EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES. 
381 
This is not the place to enter into a scientific descrip¬ 
tion of even the little that is known of the volcanic 
phenomena of Central America ; but perhaps my readers 
will pardon me if I make some few quotations from what 
Mr. Darwin once wrote me he considered the poetry of 
geology. I may at the same time show faintly what a 
tempting field there is for the truly scientific explorer . 1 
What I have said already will be my excuse for inaccu¬ 
racies, and I can only claim to have consulted the best 
authorities when my personal observation fails, and they 
must bear the blame of any misstatements. I give first 
a list of the principal volcanoes, then of their best-known 
eruptions, and finally an enumeration of the earthquakes. 
Hot and mineral springs are very frequent all over the 
country; but as their chemical constituents and medi¬ 
cinal properties have not been determined, and their 
physical peculiarities are not noteworthy, we may pass 
them by in this brief survey with the remark that the 
Indios do not seem to have made much use of their medi¬ 
cinal virtues, and turn at once to a catalogue of the vol¬ 
canoes. From what I have myself seen of the extinct 
craters in the republic of Guatemala, I am convinced that 
I have collected in this list barely a tithe of the distinct 
volcanic vents. The Soconuscan volcano Istak has never 
been described, and some have doubted its existence; 
of the others whose names are in the list very few 
have been examined by geologists. Beginning at the 
extreme northwestern end of the chain in Central 
America, we find it extends south fifty-five degrees 
east; and while the volcanoes are generally in line, 
1 Not for the pseudo-geologists who see glacial action on every bed ol 
recent lava or in every railroad embankment. 
