To this rule of the linear arrangement of the volcanic vents of the globe, and their accumulation along certain well-marked bands, there are two very striking exceptions, which we must now proceed to notice.

In the very centre of the continent formed by Europe and Asia, the largest unbroken land-mass of the globe, there rises from the great central plateau the remarkable volcanoes of the Thian Shan Range.  The existence of these volcanoes, of which only obscure traditional accounts had reached Europe before the year 1858, appears to be completely established by the researches of recent Russian and Swedish travelers.  Three volcanic vents appear to exist in this region, and other volcanic phenomena have been stated to occur in the great plateau of Central Asia, but the existence of the latter appears to rest on very doubtful evidence.  The only accounts which we have of the eruptions of these Thian Shan volcanoes are contained in Chinese histories and treatises on geography.

The second exceptionally situated volcanic group is that of the Hawaiian Islands.  While the Thian Shan volcanoes rise in the centre of the largest unbroken land-mass, and stand on the edge of the loftiest and greatest plateau in the world, the volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands rise in the northern centre of the largest ocean and from almost the greatest depths in that ocean.  All round the Hawaiian Islands the sea has a depth of from 2,000 to 3,000 fathoms, and the island-group culminates in several volcanic cones, which rise to the height of nearly 14,000 feet above the sea-level.  The volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands are unsurpassed in height and bulk by those of any other part of the globe.

With the exception of the two isolated groups of the Thian Shan and the Hawaiian Islands, nearly all the active volcanoes of the globe are situated near the limits which separate the great land-and-water-masses of the globe—­that is to say, they occur either on the parts of continents not far removed from their coast-lines, or on islands in the ocean not very far distant from the shores.  The fact of the general proximity of volcanoes to the sea is one which has frequently been pointed out by geographers, and may now be regarded as being thoroughly established.

VOLCANOES PARALLEL TO MOUNTAIN CHAINS

Many of the grandest mountain-chains have bands of volcanoes lying parallel to them.  This is strikingly exhibited by the great mountain-masses which lie on the western side of the American continent.  The Rocky Mountains and the Andes consist of folded and crumpled masses of altered strata which, by the action of denuding forces, have been carved into series of ridges and summits.  At many points, however, along the sides of these great chains we find that fissures have been opened and lines of volcanoes formed, from which enormous quantities of lava have flowed and covered great tracts of country.