Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley
page 43 of 242 (17%)
page 43 of 242 (17%)
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old rocks, to make them into new ones, and spread them out over the land
above. And are there many volcanos in the world? You have heard of Vesuvius, of course, in Italy; and Etna, in Sicily; and Hecla, in Iceland. And you have heard, too, of Kilauea, in the Sandwich Islands, and of Pele's Hair--the yellow threads of lava, like fine spun glass, which are blown from off its pools of fire, and which the Sandwich Islanders believed to be the hair of a goddess who lived in the crater;--and you have read, too, I hope, in Miss Yonge's _Book of Golden Deeds_, the noble story of the Christian chieftainess who, in order to persuade her subjects to become Christians also, went down into the crater and defied the goddess of the volcano, and came back unhurt and triumphant. But if you look at the map, you will see that there are many, many more. Get Keith Johnston's Physical Atlas from the schoolroom--of course it is there (for a schoolroom without a physical atlas is like a needle without an eye)--and look at the map which is called "Phenomena of Volcanic Action." You will see in it many red dots, which mark the volcanos which are still burning: and black dots, which mark those which have been burning at some time or other, not very long ago, scattered about the world. Sometimes they are single, like the red dot at Otaheite, or at Easter Island in the Pacific. Sometimes the are in groups, or clusters, like the cluster at the Sandwich Islands, or in the Friendly Islands, or in New Zealand. And if we look in the Atlantic, we shall see four clusters: one in poor half- destroyed Iceland, in the far north, one in the Azores, one in the Canaries, and one in the Cape de Verds. And there is one dot in those Canaries which we must not overlook, for it is no other than the famous |
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