276 COSMOS. 



Amongst the isolated conical and bell-shaped mountains, 

 which are there called volcanoes, many may, indeed, consist 



name. The last eruption was that of 1656. The whole surrounding 

 country is exposed to violent earthquakes ; that of the 16th of April, 

 1854, which was preceded by no noises, overthrew nearly all the 

 buildings in San Salvador. 



Volcano of Izalco,* near the village of the same name, often pro- 

 ducing ammonia. The first eruption recorded in history occurred 

 on the 23rd February, 1770; the last widely-luminous eruptions were 

 in April, 1798, 1805 to 1807, and 1825 (see above, p. 261, and Thomp- 

 son, Official Visit to Guatemala, 1829, p. 512). 



Volcan de Pacaya* (lat. 14 23'), about 14 miles to the south-east 

 of the city of New Guatemala, on the small Alpine lake Amatitlan, a 

 very active and often flaming volcano ; an extended ridge with three 

 domes. The great eruptions of 1565, 1651, 1671, 1677, and 1775 are 

 known ; the last, which produced much lava, is described by Juarros 

 as an eye-witness. 



Next follow the two volcanoes of Old Guatemala, with the sin- 

 gular appellations de Agua and de Fuego, near the coast, in latitude 

 14 12'. 



Volcan de Agua, a trachytic cone near Escuintla, higher than the 

 Peak of Teneriffe, surrounded by masses of obsidian (indications of old 

 eruptions?). The volcano, which reaches into the region of perpetual 

 snow, has received its name from the circumstance that, in September, 

 1541, a great inundation (caused by earthquake and the melting of 

 snow?) was ascribed to it; this destroyed the first established city of 

 Guatemala, and led to the building of the second city, situated to the 

 north-north-west, and now called Antigua Guatemala. 



Volcan de Fuego,* near Acatenango, 23 miles in a west-north-west 

 direction from the so-called water-volcano. With regard to their rela- 

 tive position, see the rare map of the Alcalde Mayor, Don Jose Rossi y 

 Rubi, engraved in Guatemala, and sent to me thence as a present : 

 Bosquejo del espacio que media, entre los estremos de la Provincia de 

 Sucliitepeques y la Capital de Guatemala, 1800. The Volcan de Fuego 

 is still active, but now much less so than formerly. The older great 

 eruptions were those of 1581, 1586, 1623, 1705, 1710, 1717,1732, 1737, 

 and 1799, but it was not only these eruptions, but also the destruc- 

 tive earthquakes which accompanied them, that moved the Spanish 

 Government in the second half of the last century to quit the second 

 seat of the city (where the ruins of la Antigua Guatemala now stand), 

 and compel the inhabitants to settle further to the north, in the new 

 city of Santiago de Guatemala. In this case, as at the removal of 

 Riobamba, and several other towns near the volcanoes of the chain of 

 the Andes, a dogmatic and vehement dispute was carried on in reference 

 to the difficult selection of a locality " of which it might be asserted, 

 t. ^cording to previous experience, that it was but little exposed to the 

 action of neighbouring volcanoes (lava-streams, eruptions of scoriae and 



