In a few days there was raised around this crater a cone of about three hundred feet in height, composed of the looser materials thrown out along with the lava. This cone continued to glow with intense heat, throwing out occasional flashes. The base of this cone eventually acquired a circumference of about a mile. But the fountain itself formed a river of glowing lava, which rushed and bounded with the speed of a torrent down the sides of the mountain, filling up ravines and dashing over precipices, until it reached the forests at the foot of the volcano. These burst into flames at the approach of the fiery torrent, sending up volumes of smoke and steam high into the air. The light from the burning forests and the lava together was so intense as to turn night into day, and was seen by mariners at a distance of nearly two hundred miles. During the day the air throughout a vast extent was filled with a murky haze, through which the sun showed only a pallid glimmer. Smoke, steam, ashes, and cinders were tossed into the air and whirled about by fierce winds--sometimes spreading out like a fan, but every moment changing both their form and colour. The stream of lava from the fountain flowed to a distance of about thirty-five miles. The scene was altogether terrific--the fierce red glare of the lava--the flames from the burning trees--the great volumes of smoke and steam--the loud underground explosions and thunderings,--all combined to overpower the senses, and fill the mind with indescribable awe. A remarkable volcanic chain runs along the northern and western margins of the Pacific Ocean. It embraces the Aleutian Islands, the peninsula of Kamtschatka, the Kurile, the Japanese, and the Philippine Islands. The most interesting are the volcanoes of Kamtschatka, in which there is an oft-renewed struggle between opposing forces--the snow and glaciers predominating for a while, to be in their turn overpowered by torrents of liquid fire. CHAPTER IX. Atolls, or Coral Islands--Their strange Appearance--Their Connexion with Volcanoes--Their Mode of Formation--Antarctic Volcanoes--Diatomaceous Deposits To the southward of the Sandwich Islands, on the other side of the equator, there is a large group of islands in the Pacific, which have a very peculiar appearance. They are called Atolls or Coral Islands. Although not exactly of volcanic origin, yet the manner in which they are formed has some connexion with submarine volcanic action.