4o8 METEOROLOGY. 



Avhich were very distinctly felt and heard at Leon. These explosions opened n 

 fissxire through the earth's crust, about half a mile in length, running from the uld 

 fissure in a southwest direction, about midway between the extinct volcanoes ol 

 Las Pilas and Orota, which are two of the numerous cones studding the ancient 

 fissure. 



Before daylight on the morning of the 14th, fire was seen issuing from the 

 new volcano in various places. The explosions continued u'regidarly during 

 the whole time that the volcano was in a state of eruption, sometimes in rapid 

 succession and at other times at intervals of haK an hour. Low, rumbling 

 sounds were heard almost ineessantly. In the course of a few days two craters 

 were opened on the new fissure, about 1,000 feet apart, the one at the south- 

 western extremity discharging perpendicularly, and the other shooting out towards 

 the northeast at an angle of 45 degrees. The flames from these two craters 

 steadily increased in height and size, while jets of flame and slighter discharges 

 were emitted from two or three other side fissures. 



On the morning of November 22d, I went out to the new volcano for the purpose 

 of observing it more closely, though I had seen and heard it very plainly each 

 day and night from Leon. The best view which I obtained of it on that occa- 

 sion was before daylight, from a mountain summit, about one mile to the north- 

 west of the fissui'e and at right angles with it. The main crater, at the riglit, 

 was actively at work, throwing out flames and half-melted cinders through a cir- 

 cular orifice about 60 feet in diameter, which was constantly filled to its utmost 

 capacity with the ascending masses. A regular cone, built up entirely by the 

 falling cinders to the height of about 200 feet, had already formed around the 

 crater. The rim of the cone was white with heat and the outside red hot half 

 way down, while the remainder of its black groundwork was glittering with 

 innumerable glowing sparks. It was puffing quite regularly about once a 

 second, with a strong, constant blast, which kept up a column of flame, filled 

 Avith flying cinders, to the height of about 500 feet above the mouth of the 

 orifice. Irregidar explosions occun-ed at intervals, varying from 10 to 30 min- 

 utes, increasing the force and volume of the discharges, and sending them far 

 up into the rolling clouds above. The cinders went up in half-fused, blazing 

 masses, from one to three feet in diameter, and came down upon the cone har- 

 dened, striking with a clinking, metallic sound. After daylight the red appear- 

 ance of the cone chanired to a bluish black. The left hand crater was shooting 



o ... 



out oblique discharges of flame and cinders of a similar character, at an angle 

 of 45 degrees from the other, and evidently communicated with it about 1,000 

 feet below the sitrface — the tAvo craters being that distance apart, and both dis- 

 cliarging simultaneously. This lialf-hoi'izontal crater was about 20 feet in 

 diameter. 



The afternoon of the 27th, after a series of explosions which seemed to shake 

 the earth to its centre, the volcano commencecl discharging vast quantities of 

 black sand and heavier rocks. The column of flame at night was considerably 

 increased in height, and bright, meteor-like spots were seen ascending in the 

 flames to the height of not less than 3,000 feet. These were large, spherical 

 stones, four and five feet in diameter. The next morning the house-tops and 

 streets of Leon were covered with fine black sand from the volcano, and a vast 

 luminous cloud of raining sand overspread the whole surrounding country. This 

 rain of sand continued until the morning of the 30tli, when the volcano died 

 away, apparently smothered by its accumulated eruptions. The sand now covers 

 the whole surrounding country, from the volcano to the Pacific, a distance of 

 more than 50 miles from it. At Leon it is from an eighth to a quarter of an 

 nch in depth. As we approach the volcano it gradually grows deeper and 

 coarser. For a mile around the crater it lies in particles from three-eighths to 

 one-half an inch in diameter, and about a foot in depth, and the particles grad- 

 ually increase in size until they become small, broken rocks. 



