XC NOTES. 



( 88 ) p. 265. My earliest writing on the subject of a range of seventeen 

 Guatemala and Nicaragua volcanoes is in the geographical Journal of Berghaus 

 (Hertha, Bd. vi. 1826, S. 131 161). At that time I could avail myself, in' 

 addition to the old chronicles of Fuentes (lib. ix. cap. 9), only of the important 

 Compendio de la Historia de la Ciudad de Guatemala, by Domingo Iguarros, and 

 of three maps, by Galisteo (from a survey made by order of Matias de Galvez, 

 Viceroy of Mexico, 1781), by Jose Rossi y Rubi (Alcalde Mayor de Guatemala, 

 1800), and by Joaquin Ysasi and Antonio de la Cerda (Alcalde de Granada), 

 which I possess, principally in manuscript. Leopold von Buch, in the French 

 version of his work on the Canary islands (Descr. phys. des lies Canaries, 1836, 

 p. 500 514), enlarged my sketch in a masterly manner; but the uncertainty 

 which then prevailed respecting geographical names, and which led, in some 

 cases, to one name being confounded with another, gave rise to many doubts ; 

 these have now, for the most part, been set at rest by the fine map of Baily and 

 Saunders, by Molina's Bosquejo de la Republica de Costa Rica, and by the great 

 and very meritorious work of Squier (Nicaragua, its People and Monuments, 

 with Tables of the comparative Heights of the Mountains in Central America, 

 1852; see vol. i. p. 418, and vol. ii. p. l62). The important work promised to 

 us by Dr. Oersted, under the title " Schilderung der Naturverhaltnisse von 

 Nicaragua und Costa Rica," in addition to the botanical and zoological investi- 

 gations which were the principal objects of the author's journeys, will also throw 

 light on the geology of Central America ; which he traversed, in a variety of 

 directions, from 1846 to 1848, and from whence he brought back with him to 

 Copenhagen a collection of rock-specimens. I owe to his kind communications 

 some interesting rectifications of my fragmentary work. From a careful com- 

 parison of the materials which I now possess, including also some very valuable 

 ones from the Prussian Consul-General in Central America, Herr Hesse, the 

 following table of the volcanoes of Central America has been drawn up, proceed- 

 ing from South to North : 



On the central high plain of Cartago (4646 feet), in the republic of Costa 

 Rica (N. lat. 10 9'), rise the three volcanoes of Turrialva, Irasu, and Reventado 

 of which the two first are still active. 



Volcan de Turrialva* (about 11,000 feet) is, according to Oersted, only 

 divided from Irasu by a deep narrow cleft. Its summit, from which columns of 

 smoke rise, has not been ascended. 



Volcan de Irasu*, also called the volcano of Cartago (11,096 feet), to the 

 north-east of the volcano of Reventado, is the principal seat of volcanic activity 

 in Costa Rica; yet it is remarkably accessible; on the southern side there is a 

 succession of terraces, the summit, from whence both oceans are visible, may 



