tfctTPTION OF JORDLLO; 255 



of the sea, and finally rose up in the shape of a bladder, then 

 opened, and fragments of burning rocks accompanied with flames, 

 were thrown to an immense height. The rivers Cuitimba and 

 San Pedro, which watered this plain, formerly cultivated with 

 fields of cane and indigo, precipitated themselves into the burn- 

 ing chasms. Hundreds of small cones from three to ten feet 

 high, called by the natives hornitos issued from the smoking plain, 

 and six large volcanic cones wer*.- formed, the smallest three hun- 

 dred feet high, and the largest, which is the present volcano of 

 Jorullo, 1600 feet in height. It is continually burning, or rather 

 now sending forth sulphureous gasses, and has thrown up from 

 its north side immense masses of basaltic lava, with fragments of 

 granitic rocks. Below we give an outline of this celebrated vol- 



canic mountain, a is the summit of Jorullo, b c inclined plane, 

 sloping at an angle of 6 from the base of the cones. This 

 eruption occurred at a distance of 150 miles from the sea-coast, 

 and is somewhat remarkable on this account, all other active vol- 

 canoes being near the sea. The eruptions of rnud, however, 

 and balls of decomposed basalt, and especially strata of clay, 

 se*em to indicate that subterraneous water had no small share in 

 producing this phenomenon. Humboldt visited the country more 

 than forty years after the eruption, and found the elevated mass 

 of the former plain, shown by the slope b c in the preceding out- 

 line sketch, still hot enough in some of the fissures at a depth of 

 a few inches, to light a cigar. The hornitos have now ceased to 

 emit steam, or smoke, and the central volcano is itself almost 

 extinct, the plain and slope of the mountain is covered with a 

 luxurious vegetation, and the memory of' the former terrific con- 

 vulsions seems almost forgotten. 

 We have How given an account of the most celebrated volca- 



