all the important volcanoes of the world occur in these two bands, within at mos a few degrees one side or the other of the central. line. The chief exceptions are nearly as remarkable as the rule. They are the Sandwich Islands, and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.