Wonders of Creation Part 6

The district of Eyfel, on the borders of the Rhine, is another in which extinct volcanoes abound. They occur mostly in the form of circular craters, which are now filled with water, their borders consisting of volcanic ejections. They also exhibit various superficial streams of lava. One of the most remarkable of these round craters lies near Andernuch, a little west of the Rhine. It is named the Lake of Laach, and is nearly two miles in circ.u.mference.

On its margin are found numerous volcanic ejections, exactly resembling those of Mount Vesuvius. Notwithstanding these evidences that the extinct volcanoes of Eyfel have been in activity since the country acquired its present conformation, there are no historical records of their operations. There is, indeed, a pa.s.sage in Tacitus referring to fires that issued from the earth near Cologne; but his description does not warrant the conclusion that the event to which he alludes was of the nature of a volcanic eruption. The Drachenfels on the eastern bank of the Rhine, and the other mountains in its neighbourhood, belong to the more ancient volcanic formations. The same may be affirmed of the other mountains scattered throughout Germany and central Europe generally, in which rocks of volcanic origin occur.

There are a good many traces of extinct volcanoes in Italy, besides those of the Phlegraean fields already mentioned. In general character they resemble those previously described. The chief localities are certain lakes, near Volterra in Tuscany, which give forth very hot sulphurous and boracic acid vapours; a small sulphureous lake near Viterbo continually giving forth bubbles of gas; the Lake of Vico between Viterbo and Rome; the mountain and Lake of Albano near Rome; Mount Vultur in the Apennines, in the province of the Basilicata; and Lake Agnano near Naples. Of these, the Lakes of Vico and Agnano are the most interesting. The former is the ancient Lacus Cimini, and old authors state that its site was once occupied by a town, whose ruins used to be visible at the bottom of the lake when the water was clear. The ground, with the town upon it, is said to have been ingulfed during a volcanic convulsion, when the lake was formed in its place.

The Lake Agnano is the site of an ancient volcanic crater, and on its margin is situated the Grotto del Cane, so famous for the deadly vapours it exhales. These consist of carbonic acid gas, in combination with watery vapour. This celebrated Grotto is thus described, in his work on volcanoes, by Dr. Daubeny, who visited the spot:--

"The mouth of the cavern being somewhat more elevated than its interior, a stratum of carbonic acid goes on constantly acc.u.mulating at the bottom, but upon rising above the level of its mouth, flows like so much water over the brim. Hence the upper part of the cavern is free from any noxious vapour; but the air of that below is so fully impregnated, that it proves speedily fatal to any animal that is immersed in it, as is shown to all strangers by the experiment with the dog.

"The sensation I experienced, on stooping my head for a moment to the bottom, resembled that of which we are sometimes sensible on drinking a large gla.s.s of soda water in a state of brisk effervescence. The cause in both instances is plainly the same.

"The quant.i.ty of carbonic acid present in the cavern at various heights, was shown by immersing in it various combustibles in a state of inflammation. I found that phosphorus would continue lighted at about two feet from the bottom, whilst a sulphur match went out a few inches above, and a wax taper at a still higher level.

"It was impossible to fire a pistol at the bottom of the cavern, for although gunpowder may be exploded even in carbonic acid by the application of a heat sufficient to decompose the nitre, and consequently to envelop the ma.s.s in an atmosphere of oxygen gas, yet the mere influence of a spark from steel produces too slight an augmentation of temperature for this purpose."

Similar phenomena, but on a grander scale, are presented by the extinct crater in the Island of Java called "Guevo Upas," the Poison-Valley. It is a level about half a mile in circ.u.mference, surrounded by precipitous rocks. From various parts of its soil carbonic acid gas is discharged in such quant.i.ties as to prove fatal to any animal venturing nigh. The ground is consequently strown with numerous skeletons. This valley gave rise to the famous figment about the upas-tree, which once obtained such general belief in Europe.

There is another extinct crater in Java, whence are exhaled vapours equally deadly, but which exert a most peculiar effect on the dead carca.s.ses subjected to their influence. Instead of their being, as in the Gruevo Upas, reduced to skeletons, the carca.s.ses have all their bones dissolved by the vapours; while the flesh, skin, hair, and nails are by their action preserved from decay. This remarkable crater is situated near the volcano of Talaga Bodas.

Of all the extinct volcanoes in the world, however, none is so remarkable as the Dead Sea. That singular collection of salt and bitter water has the level of its surface depressed 1312 feet below that of the Mediterranean--thus indicating an enormous subsidence.

The Dead Sea occupies the site of what was formerly the plain of Jordan, described as having been "well-watered everywhere, as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt." One part of it, called the Vale of Siddim, was full of slime-pits--the only indications of volcanic action. When the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which stood in the plain, were destroyed, the Lord, it is said, rained upon them fire and brimstone from heaven; but while these fell upon the cities from the atmosphere, it appears that they must have primarily been discharged from the earth; for "the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." The phenomena, therefore, most likely resembled, in the first instance, those of Jorullo; but the catastrophe seems to have ended like the last great eruption of the volcano in Timor--the whole of the plain having been ingulfed and replaced by the salt lake, whose depressed level so clearly indicates the nature of its origin.