288 THE VOLCANO OF JORULLO. 



Jorullo, which lay a little to the south of PavScuaro. The 

 great catastrophe in which this mountain rose from the 

 earth, and by which a considerable extent of ground 

 totally changed its appearance, is one of the most extra- 

 ordinary physical revolutions in the history of our planet. 

 Geology points out the parts of the ocean, where, at 

 recent epochs, within the last two thousand years, near 

 the Azores, in the ^gean sea, and to the south of Iceland, 

 small volcanic islands have risen above the surface of 

 the water ; but it gives us no example of the formation, 

 from the centre of a thousand small burning cones, of a 

 mountain of scoriae and ashes one thousand seven him- 

 dred feet in height, comparing it only with the level of 

 the old adjoining plains, in the interior of a continent, 

 thirty-six leagues distant from the coast, and more than 

 forty-two leagues from every other active volcano. Tliis 

 remarkable phenomenon was sung in hexameter verses 

 by the Jesuit Father Raphael Landivar, a native of Gua- 

 timala. It is mentioned by the Abbe Clavigero in the 

 ancient history of his country ; and yet, till Humboldt 

 visited and described it, it remained unknown to the 

 mineralogists and naturalists of Europe, though it took 

 place not more than fift}^ years before, and within six 

 days' journey of the capital of Mexico. 



A vast plain extenfled from the hills of Aguasarco to 

 near the villages of Teipa and Petatlan, both equally 

 celebrated for their fine plantations of cotton. This 

 plain was at the most not over two thousand six hun- 

 dred feet above the level of the sea. In the middle 

 of a tract of ground in which porphyry, with a base 

 of griinstein predominated, basaltic cones appeared, the 

 summits of which were crowned with evergreen oaks 



