258 COSMOS. 



gas spring always ignited by the volcanic activity of the 

 interior of the earth. It was visited a few months ago by 

 a talented artist, Albert Berg, for the purpose of making a 

 picturesque survey of this locality, celebrated even in periods 

 of high antiquity (since the times of Ctesias and Scylax of 

 Caryanda), and of collecting the rocks from which the 

 Chimsera breaks forth. The descriptions of Beaufort, Pro- 

 fessor Edward Forbes, and Lieutenant Spratt in the " Travels 

 in Lycia" are completely confirmed. An eruptive mass of 

 serpentine rock penetrates the dense limestone in a ravine, 

 which ascends from south-east to north-west. At the north- 

 western extremity of this ravine, the serpentine rocV is cut 

 off, or perhaps only concealed, by a curved ridge of limestone 

 rocks. The fragments brought home are partly green and 

 fresh, partly brown and in a weathered state. In both 

 serpentines diallage is clearly recognisable. 



The volcano of Masaya*- the fame of which was already 

 widely spread in the beginning of the 16th century, under 

 the name of el Injlerno de Masaya, and gave occasion for 

 reports to the Emperor Charles V., is situated between the 

 two lakes of Nicaragua and Managua, to the south-west of 

 the charming Indian village of Nindiri. For centuries to- 

 gether it presented the same rare phenomenon that we have 



which was probably arched over formerly, as a spring of water breaks 

 out in it in the wet seasons, near a fissure over which a small flame 

 plays." (From the traveller's manuscripts.) On a plan of the locality, 

 Berg shows the geographical relations of the alluvial strata, of the 

 (tertiary?) limestone, and of the serpentine rocks. 



52 The oldest and most important notice of the volcano of Masaya 

 is contained in a manuscript of Oviedo's, first edited fourteen years ago 

 by the meritorious historical compiler, Ternaux-Compans, Historia de 

 Nicaragua (cap. v to x), see pp. 115 197. The French translation 

 forms one volume of the Voyages, Relations et Memoires Originaux pour 

 iervir a VHistoire et a la Decouverte de I'Amerique. See also Lopez de 

 Gomara, Historia General de las Indias (Zaragoza, 1553), fol. ex, b; and 

 amongst the most recent works, Squier, Nicaragua, its People, Scenery, 

 and Monuments, 1853, vol. i, p. 211 223, and vol. ii, p. 17. So widely 

 famed was the incessantly active volcano of Masaya, that a special 

 monograph of this mountain exists in the royal library at Madrid, 

 under the title of Entrada y Descubrimiento del Volcan de Masaya, 

 gue estd en la Prov. de Nicaragua, fecha por Juan Sanchez del 

 Portero. The author was one of those who let themselves down into 

 the crater in the wonderful expeditions of the Dominican monk, Fray 

 Bias de Inesta (Oviedo, Hist, de Nicaragua, p. 141). 



