ty of matter included
within the limits of these colossal domes and their environments, all of
which has been extruded from the internal reservoirs, we gain some idea
of the manner in which the contracting crust disposes of the matter it
can no longer contain.[7]

Between the volcanoes of Quito and those of Peru there is an intervening
space of fourteen degrees of latitude. This is occupied by the Andes,
regarding the structure of which we have not much information except
that at this part of its course it is not volcanic. But from Arequipa in
Peru (lat. 16 deg. S.), an active volcano, we find a new series of volcanic
mountains continued southwards through Tacora (19,740 feet), then
further south the more or less active vents of Sajama (22,915 feet),
Coquina, Tutupaca, Calama, Atacama, Toconado, and others, forming an
almost continuous range with that part of the desert of Atacama
pertaining to Chili. Through this country we find the volcanic range
appearing at intervals; and still more to the southwards it is doubtless
connected with the volcanoes of Patagonia, north of the Magellan
Straits, and of Tierra del Fuego. Mr. David Forbes considers that this
great range of volcanic mountains, lying nearly north and south,
corresponds to a line of fracture lying somewhat to the east of the
range.[8]

(_d._) _Other Volcanic Chains._--A similar statement in all probability
applies to the systems of volcanic mountains of the Aleutian Isles,
Kamtschatka, the Kuriles, the Philippines, and Sunda Isles. Nor can
it be reasonably doubted that the western American coast-line has
to a great extent been determined, or marked out, by such lines of
displacement; for, as Darwin has shown, the whole western coast of South
America, for a distance of between 2000 and 3000 miles south of the
Equator, has undergone an upward movement in very recent times--that is,
within the period of living marine shells--during which period the
volcanoes have been in activity.[9]

(_e._) _The Kurile Islands._--This chain may also be cited in evidence
of volcanic action along fissure lines. It connects the volcanoes of
Kamtschatka with those of Japan, and the linear arrangement is apparent.
In the former peninsula Erman counted no fewer than thirteen active
volcanic mountains rising to heights of 12,000 to 15,000 feet above the
sea.[10] In the chain of the Kuriles Professor John Milne counted
fifty-two well-defined volcanoes, of which nine, perhaps more, are