We know indeed that the Island of Salsette, near Bombay, is basaltic, but it does not appear to be of recent formation; and Sir John Malcolm in his Memoir on Central India, has inserted a letter from Captain Dangerfield, giving an account of the geological structure of the province of Malwa, an elevated table land, which stretches across the centre of the peninsula between 21°. 30. and 24°. of north latitude, and which is chiefly composed of trap rocks. These however he considers to be secondary, and recognizes among them nothing of a volcanic nature.*

There is likewise in the Eastern Magazine for September, 1823, a notice of a journey up the Ganges, in which it is stated, that the rocks of Peerpoint and of Sacrigully are black and porous, like lavas.

Amongst the Himalaya range there is said to have been discovered a volcanic mountain, which is at present -emitting much smoke, but no flame. As no one however has yet examined the actual spot, it is impossible to determine at present what the real nature of the phænomenon may be, and the probabilities are certainly against its connexion with a genuine volcano, both from its situation in the centre of a vast continent, and from the apparent absence of any lavas or ejected masses in its vicinity.t

In central Tartary we have long had obscure notions as to the existence of volcanos, and Mons. Ferussac has taken the trouble of collecting, in a late number of the Bulletin des Sciences, the principal particulars that have been transmitted to us respecting them.

It would appear, that at the north of Khouei-thsu, and on the southern frontier occupied at the close of the 1st century of the Christian æra by the Hioungnou Turks, driven westward by the Chinese, there rises a burning mountain called Ho-chan. On one side of this mountain, add

Malcolm's Central India, vol. 2. Appendix.

+ See Brewster's Philos. Journal. April, 1826.

Vol. 3, for 1824.

U

the accounts, all the stones are in a burning and melted state, and flow to a distance of some tens of li (i. é. leagues). This melted mass afterwards becomes cold and hard. The inhabitants of the country use it for medicine. Sulphur is also met with.

A Chinese writer of the 7th century, in speaking of Khoueithsu, says: At 200 li (20 leagues) north of this town, there is a white mountain, which is called Aghie. Fire and smoke continually proceed from it; it is from thence that the sal ammoniac comes.

The antient town of Khouei-thsu is the town of Khoutché of the present time, situated in 41°. 37. north latitude, 80' 35. east longitude, according to the observations of the missionaries sent towards the middle of the last century to prepare a map of it. This volcano, which forms a part of the snowy chain of the celestial mountains (Thian-Chan) must therefore be found nearly in 42.35 of N. latitude. It is probably the same which has at present the name of Khalar. According to the account of the Boukharies, who bring the Sal Ammoniac to Siberia and Russia, the latter is found south of Korgos, a town situated on the Ili. So large a quantity of this salt is collected there, that the inhabitants of Khoutché employ it to pay their tribute to China.

The new description of central Asia, published at Pekin in 1777, contains the following notice:

"The territory of Khoutché produces copper, saltpetrė, sulphur, and sal ammoniac. The latter proceeds from a mountain called the Mountain of Sal Ammoniac, which is found on the north of the town. It has many caverns and crevices, which, in spring, summer, and autumn, are filled with fire, so that during the night the mountain seems illuminated by thousands of lamps. No one then can come near it. It is only in winter, during the coldest season, and when the great quantity of snow has stifled the fire, that the people of the country approach; they strip themselves quite naked, in order to collect the sal ammoniac, which is found

in the caverns in the form of very hard stalactites; it is for this reason very difficult to detach it.

"Twelve days journey by the caravan, north of Korgos, is found another town, commonly called Tchougoultchak. It is situated at the foot of Mount Tarbagatai, 46°. 5. N. lat, and 80°. 45. E. long. Four stations to the east of this town we arrive at the canton of Khoboksar, near Khobok, which falls into the Lake Darlai; there is there a small mountain full of fissures, which are excessively hot, but do not exhale any smoke. In these fissures sal ammoniac sublimes, and attaches itself so strongly to the walls, that it is necessary to break the rock in order to collect it.". Klaproth.

The Abbe Remusat, in a letter to Cordier,* states his having found in the Japanese edition of the Chinese encyclopedia other particulars respecting this volcano.

