TRUE VOLCANOES. 245 



spring always ignited by the volcanic activity of the interior 

 of the earth. It was visited a few months ago by a talented 

 artist, Albert Berg, for the purpose of making a picturesque 

 survey of this locality, celebrated even in periods of high an- 

 tiquity (since the times of Ctesias and Scylax of Caryanda), 

 and of collecting the rocks from which the Chimaera breaks 

 forth. The descriptions of Beaufort, Professor Edward 

 Forbes, and Lieutenant Spratt in the " Travels in Lycia," are 

 completely confirmed. An eruptive mass of serpentine rock 

 penetrates the dense limestone in a ravine, which ascends 

 from southeast to northwest At the northwestern extrem- 

 ity of this ravine the serpentine rock is cut off, or perhaps 

 only concealed, by a curved ridge of limestone rocks. The 

 fragments brought home are partly green and fresh, partly 

 brown and in a weathered state. In both serpentines diallage 

 is clearly recognizable. 



The volcano of Masaya* the fame of which was already 



flames make their appearance from subordinate fissures. The rock 

 which is in contact with the flame is much blackened, and the soot 

 deposited is collected to alleviate smarting of the eyelids, and espe- 

 cially for coloring the eyebrows. At a distance of three paces from 

 the flame of the Chimcera the heat which it diffuses is scarcely endura- 

 ble. A piece of dry wood ignites when it is held in the opening and 

 brought near the flame without touching it. Where the old ruined 

 walls lean against the rock, gas also pours forth from the interstices of 

 the stones of the masonry, and this, probably from its being of a lower 

 temperature or differently composed, does not ignite spontaneously, 

 but whenever it is brought in contact with a light. Eight feet below 

 the. great flame in the interior of the ruins there is a round opening, 

 six feet in depth, but only three feet wide, which was probably arched 

 over formerly, as a spring of water breaks out in it in the wet seasons, 

 near a fissure over which a small flame plays." (From the traveler's 

 manuscripts.) On a plan of the locality, Berg shows the geographical 

 relations of the alluvial strata, of the (tertiary ?) limestone, and of the 

 serpentine rocks. 



* The oldest and most important notice of the volcano of Masaya 

 is contained in a manuscript of Oviedo's, first edited fourteen years ago 

 by the meritorious historical compiler, Ternaux-Compans Historia da 

 Nicaragua (cap. v. to x.), see p. 115-191*. The French translation 

 forms one volume of the Voyages, Relations et Memoires Originaux pour 

 servir a PHistoire et a la Decouverte de FAmcrique. See also Lopez do 

 Gomara, Historia General de las Indias (Zaragoza, 1553), fol. ex., b ; and 

 among the most recent works, Squier, Nicaragua, its People, Scenery, 

 and Monuments, 1853, vol. i., p. 211-223, and vol. ii., p. 17. So wide- 

 ly-famed was the incessantly active volcano of Masaya, that, a special 

 monograph of this mountain exists in the royal library at Madrid, un- 

 der the title of Entrada y Descubrimiento del Volcan de Masaya, que estd 

 en la Prov. de Nicaragua, fecha por Juan Sanchez del Portero. The au- 

 thor was one of those who let themselves down into the crater in the 



