262 COSMOS. 



conical and bell-shaped mountains, which are there called 

 volcanoes, many may, indeed, consist of trachyte and dol- 



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

 domes. The great eruptions of 15G5, 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 singular 

 appellations De Agua and DeFzteyo, near the coast, in latitude 14 12'. 



Volcan de A^ia, a trachytic cone near Escuintla, higher than the 

 Peak of Tenerifte, surrounded by masses of obsidian (indications of 

 old eruptions ?). The volcano^which reaches into the region of per- 

 petual 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-estab- 

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

 situated to the north-northwest, and now called Antigua Guatemala. 



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

 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: 

 JBosquejo del espaciq que media entre los estrewos de la Provinria de 

 Suchitepeques 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 destructive 

 earthquakes which accompanied them, that moved the Spanish gov- 

 ernment, 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 farther to the north, in the new city 

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

 bamba, 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, 

 according to previous experience, that it was but little exposed to the 

 action of neighboring volcanoes (lava streams, eruptions of scorice, and 

 earthquakes !)," In 1852, during a great eruption, the Volcan de Fu- 

 ego poured forth a lava stream toward the shore of the Pacific. Cap- 

 tain Basil Hall measured, under sail, both the volcanoes of Old Gua- 

 temala, and found for the Volcan de Fuego 14,665 feet, and for the 

 Volcan de Agua 14,903 feet. The foundation of this measurement 

 has been tested by Poggendorff. He found the mean elevation of the 

 two mountains to be less, and reduced it to about 13,109 feet. 



Volcan de Quesallenango* (lat. 15 10'), burning since 1821, and 

 smoking, near the town of the same name ; the three conical mount- 

 ains which bound the Alpine lake Atitlan (in the mountain chain of 

 Solola) on the south, are also said to be ignited. The volcano of Ta- 

 jamulco, referred to by Juarros, certainly can not be identical with the 

 volcano of Quesaltenango, as the latter is at a distance of 40 geograph- 

 ical miles to the N.W. of the village of Tajamulco, to the south of 

 Tejutla. 



What are the two volcanoes of Sacatepeques and Sajwtitlan, men- 

 tioned by Funel, or Brae's Volcan de Amilpas? 



