652 THE UNIVERSE. 



vapour seen springing up here and there. Some writers 

 think that Cortez obtained sulphur from this mountain to 

 make powder when he ran short of it. What is more 

 certain is, that some of his daring companions tried to 

 reach the crater, and that they failed the first time. 



The crater of Masaya, which struck the first conquerors 

 of America with terror, seems to be even larger. Oviedo, 

 Avho visited it, was apjjalled. He relates that in its depths 

 there is a space so vast that a hundred horsemen could 

 easily manceuvre in the presence of a thousand persons. 

 Moreover at that time there could be seen a furnace where 

 a burning wave rose and fell at intervals, which the pious 

 explorer of America estimated at about six times as long 

 as it would take to repeat the Credo. As he moved away 

 from the precipice cpiite stupified, he exclaimed, " I can- 

 not believe that a Christian could contemplate such a 

 .spectacle without thinking about hell and repenting of his 

 sins." 



The fire-lielching mouths have always alarmed the 

 inhabitants of volcanic countrie-s, and everywhere they 

 have been compared to the gulfs of Tartarus. The crater 

 of the mountain we have just spoken of was called Ijy the 

 ancient American cacirpies the Hell of ]Masaya. 



]Many countries of our globe, now buried in the most 

 perfect repose and covered with a vigorous vegetation, 

 were, at an epoch that cannot at present be definitely fixed, 

 everywhere convulsed by volcanic fires; rich harvests now 

 abound wdiere formerly rolled biirning streams of lava. 

 Ancient craters now display only grass and moss in the 

 depths of their mouths, which formerly vomited torrents 

 of fire. This spectacle is even met Avitli in the centre of 

 France, in all the mountains of Auvergne. 



Active volcanoes are common at the present time on the 