"The sal ammoniac in persian "Nouchader," in chinese "Naocha," &c. is drawn from two volcanic mountains of Central Tartary; one is the volcano of Tourfan, lat. 43. 30, long. 87. 11. which has given to the town near it, the name of Ho-Tcheou, town of fire; the other is the White Mountain, in the country of Bisch-Balikh; these two mountains throw out continually flames and smoke. There are cavities there in which they collect a greenish liquid; exposed to the air this liquid is changed into salt, which is the sal ammoniac; the people of the country use it in the preparation of leather. As to the Mountain of Tourfan, we observe a column of smoke rise from it perpetually; this smoke is replaced in the evening by a flame like that of a torch; birds and other animals lighted up by it appear of a red colour. The mountain is called the Mount of Fire. In order to search for the salt, they put on wooden shoes, for leather ones would soon be burnt. The people of the country likewise collect the mother waters, which they boil in cauldrons, and obtain from thence the sal ammoniac, under the form of loaves, like those of common salt.

* Annales des Mines, v. 1820-p. 135 & 137,

These volcanos are 400 leagues from the Caspian Sea. Cordier observes that the existence of two burning mountains in the midst of the immense table land bounded by the Oural, the Altaic Mountains, the frontiers of China, and the Himalaya Chain, is very worthy of attention. Sal ammoniac is never found in Europe in any but a volcanic rock; it is therefore probable, a priori, that the origin of it in Asia is that assigned by the Abbé Remusat, and the professed learning of that scholar gives an authority to the facts detailed.

Ferussac however remarks, that the volcano of Tourfan is situated, according to Pere Gaubil, in lat. 43. 30. long. 87. 11. so that it lies in the midst of some considerable lakes. That of the White Mountain, in lat. 46., is also between two large lakes, that of Balgasch and Alakougoul.

The Mount of Fire or Ho-chan, now Khoutche, seems to be the same as that noticed by the Chinese author of the 7th century, under the name of Pechan, 20 leagues north of Khouei-thou. According to this author the mountain is called Aghie, a word which, according to M. Klaproth, signifies the same as Hochan in Chinese. Klaproth thinks that the volcano is situated in 42°. 35. N. lat. probably the same as Mount Khalar, which, according to the Boukharies, is found south of Korgas, on the R. Ili. Thus all this part of Klaproth's statement, seems to relate to a single volcano; and the different names of Mountain of Fire and White Mountain, by which it is known, seem to correspond with the two volcanos of M. Remusat.

The volcano of the environs of Tchougoultchak, must be found at the foot of M Chamar, near the Lake Zaisan, and does not appear to correspond with either of those of M. Remusat. The number consequently of the actual volcanos and solfataras in central Asia does not appear fully

made out.

In the translation made by Hylander the Father* of a

* See Bulletin des Sciences for January, 1825.

geographical work by Ibn-el-Wardi, mention is made of a' mountain in the interior of Asia, from which smoke is seen to arise in the day, and flames by night. This mountain is situated in the country called Tim, which Hylander and his son think are the same as the Botom of Edrisi and Abulfeda, and the Bastam of Bakoui.

This country is situated between the Oxus and the Iaxartes. The mountains give rise to the Sogd (the Polytimetus of ancient geographers) a river which waters the Sogdiana. It is worth while to observe also, that according to the same Arabian writer, this country produces native sal ammoniac, and the substance called Zadj, which is either alum or an aluminous slate. The burning mountain made known to us in this passage, must be to the east of the Lake Aral, and of the Caspian Sea.

Pallas also in his Travels mentions a burning mountain, which he visited in the spring of the year 1770, in the government of Oremburg, near the village of Soulpa occupied by the Baschkires, and the river Jourjousen. He speaks of vapours like smoke in the day, and of slight flames at night, but he does not view them as volcanic.*

Other notices might be collected of similar phænomena occurring in parts of this vast tract, but they principally depend upon the authority of the Tartar tribes, and may perhaps turn out to be the same as those already alluded to.+

The only active volcanos on the Continent of Asia, that appear to be fully ascertained, are those on the Peninsula of Kamtschatka.

Kraskeninikoff, in his history of that province, translated into French in 1767, makes mention of three; viz.

1. Awachinski, north of the Bay Awatscha, which had an eruption in 1737, followed by a tremendous earthquake,

* Vol. 2. p. 76.

+ See Schlangin, in Pallas. Nordischen Beitragen, vi. p. 117, and do, vii. p. 327.-Also Falk Topog, des Russ. Reichs, vol. 1. p. 380.