The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-03-17
Volcanic Outburst In North
Carolina.

The Volcanic Outburst I'm North
Carolina.
The electric wires have, perhaps, never
flashed more startling tidings of physical con-
vulson than the announcement of yesterday
evening, that volcanic eruption was immi-
nent in the mountains of North Carolina. No
geologist Of the present century has ever
ventured, we believe, to predict that
the Appalachian chain, at our own
doors, would ever again be disturbed
by those throes with which, in the So
called prehistoric epoch, they were supposed
to have been convulsed. The intelligence as
now conveyed to us reveals terrestrial dis
turbance which, so far az we know, has no
parallel on this Continent during the historic
period. The historic accounts Of American
volcanoes are confined to the western coast Of
the Continent lying in that belt of fire which
stretches from the Patagonian and CHILEAN
Andes, through the isthmian mountains, far
away to the northwestward, along the fog
shrouded shores OF British Columbia. Weare
told by Hayden that, in remote geologic
Yellowstone and Columbia rivers was the
scene OF volcanic activity as fierce as that of
any portion of the globe, and that it formed
one vast crater made up of thousand smaller
volcanic vents and assures, out of which Che
fluid rock was hurled in unlimited quantities.
We know that Mounts Doane, Langford,
Stevenson and more than a hundred others
were the nuclei of cyclopean fires that rivalled
many on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Humboldt has recorded the almost inconceiy-
able upheaval in Mexico, in 1859, when on the
night of September 20, between the setting
and the rising of the sun, the volcanic cone
OF Jorullo rose in fiery splendor sixteen hun
dred and eighty-three feet above the plain.
In the middle of August, 1868, when the
Pacific Ocean came rushing into the port of
Valparaiso, many of us remember how it's
shock, responsive to the deep upheavals Of
the Pacific coast, spread terror and dismay in
the streets of San Francisco.
At that time the shaking of the earth ex-
tended far inland in California. The ground
opened; jets of water were elected from it;
many buildings were demolished, and ever
since then the inhabitants of the land of gold
have lived III constant uneasiness.
All these BOOKINGS of the Continent have
occurred on the western slopes The con-
cussions which have been transmitted from
the West Indian and Atlantic earthquakes
to the Mississippi Valley have been scarcely
perceptible and made but little Or no i'm
preston on the popular mind The nearest
approaches to volcanic action in the Missis-
sippi Valley have been the occasional
slight disturbances in the bayous and
estuaries of the Lower Mississippi, which
have been traced to the agency of
the Mexican Gulf and its underlying volcanic
furnace. There is no doubt it is a centre of
plutonic force, and Figuier, the eminent
pose that its submarine furnace partly ac-
counts for the superheated waters which
emerge through the Florida Pass as the great
Atlantic current.
It is not impossible there may be connec-
ton between this volcanic centre and the
foundations of the Allegheny peaks, from one
of which, in Western North Carolina, the
present eruption is reported. The Alleghanies
form an apparently isolated barrier, or rather
series of isolated upheavals extending from
Alabama to Maine with mean altitude of
two thousand feet. The two brothers,
the Rogerses, 50 eminent as American geolo-
gists who most fully explored them, first
pointed out the extraordinary fact that they
have no central axis, but consist of series OF
convex and concave textures, giving them the
appearance of SO many colossal intrench-
ments. Mount Mitchell, the Hottest, and
Mount Washington, the next in altitude,
guard either flank of the series. The western
slope of the whole range, running from the
Genesee country of New York to the Mussel
Shoals of the Tennessee River, are
skirted by a deep underlying bed of
limestone. This latter fact is significant and
may give clew to the origin of the volcanic
action in North Carolina. If, as Sir Charles
Lyell the highest geological authority, asserts,
volcanoes are due to chemical action in the
bowels of the earth, and not to an internal sea
of fire, it is not inconceivable how such chem
ical action has eliminated in the present fiery
disturbance i'll North Carolina; bat we anx-
iously wait for further intelligence for the data
from which to draw satisfactory conclusion.
Musical and Dramatic Charity-The
Stage Enlisted in the Good Work.
The cause of charity never fails to enlist
the heartiest sympathies and support of the
members Of the musical and dramatic profess
sions and the widespread restitution exist