30 
MR. CALDCLEUGH ON THE VOLCANIC ERUPTION OF COSEGUINA. 
disagreeable odour. At this season such an occurrence was extraordinary, and almost 
unprecedented in Central America. 
I shall conclude by stating that the ashes reached as far as Chiapa to the north, 
upwards of 400 leagues to windward of the volcano : thus proving the existence of 
a counter current of wind in the higher regions of the atmosphere. At St. Anne’s, 
Jamaica, on the 24th and 25th of January, the sun was obscured, and not only there 
but over the whole island, showers of fine ashes were observed to fall. The distance 
in a direct line north-easterly is about 700 miles ; consequently the ashes must have 
travelled at the rate of about 170 miles per diem. 
Captain Eden, of His Majesty’s ship Conway, informs me, that in lat. 7° 26' north, 
and long. 104° 45' west, when 900 miles from the nearest land and 1100 from the 
volcano, he ran forty miles through floating pumice, some of which was in pieces of 
considerable size. 
The latitude of Cosegiiina is 13° north, and longitude 87° 3' west. Its height above 
the sea is computed at 500 feet. 
No volcanic eruption in modern times has been recorded that reached the frightful 
extent of the one of which I have now had the honour of laying an account before the 
Royal Society. The explosion of Tomboro in Sumbaya in 1815, described in the 
Memoirs of the late lamented Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, more nearly approaches 
it than any other with which I am acquainted. 
Santiago de Chile, 
18 th August , 1835. 
