The beautiful work of Commodore Perry, U.S.N., detailing his mission to Japan, on the part of the United States Government, in 1852, containing excellent photographs of races, as also drawings by the Berlin artist, Wilhelm Heine, does not, as yet, comprise the scientific results of that expedition. Proceeding northwards, the volcanoes are more densely crowded, and are found arranged in series. Of the fifty-four which I enumerated as still in activity among the islands of Eastern Asia, there are thirty-four on the Aleutian, and ten on the Kurile Islands. The Peninsula of Kamtschatka contains nine volcanoes, which have been in activity within the historic period. Lying under the 54th and 60th degrees of northern latitude, we see a long strip of sea-bottom between two continents undergoing a perpetual process of destruction and re-arrangement. The South Sea, the superficial extent of which is one-sixth greater than that of the entire solid crust of our planet, actually presents a smaller number of active volcanoes, less vents for communication between the centre of the earth and its atmospheric envelope, than the single Island of Java! Out of 40 volcanic cones, including those which are extinct, only 26 have been seen in eruption during the historic period. They are not scattered at random, but, on the contrary, as was pointed out by Mr. James Dana, the ingenious geologist of the great United States Exploring Expedition, under the command of Capt. Wilkes (1838-42), they have been thrown up, at widely extending clefts, communicating by submarine mountain systems. They are arranged in groups and distinct regions, analogous to the mountain chains of Central Asia and Armenia (in the district of the Caucasus), and belong to two quite distinct systems, one running S.E. to N.W., the other S.S.W. to N.N.E.