ABOUT VOLCANOS AND EARTHQUAKES. 33 



fall him. In June 1759, however, a subterranean noise 

 was heard in this peaceful region. Hollow sounds of the 

 most alarming nature were succeeded by frequent earth- 

 quakes, succeeding one another for fifty or sixty days ; but 

 they died away, and in the beginning of September every- 

 thing seemed to have returned to its usual state of tran- 

 quillity. Suddenly, on the night of the 28th of Septem- 

 ber, the horrible noises recommenced. All the inhabit- 

 ants fled in terror j and the whole tract of ground, from 

 three to four square miles in extent, rose up in the form 

 of a bladder to a height of upwards of 500 feet ! Flames 

 broke forth over a surface of more than half a square 

 league, and through a thick cloud of ashes illuminated 

 by this ghastly light, the refugees, who had ascended a 

 mountain at some distance, could see the ground as if 

 softened by the heat, and swelling and sinking like an 

 agitated sea. Vast rents opened in the earth, into which 

 the two rivers I mentioned precipitated themselves, but so 

 far from quenching the fires, only seemed to make them 

 more furious. Finally, the whole plain became covered 

 with an immense torrent of boiling mud, out of which 

 sprang thousands of little volcanic cones called Hornitos, 

 or ovens. But the most astonishing part of the whole 

 was the opening of a chasm vomiting out fire, and red- 

 hot stones, and ashes, which accumulated so as to form 

 " a range of six large mountain masses, one of which is 

 upwards of 1 600 feet in height above the old level, and 

 which is now known as the volcano of Jorullo. It is 

 continually burning ; and for a whole year continued to 

 throw up an immense quantity of ashes, lava, and frag- 



c 



