EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES. 
401 
groped hither and thither, bearing crosses and uttering 
prayers inaudible to themselves in the crash of elements. 
At the end of forty-three hours the earthquakes and ex¬ 
plosions ceased, and with a strong wind the ashes were 
gradually blown away from the atmosphere. The return¬ 
ing light of day showed a gloomy outlook. Ashes cov¬ 
ered the country on every side. On Coseguina a crater 
had opened a mile in diameter, and vast streams of lava 
had flowed into the gulf on one side, and into the ocean 
on the other. While the verdure was gone from the land, 
pumice covered the sea for a hundred and fifty miles. 
Terrible as was this outbreak, the explosive violence 
was not so great as of the eruption from some unknown 
vent whose deposits are about Quiche in Guatemala, in 
the valley of the Chixoy, and elsewhere; and Pacaya has 
in some prehistoric time thrown out sand and pumice in 
greater quantity than did Coseguina, as we see by the 
deposits about the Lago de Amatitlan. 
With the mention of the Lago de Amatitlan it occurs 
to me that the so-called volcanic lakes of Central America 
deserve a short notice. I would not claim that there are 
not here genuine pit-craters filled with water and called 
lag os or lagunas. On the summit of many of the extinct 
volcanoes are craters filled with water, as Ipala and 
others, and as Agua was before the destruction of the 
crater-lip in 1541; while in San Salvador and Nicaragua 
are many lakes, usually of small extent, but sometimes 
so large as to mislead the casual observer as to their ori¬ 
gin, though of undoubtedly volcanic nature. Of this last 
class is the Lago de Masaya, from whose deep pool the 
people of the neighboring village obtain all their water. 
Coatepeque is another volcanic lake, whose walls are so 
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