Much has been written of the effect upon the character and feelings of a people caused by constant dwelling among the more marked phenomena of Nature. It is a mistake to suppose that the eye sees all that is impressed on the retina, that the ear catches more than an insignificant share of the innumerable sounds falling ceaselessly on the tympanum, or that the mind interprets many of the marvels that each instant presents to it. Only the educated eye, the practised ear, the cultivated mind, can appreciate what the Creator has placed before it in this beautiful world whose wonders no human understanding, however taught, is capable of wholly comprehending. The worldly wisdom of the saying that “familiarity breeds contempt” is applicable to the greater portion of humanity; and dwellers among the Alps cease to see, if indeed they ever saw, what strikes the dweller on the plain with awe as he gazes for the first time at the Jungfrau. To a thinking, studying man, familiarity is the mother of awe.
In a region where the molecular forces, those mighty slaves of a Divine Will, are working out of doors, so to speak; where from the summit of a volcanic peak one can count scores of others ranged on his right hand and on his left; where he can see, if he has opened the door for such vision, the cooling globe wrinkling with age, the force of contraction liquefying in fervent heat the solid materials of the earth’s crust and pouring out into daylight the molten rock, or puffing out the dust of stones ground to powder in the gigantic mill,—his heart, his brain, his very being, will be enlarged by the reflections that come to him in such moments. Not so the Indio who lazily cultivates his milpa on the lower slopes of this same volcano. His feet never seek the summit, where no maiz can grow. He knows that the ground is very fertile where his hut is placed; he has nothing that an earthquake can destroy, and the showers of ashes, while injuring his present crop, are a pledge of increased fertility in the future; then from the streams of lava he can run, should they come in his way. When a more terrible outbreak of the great mass above him disturbs his stolidity, he attributes it to some supernatural agency, and calls upon his especial saints for the protection due their votary. Have not the Central Americans baptized their volcanoes, and have not these huge Christians since that rite been quiescent and proper members of the Church?
The people who live in the midst of this region of volcanic disturbances have not been elevated by communion with this manifestation of the agencies of Nature. Their religion is not autochthonic; their choicest traditions come from the non-volcanic lands to the eastward, and are not tinged with the lurid glow of the earth-fires. Even their hell is no fiery furnace, and the apostles of an Eastern religion introduced to their imagination that supposed element of future punishment. Where a suggestion of fire-worship appears, it is always called forth by the sun,—that source of life and warmth and growth.
And yet, here is a country where volcanoes cluster,—their number reaching several hundred,—where hot-springs are more common than the cold-springs in most countries, and where earthquakes are very frequent and destructive. The volcanoes of the Hawaiian Archipelago are larger, those of Java more destructive, and the equatorial group of South America is loftier; but here between Popocatepetl and Istaccuahuatl, the giants of the plain of Anahuac, and the Costa Rican Turrialba extends an unbroken line of mighty cones and gaping craters. Somewhere on that line, smoke is ever rising; and at night the mariner along the Pacific coast sees the beacon-fires lighted by no mortal hand.
We must not expect to find in native records any careful account, or even notice, of eruptions or earthquakes; if referred to at all, it will be much as in the quotation I have already given from the “Popul Vuh,” where Cabracan is said to be in the habit of shaking the mountains. In the three centuries and a half since Spain sent her educated sons to this land, with the exception of some three hundred earthquakes and half a hundred eruptions, we have no better record. While it is true that geology has existed as a science only within the present century, yet one would suppose that a catastrophe causing the death of hundreds of people and the destruction of much property would be entered with some minuteness in the annals of the time; but were it not for the masses and church processions to calm the trembling earth or appease the angry mountains, the worthy padres would perhaps have failed to notice these disturbances of 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, written 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[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 | ” | ||