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[61] 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 volcanic 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 abstinence 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 attempt 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.
This is not the place to enter into a scientific description 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.[62] What I have said already will be my excuse for inaccuracies, 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 medicinal 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 medicinal virtues, and turn at once to a catalogue of the volcanoes. 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, there are several subsidiary lines at right angles to the general trend.
| Name. | Present State. | Last Eruption. | Height. |
|---|---|---|---|
| IN GUATEMALA. | |||
| Tacanà | Quiescent | 1855 | |
| Tajumulco[63] | Extinct | 18,317(?) | |
| Santa Maria (Exancul) | ” | 11,415 | |
| Cerro Quemado | Quiescent | 1785 | 10,205 |
| Zuñil | Extinct | ||
| Santa Clara | ” | 8,554 | |
| San Pedro | ” | 8,125 | |
| Atitlan | Active | 1852 | 9,870 |
| Acatenango | Quiescent | 13,563 | |
| Fuego | Active | 1880 | 12,075 |
| Agua | Extinct | 12,337 | |
| Pacaya (Pecul) | Quiescent | 1775 | 8,390 |
| Cerro Redondo | Extinct | 3,550 | |
| Tecuamburro | ” | ||
| Moyuta | ” | ||
| Chingo | ” | 6,500 | |
| Amayo | ” | ||
| Mita | ” | 5,000 | |
| Suchitan, or Santa Catarina | ” | 1469(?) | |
| Monte Rico | ” | ||
| Ipala | ” | 5,460 | |
| IN SAN SALVADOR. | |||
| Apaneca | Extinct | 5,826 | |
| Santa Ana | Active | 6,000 | |
| Izalco | ” | constant | 6,000 |
| San Salvador[64] | ” | 6,182 | |
| Cojutepeque, or Ilopango | ” | 3,400 | |
| San Vincente | Quiescent | 1643 | 7,600 |
| Tecapa | Extinct | ||
| Usulutan | ” | ||
| Chinameca | Quiescent | 5,000 | |
| San Miguel | Active | 1844 | 6,244 |
| Conchagua | Quiescent | 3,915 | |
| IN HONDURAS. | |||
| Zacate Grande | Extinct | 2,000 | |
| Tigre | ” | 2,632 | |
| Congrehoy Peak | Quiescent | 8,040 | |
| Bonito | ” | ||
| Bay Islands | Extinct | 1,000 | |
| IN NICARAGUA. | |||
| Coseguina | Quiescent | 1835 | 3,600 |
| Chonco | ” | ||
| El Viejo (Belcher, 1838) | ” | 5,562 | |
| Santa Clara | ” | 4,700 | |
| Telica | Active | 1850 | 3,800 |
| Orota | Quiescent | ||
| Las Pilas | ” | 4,000 | |
| Axusco, or Asososco | Extinct | 4,690 | |
| Momotombo | Active | 1852 | 7,000 |
| Momotombito | Extinct | ||
| Guanapepe | ” | ||
| Nindiri | Quiescent | ||
| Masaya | Active | 1858 | 3,000 |
| Mombacho | Extinct | 5,250 | |
| Zapeton, or Zapatera | ” | ||
| Ometepec | Active | 1883 | 5,050 |
| Madeira | Quiescent | 5,000 | |
| IN COSTA RICA. | |||
| Orosi | Quiescent | 8,650 | |
| Rincon de la Vieja | ” | ||
| Miravalles | Extinct | 5,500 | |
| Tenorio | ” | ||
| Los Votos, or Poas | ” | 10,500 | |
| Barba | ” | ||
| Irazu, or Cartago | Active | 1726 | 11,450 |
| Turrialba | Extinct | 12,533 | |
| Chiripo | ” | ||
Besides the volcanoes contained in the preceding list there are in Columbia three volcanic peaks:—
| Name. | Present State. | Height. |
|---|---|---|
| Pico Blanco | Extinct | 11,740 |
| Rovalo | (?) | 7,021 |
| Chiriqui | (?) | 11,265 |
The volcanoes on the Atlantic coast have been little noticed. Congrehoy Peak has the sharpest cone I have ever seen, almost equalling the impossible cones in Humboldt’s drawings of the Cordilleras; and I regret that the only photograph I was able to make of the mountain-top rising above the low-lying clouds was defective. Trusting too securely to my camera, I did not measure the angle, although the sketch I made just before is quite as the mountain looks. The sharpness is perhaps the result of an eruption said to have taken place a few years ago, when the crater fell in and ashes were carried as far as Belize,—a hundred and fifty miles. Belonging to the same system as Congrehoy and Bonito are the Bay Islands. Of these, Utila shows streams of vesicular basaltic lava, and fragments of a more compact, older basalt; but I have found neither on this island nor on Roatan any signs of a crater. The formation is, however, distinctly volcanic, and apparently of a period anterior to the eruptions which built the Island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Group,—I judge by the amount of decomposition and degradation, the lavas in both cases being similar in composition and physical character.
Congrehoy Peak.
I have mentioned the deposits of volcanic sand found on the north shore of the Lago de Izabal, in a region surrounded by what are thought to be calcareous mountains; and I may add that several peaks in the Cockscomb Range of British Honduras appear from a distance of perhaps forty miles to be volcanic cones.
Passing over the traditional outbreaks of the Central American volcanoes before the Conquest, the earliest recorded eruption was that of Masaya in 1522; and the Spanish chroniclers tell a very amusing story of the attempt of the Dominican friar Blase and his companions to draw up the molten gold (lava) in an iron bucket from El Infierno de Masaya, or Hell of Masaya. The bucket, as well as the chain which held it, melted on approaching the lava; and the pious Churchmen, instead of being enriched by the precious metal, were poorer by the cost of the expedition. According to the same authority, the Indios at certain seasons cast living maids into the crater to appease the fire, that it might not break forth and injure their crops. This would indicate a continued state of activity, without an outbreak from the crater, much as in the Halemaumau of the volcano Kilauea. It is curious that in Yucatan the Mayas sacrificed maidens to water by casting them into the sacred well or Cenote of Chichen Itza;[65] and a similar sacrifice has been made at Ilopango in modern times. In 1772 the next real eruption took place, and in 1858 another slight one. The cone is directly over the Lake of Masaya,—the only source of water in that dry land; and its ejections are encroaching upon the area of the lake. But I will put the eruptions in a tabular form for convenience:—