126 TRAVELS AMONGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. vi. 



it, and another said he could not see his hand when it was 

 held close to his face. 



At daybreak, on the 26th, the mountain could be clearly 

 seen from places to the south of it, as the ash was blown north- 

 wards, and the eruption does not appear to have excited any 

 particular alarm, or even attention.* Some inhabitants of Mulalo, 

 however, were looking at the summit at 10 a.m., and all at once 

 saw molten lava pouring through the gaps and notches in the 

 lip of the * crater, bubbling and smoking, so they described it, 

 like the froth of a pot that suddenly boils over. The scene 

 which then ensued upon the mountain was shut out from mortal 

 eyes, for in a few minutes the whole of it was enveloped in 

 smoke and steam, and became invisible ; but out of the darkness 

 a moaning noise arose, which grew' into a roar, and a deluge of 

 water, blocks of ice, mud and rock rushed down, sweeping away 

 everything that lay in its course, and leaving a desert in its 

 rear. It is estimated that it travelled as far as Latacunga at 

 the rate of fifty miles an hour — and this is not impossible.^ 



The scene upon the cone in the moments following the out- 

 pouring of the lava through the jagged rim ^ of the crater must 

 have surpassed anything that has been witnessed by man. 

 Molten rock filled the crater to overflowing. Its rise was sudden, 

 and its fall, perhaps, was equally abrupt. One may well pause 

 to wonder at the power which could raise the quantity sufficient 



1 It must be remembered that the people living in its vicinity are accustomed 

 to see it smoking and blowing off steam. The ejection of a column of ash to 

 several times the ordinary height would not be enough to attract special attention. 



2 In three hours after passing Mulalo it destroyed a bridge at the foot of 

 Tunguragua. The distance between these places is forty-five miles, or probably 

 sixty miles following the windings of the rivers. This would give a mean rate 

 of about twenty miles per hour. The flood going northwards reached Esmeraldas 

 at 4 a.m. on the 27th. In a direct line that town is about one hundred and fifty 

 miles from the crater, but it is more than double the distance by the circuitous 

 route which was taken. This gives a mean rate of about seventeen miles per hour. 



3 This passage will be better understood by reference to the two views of 

 exterior and interior portions of the crater that accompany Chapter VII. 



