11 
At 2 AM, the activity abated somewhat hut within one half hour was renewed 
with fierce violence, both craters in simultaneous, almost continuous hursts, 
hurliai material far into the air with a grating roar that set the hills to 
rumbling, until the whole northern break was an almost continuous sheet of 
incandescent ejectments. At 8:28 AM, a new orifice appeared at the spot 
where the plug had been. The eject ament a rushed from a throat 10-15 meters 
across, like a huge blowtorch, rushing continually with a f reverberating 
grating roar. Lave poured, down the east flow. r e stood in a curious mixture 
of amazement and anxiety, fascinated by such an almost incomprahen sively 
fantastic display that set the whole of Paricutin aglow, casting a pink glow 
upon the fnaarole vapors that drifted so lazily about its base. Fifteen 
minutes later the display continued unabated but by dawn had subsided to irreg- 
ular periods of violence. 
By noon, we were ready for our departure. The new vent still roared 
intermittently, simultaneously with bursts from the main crater. As we passed 
the north edge of the old lava front, one flow beneath the ash h&€ reached the 
old lava front and was spilling huge boulders down the slope. 
cross the com 
We passed the village of Paricutin, already a ghost town„ec 
fields, now buried beneath velvety black ash, the boundary rows of maguey 
lifting their ash covered leaves to the sky. To the right hills covered 
with brown and broken pines, to the left smooth ash covered fields outlined 
by bordering maguey rows and broken tejeeote trees, ahead the gray towers of 
Parangsricutiro’ s church. And from behind came the rumble and roar of 
Paricutin above the dark ash cloud drifting far to the west. 
Those enormous explosions war® presaged by a sudden vivid red cast upon 
the Sr ok© cloud and accompanied by a most curious phenomenon I am at a loss to 
explain. Immediately following the glow, there shot up, almost with the speed 
of lightning, a striking are of yellow light, rising like an aurora, appearing 
