294 VOLCANO OF JORULLO. 



miles of it, returned once more to their cottages, 

 and advanced towards the mountains of Aguasarco 

 and Santa Ines, to contemplate the streams of fire 

 that issued from the numberless apertures. The 

 roofs of the houses of Queretaro, more than 166 

 miles distant, were covered with volcanic dust. Mr. 

 Lyell (Principles of Geology, vol. i. p. 379) states, 

 on the authority of Captain Vetch, that another 

 eruption happened in 1819, accompanied by an earth- 

 quake, during which ashes fell at the city of Gua- 

 naxuato, 140 miles distant from Jorullo, in such 

 quantities as to lie six inches deep in the streets. 



When Humboldt visited this place, the natives 

 assured him that the heat of the hornitos had for- 

 merly been much greater. The thermometer rose 

 to 203 when placed in the fissures exhaling aqueous 

 vapour. Each of the cones emitted a thick smoke, 

 and in many of them a subterranean noise was 

 heard, which seemed to indicate the proximity of a 

 fluid in ebullition. Two streams were at that period 

 seen bursting through the argillaceous vaults, and 

 were found by the traveller to have a temperature 

 of 126'9. The Indians give them the names of the 

 two rivers which had been ingulfed, because in seve- 

 ral parts of the Malpais great masses of water are 

 heard flowing in a direction from east to west. Our 

 author considers all the district to be hollow ; but 

 Scrope and Lyell find it more suitable to their views 

 of volcanic agency to represent the conical form 

 of the ground as resulting from the flow of lava 

 over the original surface of the plain. 



The Indians of this province are represented as 

 being the most industrious of New-Spain. They 

 have a remarkable talent for cutting out images in 

 wood, and dressing them in clothes made of the pith 

 of an aquatic plant, which being very porous imbibes 

 the most vivid colours. Two figures of this kind, 

 which Humboldt brought home for the Queen of 

 Prussia, are here represented. They exhibit the 



