660 



THE UNIVERSE. 



This strange phenomenon is due to a communication 

 being formed between a crater and a subterranean lake 

 concealed in the side of the mountain. This fact also 

 accounts for the enormous quantity of fish mixed with the 



>* 



300. Pimelodes of the Cyclops — Pimclodus C>/dopum. 



water and mud which Cotopaxi and other volcanoes of 

 America sometimes eject. And this explanation is so 

 much the more plausible, because the s^Decies which is 

 ejected at such times is the only fish which lives in the 

 most elevated water-courses of the Cordilleras, at a height 

 of 9000 feet. This fish belongs to the family Siluridpe, and 

 naturalists have recently given it the name of Pimelodus of 



and lava. During this time a new volcano had arisen on the island of Neo 

 Kainieni (itself produced by volcanic action in 1707), and part of that island had 

 sunk below the sea. The new island lay a little to the south-west of Neo Kaimeni, 

 but by its gradual increase it became united with that island, and now forms its 

 south-western extremity. — Tr. 



