THE CORDILLERA. 



95 



and its neighbour the Coffre de Perote, the volcano ot 

 Tlascala, the great volcano of Puebla or Popocatepetl, 

 the valley of Mexico with its innumerable cones, the 

 Ajusco, the Nevada of Toluca, and the active volcanoes 

 of Jorullo and Colima ; while report would incline you to 

 pursue the same general direction over the Pacific ocean, 

 for upward of three hundred miles, to the islands of Re- 

 villagigedo, which are said to be attributable to the same 

 cause. Of the central group, Popocatepetl, the Ajusco, 

 and the volcano of Toluca, are exactly upon the same 

 line. I do not name Iztaccihuatl, " the Indian with snowy 

 breasts because, though supposed to be, and generally 

 called a volcano, I have heard the fact of its possessing 

 a crater repeatedly denied on such respectable authority, 

 that I almost doubt whether it has been justly named 

 such. 



Of these volcanoes, that of Tuxtla was in eruption 

 about the commencement of the century. Orizaba, or 

 Citlat tepetl — " the star mountain" was in violent erup- 

 tion, according to Humboldt, between 1545 — 1566. Of 

 the eruptions of the Coffre de Perote, and of the volcano 

 of Tlascala, no tradition exists to my knowledge. Po- 

 pocatepetl, " the mountain casting out smoke? has shown 

 signs of slight combustion at times during the present 

 century, and was in active eruption at the time of the 

 Spanish invasion, when Diego Ordaz, a Spanish officer, 

 attempted to ascend it. The Nevada of Toluca has 

 been long extinct. The crater, if report says true, con- 

 tains a lake abounding in fish. 



The eruptions of the Ajusco, and the long chain of 

 volcanic heights to the southward, are without record : 

 though tradition says that the Chicli, signifying, in the 

 Indian language, " the hill that casts up sparks? an infe- 

 rior cone at its base, from which the huge stream of the 

 Pedrigal probably proceeded, was in partial eruption at 

 the emigration of the Aztecs into Anahuac, in the be- 

 ginning of the fourteenth century. 



The two last upon my list, those of Colima and Jorullo, 

 are still active, and were, in fact, the only active volcanoes 

 in Mexico at the time of our visit. 



