§ 18. VOLCANO OF JORULLO. 835 



terranean struggle ceased, and immediately after, flames 

 burst from a large cone, near which we had been in the 

 morning, and which then appeared to have been long in- 

 active. Red-hot stones, cinders, and ashes, were also pro- 

 pelled to a great height with immense violence ; and shortly 

 after, the molten lava came boiling up, and flowed down 

 the sides of the cone and over the surrounding scoriae, in 

 most beautiful curved streams, glittering with a brilliancy 

 quite indescribable. At the same time, a whole lake of 

 fire opened in a more distant part. This could not have 

 been less than two miles in circumference, and its aspect 

 was more horribly sublime than any thing I ever imagined 

 to exist, even in the ideal visions of unearthly things Its 

 surface had all the agitation of the ocean; billow after 

 billow tossed its monstrous bosom into the air ; and occa- 

 sionally those from different directions burst with such 

 violence, as in the concussion to dash the fiery spray forty 

 or fifty feet high. It was at once the most splendid and 

 fearful of spectacles."* 



18. The Volcano of Jorullo. — In South America 

 volcanic action has been, and is still, exerted over an im- 

 mense extent of country ; and the vents of the subterranean 

 fires extend to the loftiest summits of the Andes. 



In the parallel of the city of Mexico there are no less 

 than fiveburning mountains — Tuxtla, Orizaba, Popocatepetl, 

 Jorullo, and Colima — arranged as if they originated in an 

 immense fissure, traversing the region from east to west, 

 and extending from sea to sea. 



The elevated country which constitutes the province of 

 Quito, is, as it were, an arch or dome, spread over an 

 immense focus of volcanic energy, whose channels of com- 

 munication with the atmosphere are the burning moun- 

 tains of Pichincha, Cotopaxi, and Tunguragua ; which by 

 their grouping, as well as by their lofty elevation and grand 



* Lord Byron's Yoyage in the Blonde frigate. See Appendix A. 



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