THE VOLCANOES OF GUATEMALA. 
479 
until midday on the 26th that the air began to clear a little and the light 
to return. The eruption continued with varying severity for most of 
the week. Towards the end of the eruption, as is generally the case, out¬ 
bursts of whitish steam began to preponderate over the dark ash-laden 
clouds. Don Carlos Moesly, of Helvetia, gave me a graphic description 
of how a building at Suiza, in which a large number of people had taken 
refuge, collapsed by the weight of ashes on the roof. With the assist¬ 
ance of a French machinist * and some natives he extricated twenty- 
two alive, but eighteen were left dead. 
When all was clear again, it was seen that an entirely new crater 
had been formed at the base of the mountain, and that the whole 
surrounding country was devastated and deeply covered with ashes. 
This crater is oval in form, with the long diameter parallel to the coast, 
and as far as my plane-table observations, which were made from the 
Finca Helvetia at a distance of about 6 miles, can be relied upon, this 
measures from § to | of a mile. The shorter diameter is not very much 
less, probably from ^ to § of a mile. The whole side of the mountain 
was blown away, exposing a section of several thousand feet in height, 
in which the dip of the strata mentioned above is very evident. Owing 
to the dip being with the slope, landslides almost constantly take place, 
and are gradually filling up the crater, though the latter is still 
apparently from 1000 to 1500 feet in depth. It has a lake at the bottom 
and two very active fumaroles, or perhaps rather hot springs, from 
which steam and hot water escape with a violence almost worthy of the 
name geyser. These fumaroles issue from the foot of the cliff, at a 
point where traces of a great radial crack in the mountain are visible. 
Observations on these points are, however, very difficult. Helvetia, my 
base, was fully 6 miles distant, and direct access was cut off by many 
impassable ravines. The ascent, as mentioned below, was only possible 
by making a long detour to the south-east via Palmar, from which side 
ridges lead more or less in the desired direction. The crater was 
almost constantly full of a cloud of dust which drifted away before the 
wind, and looked very suggestive of commencing eruption, but careful 
examination showed that this was due solely to the falling stones, except 
an occasional puff of steam from the fumaroles, which now and then rose 
above the lip of the crater. When a view of the great cliff was 
occasionally obtained, I could see many beds of tuff and agglomerate, 
but could never be certain of any compact lava. The mode of origin 
seems a perfect example of that attributed by Sir Charles Lyell to the 
Yal del Bove on Etna, and in order of magnitude it is enormously 
greater than that of the eruptions of the Soufriere and Montagne Pelee 
in the same year. 
* The French machinist was the only man who stayed with Mr. Moesly all through 
the eruption, and he is still employed there at increased wages. 
