VOLCANOES. In the south-west of Asia, south of the Hellespont, the mountains surround ing the plains of Troy present many traces of older volcanic action, and there are a. string of volcanic islands in the lEgean Archipelago. Farther south is the great crater of Santorini, formed in a pre historic age, with islands which were produced by eruptions in 1573 and 1707.
Eastward of these, in Asia, Minor, the lofty Hassan Dagh rises from an elevated table-land to 8000 feet above the sea. At its base are several cinder cones that have given vent to streams of. black vesicular lava which have flowed into the plain.
From Erzerum to Kars, and thence to Tiflis and Erivan,—indeed, through almost the entire space south of the Caucasus separating the eastern coast of the Black Sea from the Caspian, as well as the country surrounding the lakes Van and Ourmia,—volcanic formations predominate. In these countries six principal volcanic amphi theatres ' have been described by M. Du Bois de 'Mont Pereux, viz. 1. That of Akaltsike, reaching from Poti on the Black Sea eastwards to the sources of the Kour river ; 2. That surrounding the Lake Sevan ; 3. That of Armenia, including the Great and Lesser Ararat ; 4. That of Lake Van ; 5. That of Lake Ourmia ; 6. That of the ` volcanic valley ' of Kapan. To the south of the flat valley of the Araxes, on the borders of Armenia, rise the almost insulated twin cones of the Great and Lesser Ararat. The Great Ararat, whose peak is 17,250 feet above the sea, and 14,320 above the plain of the Armes, presents on this side, according to Abich, an enormous horse shoe-shaped crater, called the Valley of St. James.
The Lesser Ararat is separated from the Greater only by a flat plain or Col, half a mile in width. It has the figure of a very regular pyrainid or cone, truncated at the summit by a, crater, which, however, appears not to have been eruptive in recent times. To the north-west of Ararat, to wards Kars, Abich speaks of a- vast volcanic system, called the Tantoureck, west of Bajazid ; also of two great mountains (magnifiques crateres de soulevement), called Sordagh and Aslanlydagh, and other volcanic ranges, Synak and Parlydagh, surrounding the high lake Balykgoell.' All of
these are visible from the-Little Ararat, as well as vast basaltic. platforms beyond the Araxes and north of Erivan.
In a.n. 341, the mountains of Armenia are said to have split open and vomited clouds of flame and smoke. A. tremendous earthquake in tho year 1841 shook the two Ararats to their founda tion, toppling down vast rocks from their heights, together with avalanches of ice and snow, into the valleys beneath. The shock was felt with great intensity through the neighbouring provinces Its far as Shusa and Tabreez on one side, and Tiflis on the other.
Elburz, the loftiest peak of the Caucasus, be lieved to be upwards of 18,000 feet in height, has a crater on the summit ; its lavas are chiefly trachytic.
Over the chain of the Caucasus, towards the Caspian on the east, and ,the Sea of Azof on the west, are scattered vast numbers of mud volcanoes, i.e. cones of a ductile, unctuous clay, formed by the coutiuued evolution of a sulphureous and in tlatnmable gas, spurting up waves and lumps of liquid mud. Some of them are 250 feet high.
The great east and west range of Tian Shan, connecting the Altai with the Kouen Lan, and through this with the elevated plateau of Persia, is said to be chiefly volcanic. Flames are also described as rising from Ho-te-keou mountain, near Turfan, 420 miles farther eastward. In the beginning of 1884, the Turkestan Gazette stated that as many as 90 distinct shocks of earth quake had been felt at Gosh. since November 14, 1883. Other shocks had also recently occurred at Viernoe and Tashkend.
Syria.—The coast, of Syria presents numerous indications of volcanic action. It is very subject to earthquakes, in one of which, in 1759, 20,000 persons are said to have been destroyed. The Lake of Tiberias is partly encased in basalt ; and on one side a stream of recent-looking lava, a league in breadth, has run into it from the flank of a mountain at a height of nearly 1000 feet. Farther south, on the eastern border of the valley of Akaba, which continues the hollow of the Jordan to the Red Sea, are several volcanic cones.