tc 



a. 



^i 



tH 



e 



• 





v«. 



'\ 



paits 



.>d 



of 



M 



" die,-... 



' U 



^^nt of ti, 



uieral 



Cl'l 



fwt tlliti 



whcank 



^ttabnk 



.f the Cos- 

 Xv^rtlilead 



I 



and ^ ■ 



r 



* r- 



*j* 



-> 



.1 





ywm 



aii 



ight 



w 



1 



» 



bel* 



in 



« 



iiidi 





I 



iVllI 



It- 



IlL 





ic 



au 





lis 



: r^ 





# 



Ch. XXVII.l 



ERUPTION OF JOEULLO, A.D. 1759. 



53 



would even rival in volume the matter 



Skaptar Jokul in 1783. 



from 



f 



— As another example of the 



Me 



modern volcanic eruptions, I may 



aco, in 1759. The great region to which 

 this mountain belongs has already been described. The plain 



m 



and 3,000 feet above the level of the sea, and is bounded by 

 hills composed of basalt, trachyte, and volcanic tuff, clearly 



dicating that the country had previously, though probably 

 at a remote period, been the theatre of igneous action. From 

 the era of the discovery of the New World to the middle of 

 the last century, the district had remained undisturbed, and 

 the space, now the site of the volcano, which is 36 leagues 

 distant from the nearest sea, was occupied by fertile fields of 

 sugar-cane and indigo, and watered by the two brooks 

 Cuitimba and San Pedro. In the month of June, 1759, 



nature were heard, and 



hollow sounds of 



mm 



months 



flames issued from 



fragments of burning rocks were thrown to prodigious 

 heights. Six volcanic cones, composed of scoriae and frag- 

 mentary lava, were formed on the line of a chasm which ran 

 in the direction from NNE. to SSW. The least of these 

 cones was 300 feet in height; and Jorullo, the central 

 volcano, was elevated 1,600 feet above the level of the plain. 

 It sent forth great streams of basaltic lava, containing 

 included fragments of granitic rocks, and its ejections did not 



month 



•X- 



more 



this occurrence, and was informed by the Indians, that when 

 they returned, long after the catastrophe, to the plain, they 

 found the ground uninhabitable from 



Whe 



heat. 



n he himself visited the place, there appeared, around the 



from them 

 miles, a mass of matter 



convex form, about 550 feet high at its junction with the cones 



* Daubeny on VolcanoSj p. 337. 



