AIR VOLCANOES. 
The principal Volcanoes of tlie earth pour forth, as it is well known, 
streams of burning lava, or mineral substances in a molten state ; but 
there are other Volcanoes which send out merely water, mud, or air. 
Near Quito in South America, where fearful earthquakes have taken 
place, streams of water, and also of mud called " moya" have been poured 
from Volcanoes, sc as to waste and destroy everything in the neighbour- 
hood. It is a remarkable fact that these mud Volcanoes sometimes send 
forth vast quantities of small fish, supposed by Humboldt to have lived 
and multiplied in subterranean cavities of the earth. 
Near the small Indian village of Turbaco, twenty miles from Cartha- 
gena, in South America, are fifteen or twenty small Volcanoes, rising near 
each other in a marshy district on the borders of a forest. The simple 
inhabitants of the village have a tradition that these were formerly fire- 
volcanoes, but that a monk, by sprinkling holy water upon them, put out 
the fire, and changed them into water-volcanoes. It is not water only, 
however, but air that is sent out at each eruption, although on climbing 
to the top, the opening, which is from sixteen to thirty inches in diam- 
eter, is seen filled with water, through which the air-bubbles rise. 
The surface of the ground is composed of clay, of a dark grey colour, 
cracked in various places, and quite bare of vegetation. The Volcanoes 
rise in the form of cones to the height of from nineteen to twenty-five feet ; 
the circumference at the base being, in the largest, from seventy-eight to 
eighty-five yards. The air rises in these Volcanoes with considerable 
force, and with a loud noise, causing the water to be projected 1 beyond the 
crater, or to flow over its brim. Some of the openings by which the air 
escapes, are situated in the plain, without any rising of the ground. 
The natives assert that there has been no change in the shape or the num- 
ber of the cones for twenty years, and that the little cavities are filled 
with water even in the driest seasons. A stick can easily be pushed 
into the openings to the depth of six or seven feet, and the dark-coloured 
clay or mud is exceedingly soft. About five explosions from the several 
Volcanoes take place every two minutes. The cones have, no doubt, 
been raised by the condensed air, and a dull sound which is heard 
fifteen or eighteen seconds before each explosion, proves that the ground 
beneath is hollow. 
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