In Eastern Asia a great volcanic band stretches from near the arctic circle at Behring's Straits to the antarctic circle at Victoria, and its focus may be regarded as lying between Borneo and New Guinea. From this centre there radiate a number of great lines, along which the volcanic forces are exhibited in the most powerful manner.
The first of these extends northwards through the Philippines, Japan, the Kuriles, and Kamt schatka, giving off a branch to the east which passes through the Aleutian Islands and the Pen insula of Alaska. This band is continued towards the S.E. in the New Britain and the Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz, New Hebrides, New Zealand, and South Victoria.
Also, east and west from the great central focus there proceed two principal branches. One of these extends easterly through the Navigators' Islands and Friendly Islands as far as Elizabeth islands. Another passes westerly through Java, and then turns north-westward through Sumatra, the Nicobars, the Andamans, and along the coast of Burma and Arakan.
In this great band, besides the .150 or more volcanoes which are known to have been in a state of activity during the historical period, there are several hundred very perfect volcanic cones, many of which appear to have recently become extinct, or are merely dormant.
For long distances, these chains of volcanic action are almost continuous, the only consider able breaks being between New Zealand and New Hebrides on the one hand, and between New Zealand and South Victoria on the other.
The chains en the east of A,sia form the most remarkable train of volcanic vents visible upon the surface of the globe. It extends through 60 degrees of latitude,—from the north of the penin sula of Kamtschatka, beyond the point where it meets the transverse chain of the Aleutians, threading the Kurile, Japanese, and Loo-Choo insular ranges, almost touching the coast of China in Formosa, then stretching due south through the Philippines, whence several loop-lines appear to branch off, through Borneo, Celebes, the Moluc cas, and New Guinea, in sweeping and almost concentric curves. These again unite on the south in the great east and west chain of almost continuous volcanic heights, from Timor Laut, through Flores and Java, bending once more north wards in Sumatra and the Andamans, The in terior of this grand curvature is occupied by the great peninsula of Cochin - China and "sland of Borneo, whose rounded coasts repeat it with parallel concentric outlines.
Pou-fai-gnai and Pou-fai-noi, the Gre t and the Little Fire Mountain, are two active volAnoes near Muong-Luoc, in the kingdom of Luang Pit banin, Northern Laos.
In the peninsula of Kamtschatka there are 12 active volcanoes ; in the Aleutian Islands, 31 ; and 3 in. the peninsula of Alaska. The chain of the Kutiles has at least 10 ; the Japanese Islands and the islands lying to the south of Japan, 25 ; and at the present time there are 50 active vol canoes in the great group of islands lying to the S.E. of the Asiatic continent.
There are four active volcanoes in New Guinea, one or more marine volcanoes ; several vents in New Britain, the Solomon Islands, and the New Hebrides ; three active volcanoes in New Zealand. In the direction of Victoria Land, within the antarctic circle, Sir John Ross observed two lofty fire-emitting volcanic mountains, appropri ately named by him (after his ships) Mounts Erebus and Terror.
New Zealand has a considerable area covered by the products of very recent eruptions. In the northern isle, Mount Egmont (8960 feet high), a truncated cone, with a smaller ash-cone on its summit, is occasionally active ; its mass consists of clinkstone, lavas, and scorim. So likewise are Tongariro (6200 feet) in the centre of the widest part of the island, and'Ruapahu (9000 feet), rather more to the south. The lake of Taipu at the foot of Tongariro, is surrounded by hills of' pumice and ash ; and thence, in a N.E. direction, a line of solfataras and hot springs extends to the coast of the Bay of Plenty, in the centre of which, 1Vhite Island, a volcano of considerable activity, rises from the sea.
Bourbon, in its western half, consists of the skeleton of a great early volcano, with crateral cavities, nearly encircled by precipitous rocks of trachyte, clinkstone, and basalt. The principal summit, Gros Morne, rises 10,000 feet above the sea. At the eastern end of the island is a volcano, 7000 feet high, still active, with small lava cones on its summit.