The seat of volcanoes has, without exception, been found to be the highest part of the countries in which they are found. &Aelig;tna and Vesuvius have no land higher than themselves, in their neighbourhood; Hecla is the highest hill in Iceland; volcanoes are frequent in the highest part of the Andes in South America; and the pike of Teneriffe is known to be the covering of subterraneous fire: these are still burning, but there are innumerable other mountains which bear evident marks of fire that is now extinct, and has been so from the time of our earliest traditions: among these is Saint Helena, where the inequalities of the ground, in its external surface, are manifestly the effect of the sinking of the earth, for the opposite ridges, though separated always by deep, and sometimes by broad vallies, are exactly similar both in appearance and direction; and that the sinking of the earth in these parts, was caused by subterraneous fire, is equally manifest from the stones, for some of them, especially those in the bottom of the vallies, are burnt almost to a cinder: in some there are small bubbles, like those that are seen in glass which has been urged almost to fusion, and some, though at first sight they do not appear to have been exposed to the action of great heat, will be found, upon a closer inspection, to contain small pieces of extraneous bodies, particularly mundick, which have yielded to the power of fire, though it was not sufficient to alter the appearance of the stone which contained them.

Voyaging Accounts