304 



BOUGUEr's voyage to PERU. 



this immenfe quarry, the whole of the little town of Latacunga, in which there are 

 fome very pretty houfes, has been built entirely of the ftone taken from it, fmce the 

 earthquake which deftroyed it in 1698. 



The laft burning of Cotopaxi (1742,) which began in our prefence, did no mif- 

 chief but by the melting of the fnows ; although it made a new opening at the fide 

 near the center of the portion of the mountain continually fnowed, while the flames 

 made their way at the fummit of the truncated cone. There were two fudden inunda- 

 tions, viz. the 24th of June, and the ninth of December ; but the laft is incomparably 

 the greateft. We muft firft mention that the water fell at the leaft from feven to eight 

 hundred toifes. It overthrew in its firft impetuofity the poft we had availed ourfelves 

 of as a ftation for our fixth and feventh triangles. The furges it formed in the plain 

 were lifted up more than fixty feet, and in fome places more than one hundred and 

 twenty. Not mentioning the infinite number of cattle it carried away, it fwept along 

 with it from five to fix hundred houfes ; and was the occafion of the death of from 

 eight to nine hundred perfons. All thefe waters had a courfe of feventeen or eighteen 

 leagues to run, or rather to ravage, to the fouth of the Cordelier, before they could find 

 an outlet at the foot of Tongouragoua ; the voyage of which was made in three hours 

 and not more : hence the mean rapidity of the waters may be eftimated. But if we 

 may be permitted to judge by the various effeds produced at three or four leagues from 

 the mountain, its courfe muft have been after the rate of fifty feet in a fecond of time. 

 There were very heavy ftones more than ten or twelve feet in diameter that had changed 

 their places, and had been tranfported more than fourteen or fifteen toifes, upon an 

 almoft horizontal furface. 



Every body at Quito was perfuaded that the waters ifTued from the bowels of the 

 mountain ; and this they were the more led to believe from the fignification attached 

 to the word volcano, in that country. They pretend volcanoes are of two fpecies, /. e, 

 fire and water. Indeed it is not impoflible that large colleftions of water may be 

 formed in thefe cavities, which lie high upon the mountain. This collection, as M. 

 Defcartes explains it, may be kept up by the evaporation of the waters below. If this 

 evaporation is not the effeft of the heat of the fun, a very ftrong one may be kept up 

 by its contiguity to a fubterraneous fire ; and when thefe waters fhall have collected to 

 a great quantity, we are not to be furprifed at its breaking down the walls or partitions 

 that confine it, and that it fhould fpread all at once over the face of the country. But 

 we do not conceive this to be the cafe with refpefl: to Cotopaxi^ to prove that the 

 waters boiled in the refervoir formed in the fummit of the mountain for their reception, 

 and that it was the excefs of ebullition which occafioned their burfting their bounds, 

 they inftance the drowned carcaffes, which almoft all appear to have been expofed to 

 the adion of boiling water. 



Many neceffary points with relation to the prefent fubjeft were cleared up to me 

 on my vifiting the places. I had many teftimonials from perfons entitled to all confi- 

 dence, who fortunately were refident but upon the edge, as it were, of the inundation j 

 who alTured me the water was not hot. They obferved an oily matter which was in- 

 flamed, and forced on before it ; and which might have produced the efte6b obfervable 

 on the carcaffes. They affured me alfo, when they heard the great noife which pro- 

 bably was caufed by the firft fall, the mountain was enveloped in the clouds, which 

 abfolutely confutes the relation of thofe who gave out they had feen the waters like 

 a river, rufh over the brink of the volcano, in a manner refembling liquor pouring from 

 an inclining vafe. And laftly, it appears to me on examining the extent of the fpace which 

 had been overflown, and every other circumftance attending the overflow, that a very 



fmall 



