The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1874-03-20

CAROLINA.-The New York Herald thus
scientifically comments on this last SEN
sation:
Tho eleotriu wires have, perhaps,
never flashed moro startling tidincs Of
physical convulsion than the announce.
mene OF yesterday evening, tliat vol
canic eruption was imminent in the
mountains Of North Carolina. No 90.
ologist 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 pre-
historic epoch, they were supposed to
have been convulscd. The intelligence
as now conveyed to us reveals terres-
triui disturbance which, 80 far rs We
know, has no parallel on thie continent
during tho historic period. The historic
accounts of American volcanoes are
confned to the Western coast Of the
continent, lying in that belt of FIRE
which stretches from the Putagonian
and Chi!ian Andes, through tho 18TH
MIN mountains. far away to the North.
westward. along the fog shrouded shores
OF British Columbia. Ws ure told by
Hayden that, in remote geologic
period, tue ontire country drained by
The Yellowstone aud Columbia Rivers
WAS the scene OF volcanic activity as
herce as that of any portion of the
globe, and that it formed one vast crater
nude up of thousand smaller Volcanic
! vents and assures, out of which the
fluid rock was hurled III unlimited quan.
titiea. we know that Mounts Douue,
Langford, Stevenson nnd more than u
hundred others were tho nuclei Of
cyclopean fires thnt rivalled many on
the shores of the Mediterranean. Hum.
bo!dt has recorded the almost incon
c"ivnb!e upheuval in Mexico, in 1853,
When on the night OF September 20, be-
tween the setting and the rising of the
sun, tho volcanic cone Of Jorullo rose
in iiury spiendor l ,6S3 feet above the
plain. In the middle OF August. 1868,
when the Pacific Ocean came rushing
into tho port of Valparaiso, many Of US
remember how its shock, responsive to
the deep npheavuls of the Paclic coast.
spread terror and dismay in the streets
Of San Francisco. at that time the
shaking OF the earth extended far in
land in California. The ground opened !;
Jets OF water wero elected from it; many
buildings were demolished, and ever
since tben the inhabitants of the land
of gold have lived in constant uneasi-
ness.
''All these BOOKINGS of the continent
have occurred on the Western slopes.
The conclusions which have been trans
mitted from the West Indian and At
lantic earthquakes to the Mississippi
Valley have been scarcely perceptii,le,
and made bnt little or no impression on
tho popular mind. The nearest ap.
proaches to Volcanic action in the Mis-.
sissippi Valley have been the occa-
sional slight disturbances in the bayous
and estuaries of the lower Mississippi,
which have been traced to tue agency of
the Mexican Gall and its underlying
volcanic furnace. There is no doubt it
is u centre OF plutonio force, and
Flguier, the eminent French physicist,
has gone so fur as to suppose tha. it's
sub marine furnace partly accounts for
tue snper-heated waters which emerge
through the Florida Pass us the great
Atlantic current.
1T Is not impossible there may be :,
connection between this volcanic ccutre
aud tho foundations Of the Allegheny
peaks, from one IF which, in Western
North Carolina. the present eruption is
reported. The Alleghanics form Al MP.
parenlly Isolated barrier. or rather Sc
ries OF isolated upheavals, extending
from Alabama to Maine, with n mean
altitude of 1000 feet. The two bro.
thcrs, tho Rogerses. so eminent AZ Amc-
rican geoiogists who most fully explored
them. irst pointed out the extraordinary
fact that they have no central axis, hut
consist OF series Of convex and coucaye
lexures, giving them tho appearance of
80 many colossal entrenciments. Mount
Mitchell, the loftiest, ana Mount Wash
ington, tho next in altitude, guard
either lInk OF the series. IL, NYesteru
slope of the whoio range, running from
tho Gancsee country Of New York to
the Musscl Shoals Of the Tennessee
l.iver, are skirted Ivy IL deep underlying
bod Of limestone. This latter fact is
significant, and may give clue to the
origin oi the volcanic action in NORTH
Caro!ina II, as Sir Clmrles Lyell, the
highest geological authority, asserts
VOLCANOES are duo TO chemical action il
The bowels Of the earth, ana not 10 al
Internal sea of fire. ii is not inconcciyn
bic how such chemical action has cul
minated III the present fiery di,turbanc,
III North Carolina; bat we anxiousl,
wait for further liscnrc for the dait
from which to draw satisfactory c,n.
c!usion."