ribed in the arts of
brick-making, pottery, &c. Besides these three principal primitive
earths just described, there are seven others, having several
properties in common, yet each possessing its different and specific
properties, and evidently designed by nature for different purposes of
utility.

_Specific_, belonging to its particular species.

_Utility_, usefulness.

What is a Volcano?

An opening in the surface of the earth, or in a mountain, from which
are ejected smoke, flames, stones, lava, &c. Beneath the outer crust
of the earth inflammable materials appear to exist, which different
causes excite into combustion. Volcanoes are supposed to owe their
origin to the metals and minerals which form the basis of earths and
alkalies; and which, when ignited, expand,--shake the rocky
foundations,--and sometimes, bursting through, produce all the
destructive effects of earthquakes. They break forth under the sea, as
well as the land, and throw up mountains which rise above the level of
the water. During an eruption of Vesuvius, A.D. 79, three cities,
Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiae, were overwhelmed, and lay buried
beneath the matter ejected from the volcano until within a few years,
when excavations were made and many relics discovered;--streets,
houses, papyri, (manuscripts,) grain, fruit, bread, medicines, &c.
&c., all in a remarkable state of preservation, have been found just
as they were left by the terrified inhabitants at the time of the
eruption!

_Eruption_, an issuing or breaking forth with violence.

_Ejected_, thrown out.

Are there many Volcanoes?

There are upwards of two hundred volcanoes upon the globe; more than
one half of them are in America and Oceanica The most noted volcanoes
in America are Cotopaxi (the highest in the world), near Quito;
Popocatapetl, in Mexico; Cosiguina, and the Water Volcano, in
Guatemala. In France, Spain, Portugal, and many other countries, there
are districts which show the former existence of volcanoes, which have
long been extinct; near Naples, in an area of two hundred square
miles, there are sixty craters, some of them larger than Vesuvius; in
one of these, the town of Cumea has stood for three thousand years.

What can you say of new islands formed by Volcanic Agency?

Many examples of new islands rising out of the sea by volcanic action
are on record. Some of them are permanent, but others, after a time,
disappear. Teneriffe,