380 
GUATEMALA. 
Nature in their parochial records. Even the stories 
we have of the early experiences of the Spaniards 
in matters of vulcanology are so mingled with devils 
and unholy work that they are nearly incredible; and 
the stone volumes lying about the mountains, writ¬ 
ten by the hand of Nature, rather than the human 
chronicles, must be our guide. 
VOLCANOES. 
Stephens has described some of the Central American 
volcanoes from personal visits, but not with the pen 
of a geologist, and in the last years of the French 
Empire able geologists 1 redescribed some of the same 
peaks ; but there are still more than a score of lofty 
cones that no geologist has ever ascended, and there are 
many rising from an almost unbroken forest, whose vol¬ 
canic nature has not yet been fully determined. Even 
in the present age of physical research Central America 
has been sadly neglected; and we may express a hope 
that some young man is even now training his thews and 
sinews, and hardening his constitution by virtuous absti¬ 
nence and careful exercise, as well as training his mind 
to interpret and his eye to see the rich harvest that here 
awaits the proper explorer. No feeble student need at¬ 
tempt the task. Death surely waits for him in the 
jungle, on the precipices, in the treacherous craters, even 
in the posada to which he brings his exhausted frame, 
should he be so foolhardy as to ascend a volcano in this 
tropical climate. 
1 Dollfus et Montserrat, Voyage geologique dans les republiques de 
Guatemala et Salvador. Paris, 1868. 
