218 Contributions to Physical Geography. 



crater, and looked over the fearful steep down which the fiery 

 cascade had rushed. In the space where it had fallen, the la- 

 va had formed a spacious basin, which, hardening as it cool- 

 ed, had retained all those forms, which a torrent of lava, fal- 

 ling several hundred feet, might be expected to produce on the 

 viscid mass below.'" 



Large rocks were scattered around, of four or five tons 

 weight, which appeared to have been thrown out in the vol- 

 canic eruptions. 



Within one hundred yards of the great crater, is another of 

 about half the size, called little Kirauea. " Its sides were 

 covered with trees and shrubs, but the bottom was filled with 

 lava, either fluid or scarcely cold, and probably supplied by 

 the great crater, as the trees, &c. on its sides, showed that it 

 had remained many years in a state of quiescence. ,, It was 

 stated that there were many others in the neighbourhood. 



So hot are the ground and the air and vapours issuing from 

 it, that the natives formerly coqked, by these means, (and it 

 would have been considered as impious to do it by any other,) 

 the various sacrifices offered to Pele ; and even food for or- 

 dinary purposes is always cooked here, simply by burying it 

 in the ground. This is done by the wood-cutters and by the 

 bird-catchers. 



3. Account of the Effects of the Earthquake of the Vbth No- 

 vember 1822, in the Gold Mine of El Bronce. 



I visited the gold mines of El Bronce de Petorca, accom- 

 panied by a very intelligent Chilian miner, who, with several 

 of his comrades, was in a mine on this lode a hundred fa- 

 thoms deep, when the great earthquake of the 19th of No- 

 vember 1822, which almost destroyed Valparaiso, took place. 

 He told me, that several of his comrades were killed, and 

 that nothing could equal the horror of their situation. 



He said, that the mountain shook so, that he could scarcely 

 ascend ; large pieces of the lode were falling down, and every 

 instant they expected the walls of the lode would come to- 

 gether, and either crush them, or shut them up in a prison 

 from which no human power could liberate them. He add- 



