102 VOLCANOES; EARTHQUAKES. 



which just before had been level plain, hills had 

 arisen, and a vast number of human beings had 

 ceased to live." 



One of the most remarkable instances of volcanic 

 activity, both in regard to the quantity of matter 

 thrown up, and to the magnitude of the accompany- 

 ing phenomena, was an outburst of Cosiguina, in 

 Nicaragua, a volcanic hill, only five hundred feet 

 high, standing on a tongue of land in the Bay of 

 Fonseca, on the Pacific coast. This began on 

 the 20th of January, 1835,"* and lasted several 

 days. The discharge of ashes and pumice was so 

 frightful, that the country round, over a space forty- 

 three leagues across, was wrapped in impenetrable 

 darkness. The shore of the headland was pushed 

 eight hundred feet out into the sea by the fall of 

 ashes, and two islands of slag and cinders were 

 thrown up in the bay. The fine dust was carried by 



* It is certainly worthy of note, that at the same time 

 Aconcagua, which had been considered as extinct, as 

 well as Os or no, both in the Chili range, burst forth; 

 and that a month later, on the 20th of February, while 

 Cosiguina was still at work, the volcanoes in the whole 

 range of the Chilian Cordilleras shot forth fire, and that a 

 volcanic outburst took place in the sea near the island of 

 Juan Fernandez. Chili, and the island of Chiloe, were 

 shaken by an earthquake ; their coasts were permanently 

 heaved up, and Conception, and all the neighbouring 

 towns in Chili, were destroyed. 



