E-text prepared by Steven Gibbs, Stephen H. Sentoff, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 31627-h.htm or 31627-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/31627/pg31627-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/31627/31627-h.zip) The Contemporary Science Series. Edited by Havelock Ellis. VOLCANOES: PAST AND PRESENT. [Illustration: Fig. 1.--Eruption of Vesuvius, 1872-1873] VOLCANOES: PAST AND PRESENT. by EDWARD HULL, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. Examiner in Geology to the University of London. With 41 Illustrations and 4 Plates of Rock-Sections. London: Walter Scott, Limited, 24, Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row. 1892. _BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ The Coal-fields of Great Britain: their History, Structure, and Resources. 4th edit. (1881.) E. Stanford. The Physical History of the British Isles. With a Dissertation on the Origin of Western Europe and of the Atlantic Ocean. (1882.) E. Stanford. The Physical Geology and Geography of Ireland. 2nd edit. (1891.) E. Stanford. Treatise on the Building and Ornamental Stones of Great Britain and Foreign Countries. (1872.) Macmillan and Co. Memoir on the Physical Geology and Geography of Arabia-Petræa, Palestine, and adjoining Districts. (1886.) Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Mount Seir, Sinai, and Western Palestine. Being a Narrative of a Scientific Expedition, 1883-84. (1885.) Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Text-book of Physiography. (1888.) C. W. Deacon and Co. Sketch of Geological History. (1887.) C. W. Deacon and Co. PREFACE. It has not been my object to present in the following pages even an approximately complete description of the volcanic and seismic phenomena of the globe; such an undertaking would involve an amount of labour which few would be bold enough to attempt; nor would it be compatible with the aims of the _Contemporary Science Series_.