328 



INCIDENT OF TRAVELS. 



dispersed, the atmosphere was darkened by a shower 

 of stones and ashes. This over, a moment of stillness 

 followed, and then another report and eruption, and 

 these continued regularly, at intervals, as our guide said, 

 of exactly five minutes, and really he was not much out 

 of the way. The sight was fearfully grand. We re- 

 freshed ourselves with a draught of cocoanut milk, 

 thought how this grandeur would be heightened when 

 the stillness and darkness of night were interrupted by 

 the noise and flame, and forthwith resolved to sleep 

 upon the mountain. 



The cur a of Zonzonate, still in the vigour of life, told 

 me that he remembered when the ground on which this 

 volcano stands had nothing to distinguish it from any 

 other spot around. In 1798 a small orifice was discov- 

 ered puffing out small quantities of dust and pebbles. 

 He was then living at Izalco, and, as a boy, was in the 

 habit of going to look at it ; and he had watched it, and 

 marked its increase from year to year, until it had grown 

 into what it is now. Captain De Nouvelle told me he 

 could observe from the sea that it had grown greatly 

 within the last two years. Two years before its light 

 could not be seen at night on the other side of the 

 mountain on which I stood. Night and day it forces 

 up stones from the bowels of the earth, spouts them into 

 the air, and receives them upon its sides. Every day 

 it is increasing, and probably it will continue to do so 

 until the inward fires die, or by some violent convul- 

 sion the whole is rent to atoms. 



Old travellers are not precluded occasional bursts of 

 enthusiasm, but they cannot keep it up long. In about 

 an hour we began to be critical and even captious. 

 Some eruptions were better than others, and some 

 were comparatively small affairs. In this frame of 



