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 explosions ceased, and with a strong wind the ashes were gradually blown away from the atmosphere. The returning light of day showed a gloomy outlook. Ashes covered 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 Quiché 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 lagos 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 origin, 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

steep that they can be descended only at certain points by means of ladders and steps cut in the lava rock. Finally there are many pits, sometimes no more than a hundred feet in diameter, but of very great depth, and filled sometimes with fresh water, but more commonly with saline waters so strongly impregnated as to be undrinkable. The great lakes of Amatitlan and Atitlan are not certainly volcanic, although their shores are dotted with hot-springs and guarded by volcanoes, they are not, that is, actual craters; but the former seems to be the result of a subsidence caused perhaps by the removal of material from lower layers by eruptions of Pacaya, and it is of no considerable depth, while good authority has considered the Lago de Atitlan the result of damming up a valley and streams by the masses of the volcanic group of the same name. A glance at the map of this lake (p. 154) as given by the French geologists whose opinion is quoted, will show that the volcanoes occupy a position not far from the geometrical centre of the Lago, or where they should be if the lake was an ancient crater. Compare with this, if you will, the plan of an undoubted volcanic lake, that of Ilopango in San Salvador. This body of water is not only the seat of volcanic eruptions, as is also the Great Lake of Nicaragua, but probably fills a depression that has been the result of the coalescence of several points of eruption. I have before me the interesting report to the Guatemaltecan Government by my friend Edwin Rockstroh of his observations made on the eruption of one of these craters in 1880. The lake is 9,200 metres wide from east to west, and 7,300 metres from north to south, with an area of 54.3 kilometres. Completely surrounded by precipitous mountains, inter

rupted only on the southeast by the narrow gorge through which the waters of the lake are discharged, it receives no important affluents from the surface; and as its emissary is of much greater volume at all seasons. than these insignificant brooks, it is probably fed by subterranean springs, - indeed one of these, near the south

shore, enters with such force as to cause a ripple on the surface of the lake. Soundings indicate a cup-like bottom with an extreme depth of less than seven hundred feet (209.26 metres). The level of the lake has often changed, and in 1880 the surface-level fell more than thirty-four feet, leaving exposed stumps of trees encrusted with calcareous deposits. It was before the last eruption well stocked with fish of the varieties called by the people who lived near by mojarra, burrito (both species of the

genus Heros), pepesca, and chimbolo. and chimbolo. At times an eruption of sulphurous gases partly asphyxiated the fish, driving them to the shores, where they fell a prey to the fishermen. What the fishermen did on occasion of greater disturbances is told in the following extract from a Guatemaltecan journal; the author, Don Camillo Galvan, formerly Visitador-General, writes as follows:

1

"The people of the pueblos around the lake, Cojutepeque, Texacuangos, and Tepezontes, say that when the earthquakes came from the lake, which they knew by the disappearance of fish, it was a sign that the monster lord of those regions who dwelt in the depths of the lake was eating the fish, and probably would consume them all shortly, unless provided with a more delicate and juicy diet worthy of his power and voracity; for they say that the monster only eats fish as men eat fruit, to refresh and allay hunger. The natives, deeply afflicted by the fish famine, the failure of an article of commerce and their ordinary diet, collected at the command of their chiefs. Then the sorcerers (los brujos) commanded the people to throw flowers and fruits into the lake: if the tremblings continued, they were to cast in animals, preferring conies (Lepus Douglassi), taltusas (Geomys heterodus), then armadillos (Dasypus), and mapachines (Procyon cancrivorus). These animals must be caught alive and cast living into the water, under penalty of no less than hanging with the vine zinak. If some days passed, and the tremors continued, and the fish did not come out of their caves, they (the brujos) took a girl of from six to nine years old, decked her with flowers, and at midnight the wizards took her to the middle of the lake and cast

1 La Sociedad Economica, No. 6, March 14, 1880.

her in, bound hand and foot and with a stone fast to her neck. The next day, if the child appeared upon the surface and the tremors continued, another victim was cast into the lake with the same ceremonies.

"Even in the years 1861 and 1862, when I visited these towns, they told me, though with much reserve, that the people of Cojutepeque and Chinameca kept this barbarous custom to prevent the failure of the fish."

Near the end of November, 1879, a series of earthquakes shook the lake (more than six hundred were counted), and on Jan. 11, 1880, the waters had risen about four feet. On the next day, between half-past four and half-past seven in the afternoon, 13,790,000 cubic metres of water escaped from the outlet of the lake, making a stream of greater volume than the Seine at Paris or the Rhine at Basle. The little river Jiboa, which received this torrent, did great damage to the plantations on its banks.

As is usual, the earthquakes were accompanied by the discharge of sulphuretted hydrogen, now in such quantities as to be very unpleasant at the city of San Salvador. On the 9th of January there appeared floating on the surface numerous flakes of a black foam composed of ferric sulphide, which in contact with flame burned with a slight explosion. On the 20th, at eleven o'clock in the evening, a great disturbance was noticed in the midst of the lake, and the next morning a pile of rocks was seen, from whose midst arose a column of vapor. For more than a month this vapor column was visible, and the pile of rocks near the centre of the lake increased, while the water was heated and the sulphurous vapors extended over all the neighborhood. Beyond this no permanent