The immense mountain-chains which run parallel to the western coasts of America are likewise crowned with numerous volcanic peaks. Chili alone has fourteen active volcanoes, Bolivia and Peru three, Quito eleven. In Central America we find twenty-one volcanoes, which are chiefly grouped near the Lake of Nicaragua, and to the west of the town of Guatemala. The peninsula of Aljaska, and the chain of the Aleütes, possess no less than thirty-six volcanos, scattered over a line about 700 miles long; and thus we find the eastern, western, and northern boundaries of the Pacific encircled with a girdle of volcanic vents, while the subterranean fires have left the western shores of the Atlantic comparatively undisturbed. With the exception of Iceland, which is famous for the widely devastating eruptions of its burning mountains, the volcanic energies of Europe are at present limited to the submarine crater of Santorin, and to the small area of Etna, Vesuvius, and the Lipari Islands. But, situated in the centre of the ancient seats of civilisation, and for so many centuries the object of the naturalist’s researches, of the traveller’s curiosity, and of the poet’s song, they surpass in renown all other volcanic regions in the world. Most other volcanoes vent their fury over lands either so wild or so remote that the history of their eruptions almost sounds like a legend from another planet; but thousands of us have visited Etna and Vesuvius, and the explosion of their rage menaces towns and countries which classical remembrances have almost invested with the interest of home.