efly carbonic acid and carburetted hydrogen, occasionally pure
nitrogen. The mud ejected has often a strong sulphurous smell. The jets
in general ascend only to a moderate height; but occasionally they are
thrown up with great violence, attaining a height of about 200 feet.
In 1777 there was ejected an immense column, consisting of mud strongly
impregnated with sulphur and mixed with naphtha and stones, accompanied
also by quantities of sulphurous vapors. This mud-volcano is known to
have been in action for fifteen centuries.

Very recently a small mud-volcano has been formed on the flanks of Mount
Etna. It began with the throwing up of jets of boiling water, mixed with
petroleum and mud, great quantities of gas bubbling up at the same time.
In several of the valleys of Iceland there are similar phenomena, the
boiling water and mud being thrown up in jets to the height of fifteen
feet and upwards, the mud accumulating around the orifices whence the
jets arise.

A mud-volcano named Korabetoff, in the Crimea, presents phenomena more
akin to those of the igneous volcanoes of South America. There was an
eruption from this mountain on the 6th of August, 1853. It began by
throwing up from the summit a column of fire and smoke, which ascended
to a great height. This continued for five or six minutes, and was
followed at short intervals by two similar eruptions. There was then
ejected with a hissing noise a quantity of black fetid mud, which was so
hot as to scorch the grass on the edges of the stream. The mud continued
to pour out for three hours, covering a wide space at the mountain's
base. The mud-volcanoes on the coast of Beloochistan are very numerous,
and extend over an area of nearly a thousand square miles. Their action
resembles that at Macaluba.

THE MUD VOLCANO OF JAVA

There is a mud volcano in Java which is of interest as somewhat
resembling the geyser in its mode of operation and apparently due to
similar agencies. It is thus described by Dr. Horsfield:--

"On approaching it from a distance, it is first discovered by a large
volume of smoke, rising and disappearing at intervals of a few seconds,
resembling the vapors rising from a violent surf. A loud noise is heard,
like that of distant thunder. Having advanced so near that the vision
was no longer impeded by the smoke, a large hemispherical mass was
observed, consisting of black earth mixed with water, about sixteen
feet in diameter, rising to the heig