Volcanoes Multiply In Number As We Advance Westward, In The Peninsula Of Alaska And The Fox Islands, Where The Volcano Ajagedan Rises To The Height Of 1175 Toises Above The Level Of The Sea.

Thus the chain of the maritime Alps of California appears to be undermined by subterraneous fires at its two extremities; on the north in 60 degrees of latitude, and on the south, in 28 degrees, in the volcanoes of the Virgins.* (* Volcanes de las Virgenes.

The highest summit of Old California, the Cerro de la Giganta (700 toises), appears to be also an extinguished volcano.) If it were certain that the mountains of California belong to the western branch of the Andes of Anahuac, it might be said that the volcanic fire, still burning, abandons the central Cordillera when it recedes from the coast, that is, from the volcano of Colima; and that the fire is borne on the north-west by the peninsula of Old California, Mount Saint Elias, and the peninsula of Alaska, towards the Aleutian Islands and Kamschatka.

I shall terminate this sketch of the structure of the Andes by recapitulating the principal features that characterize the Cordilleras, north-west of Darien.

Latitude 8 to 11 degrees. Mountains of the isthmus of Panama, Veragua and Costa Rica, slightly linked to the western chain of New Grenada, which is that of Choco.

Latitude 11 to 16 degrees. Mountains of Nicaragua and Guatimala; line of volcanoes north 50 degrees west, for the most part still burning, from the gulf of Nicoya to the volcano of Soconusco.

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