THE WORLD. 



beacon of flame in the regions above. In the course of the last 

 century it had five great eruptions; in one of these, in January 





1803, the snows were dissolved in one night, pouring a deluge of 

 waters over the plains below. It is averred that the eruptions 

 of Cotopaxi have been heard at a distance of 600 miles, and 

 Humboldt states that at 140 miles distance on the coast of the 

 Pacific, it sounded like thunder. The substances ejected from 

 these lofty craters are pumice, and cinders, rarely lava currents; 

 on account of their immense heights, and the consequent enor- 

 mous pressure which is required to raise a solid molten mass. 

 Torrents of mud and boiling water are erupted, and subterranean 

 cavities containing water are opened, and vast quantities of mud, 

 volcanic sand, and loose stones, are carried down to the regions 

 below. ; Mud derived from this source, in the year 1797, descend- 

 ed from the sides of Tunguragua, a volcano in the neighborhood 

 of Cotopaxi, and filled valleys 1000 feet wide to the- depth of 600 

 feet. In these currents and lakes are thousands of small fish, 

 which, according to Humboldt, have lived and multiplied in the 

 subterranean lakes. So great a quantity of these fish were erupt- 

 ed in 1690, from the volcano of Imbaburu, that fevers were caused 

 by effluvia arising from the putrid animal matter. Sometimes,after 

 successive eruptions, the undermined walls of the mountain fall, 

 and it becomes a mass of ruins, such was the fate of L'Altar, which 

 was once higher than Chhnborazo, but according to the tradition 

 of the natives, before the discovery of America, a prodigious 

 eruption took place which lasted eight years and broke it down. 



