VOLCANCITOS OF TURBACO. 



275 



situated in the midst of a thicket of palms, and 

 which they designated by the name of Los Volcan- 

 citos. They said that, according- to a tradition pre- 

 served in the village, the ground had formerly been 

 ignited, but that a monk had extinguished it by fre- 

 quent aspersions of holy water, and converted the 

 fire-volcano into a water-volcano. Without attach- 

 ing much credit to this tradition, the philosophers 

 desired their guides to lead them to the spot. After 

 traversing a space of about 5300 yards, covered with 

 trunks of Cavanillesia, Piragra supurba, and Gyro- 

 carpus, and in which there appeared here and there 

 projections of a limestone rock containing petrified 

 corals, they reached an open place of about 908 feet 

 square, entirely destitute of vegetation, but mar- 

 gined with tufts of Bromelia karatas. The surface 

 was composed of layers of clay of a dark-gray 

 colour, cracked by desiccation into pentagonal and 

 heptagonal prisms. The volcancitos consist of fif- 

 teen or twenty small truncated cones rising in the 

 middle of this area, and having a height of from 19 

 to 25 feet. The most elevated were on the southern 

 side, and their circumference at the base was from 

 78 to 85 yards. On climbing to the top of these 

 mud-volcanoes, they found them to be terminated 

 by an aperture, from 16 to 30 inches in diameter, 

 filled with water, through which air- bubbles obtained 

 a passage ; about five explosions usually taking 

 place in two minutes. The force with which the 

 air rises would lead to the supposition of its being 

 subjected to considerable pressure, and a rather loud 

 noise was heard at intervals, preceding the disen- 

 gagement of it fifteen or eighteen seconds. Each 

 of the bubbles contained from 12 to 14£ cubic in- 

 ches of elastic fluid, and their power of expansion 

 was often so great that the water was projected be- 

 yond the crater, or flowed over its brim. Some of 

 the openings by which air escaped were situated in 

 the plain without being surrounded by any promi- 



