SHATTERED CAPITALS OF CENTRAL AMERICA 



189 



temperature. The drills had to be with- 

 drawn because at a depth of 2,000 feet 

 they were greatly overheated. 



A LAVA ELOW WHICH WOULD FILL TWO 

 PANAMA CANALS 



The lava flowed out from a series of 

 eight or more vents, apparently situated 

 along a fissure running down the moun- 

 tain side. The area covered by the lava 

 has a length of nearly seven miles, a 

 breadth of over three miles, and an aver- 

 age depth of perhaps thirty feet. The 

 quantity of liquid stone that belched 

 forth from the fiery mouths must equal 

 twice the 200,000,000 cubic yards exca- 

 vated from the Panama Canal. 



The lava is mostly dead black,, but some- 

 times brown with a metallic luster. It 

 has a porous, stringy appearance, with 

 bubbles elongated in the direction of the 

 flow. The current structure is very in- 

 teresting, and one sees petrified ripples, 

 eddies, cascades, and foaming crests. 



Near the vents one finds very strange 

 and beautiful forms, where lava has 

 streamed and dripped like molasses and 

 has then solidified before it could spread 

 and lose its stringy quality. 



In company with a party of diplomatic 

 officials and Mr. S. G. Morley, of the 

 Carnegie Institution, I made a visit to 

 the lava where it had blocked the high- 

 way and the railroad, and again higher 

 up the mountain side, where it had swept 

 down through coffee plantations. 



Both Mr. Morley and I went far out 

 over the broken crust to some fuming 

 vents. It was apparent that the lava 

 solidified quickly on the surface, and that 

 the top crust was lifted bodily on the 

 living streams below. 



The flow is not level, but extremely 

 irregular, and in many cases the slabs are 

 piled up in pressure ridges. The sides 

 and the advancing front did not have 

 sufficient heat to fire the vegetation, and 

 even far out in the flow there are giant 

 ceiba trees around which the lava has 

 heaoed itself like ice above a bridge pier. 



The vents from which the lava issued 

 are not especially spectacular. For a 

 long time they were too hot to permit a 

 very close inspection, but now they can 

 be approached easily. Steam and smoke 

 rise from the vents and especially from 



one called the "Thunderer." The high- 

 est of the new mouths is considerably 

 below the level of the bottom of the old 

 crater. 



An early description of the volcano of 

 San Salvador runs as follows : 



"The city is situated on the flank of a 

 very high volcano, of wide circumfer- 

 ence, which is now extinct, probably be- 

 cause it consumed all the materials of a 

 combustible nature which were in it dur- 

 ing the period of its activity. It has an 

 enormous crater, half a league broad and 

 very deep. 



"In descending into it are found two 

 terraces, or platforms, similar to those 

 in limekilns. From the lower terrace 

 rises a smoke so offensive that a Span- 

 iard who reached there barely escaped 

 suffocation. The mountain is covered 

 from top to bottom with great cedars, 

 pines, and forests of other trees." . . . 



In this description no mention is made 

 of the lake which in recent times filled 

 the bottom of the crater and on which 

 a rowboat had been launched for the 

 pleasure of hardy picnickers (see page 

 193)- 



A SIGHT THAT OVERWHELMED THE SENSES 



The recent activities in the crater be- 

 gan some time after the lava had run out 

 from the side of the mountain. It is not 

 unlikely that the earthquake opened up 

 the sealed chimney sufficiently to let 

 water come in contact with the super- 

 heated core of the mountain, and that 

 the steam then blew out the obstructions. 

 At any rate, the lake, with a fountain in 

 the middle, boiled furiously for days. 

 Then a black mass of cinders and lava 

 forced itself spasmodically above the 

 water. 



When the phenomenon was at its best, 

 we climbed a steep road, through maize 

 fields and coffee plantations, to the rim 

 of the crater, nearly four thousand feet. 



The thickly peopled valley rolled out 

 before us as we ascended, and far below 

 us in the distance was Lake Ilopan^o, 

 itself a great crater, and mountain ridge 

 upon mountain ridge beyond that. "Rut 

 the sight in front, from the rim of the 

 crater, overwhelmed the senses. 



Before us was a great funnel, over a 

 mile in diameter and a thousand feet 



