On the Volcanos of Guatemala.

By M. de Humboldt.

The above article relating to the volcanos of Guatemala, or, as it is now called, Central America, is extracted from a paper in a recent number of the Hertha, by Alex.

de Humboldt.

The entire paper relates to the present condition of this free state; but the portion we have selected alone comes within the scope of our Journal, and is sufficiently distinct from the rest for separate publication.--Edit.

THE volcanos of Central America are ranged successively between the mountains of Veragua, and Oaxada, latitude 11° to 16°.

The gneiss and mica slate of Veragua connect them with the western chain of New Grenada; the granitic gneiss of Oaxada unites them to the Mexican ridge: this connection, however, is formed not by the volcanos themselves, but by the mountainous land which surrounds them.

During my voyage from Lima to Acapulco, I collected from the Spanish manuscript charts of John Morabda and other navigators various particulars, which throw light on the situation of the burning mountains of Guatemala with respect to the sea.

Most of these volcanos are inserted by Bauza, with an accuracy peculiar to himself, in the Carta esferica del Mar de las Antillas, 1805, and in the Carta esferica desde el Golfo Dulce hasta San Blas, 1822:

yet Von Buch very properly remarks in his classical work on the Canary Isles (1825, p. 406--409), that William Furnel, Dampier's mate, discovered at the early period of his voyage almost all that we know of them at present.

I shall pursue the series from S.E. to N.W., as they are placed by Arago in the Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes 1824, according to the materials which have been imparted to me.

Wherever my information does not correspond with the charts, or these do not correspond with one another, I shall state their variations with exactness, that future voyagers may determine the geographic results arising from them. Many of the volcanos have several names, which vary with the variation of the Indian idioms, and are borrowed from those of the neighbouring places.

Thus in New Spain, Popocatepetl and Iztacci hunte, are called sometimes Volcanes de Puebla, sometimes Volcanes de Mexico; and from not understanding this, two mountains may be turned into six.

Another source of error is, that in America the name of Volcano is not only applied to the mountains whose eruptions extend beyond the age of history, but also to masses of trachyte, which it is certain have never burnt, and are not connected with the interior of the earth by permanent apertures.

Southernmost stands the Volcan de Barua, lat. 8° 50', in the interior of the country, seven miles N.E. of Golfo Dulce; it is called in the English maps Volcan de Varu, and placed, I believe incorrectly, far more to the east (under 84° 52' west long., and 8° 25' lat.) in the province of Veragua.

Next to the Volcan de Barua comes the Volcan de Papagayo (lat. 10° 10'), not on the mountain of Santa Catalina, but five leagues more to the north, scarcely more than 4 [Formel] English miles from the coast.

East of the Volcan de Papagayo are three old burning mountains, near the south shore of the lake of Nicaragua; viz.

the Volcan de Orosi, between Rio Zabales and Rio Terluga; the Volcan de Tenorio; and the Volcan del Rincon de la Vieja,--the last of which is in lat. 10° 57', and only 1° 35' west of the mouth of the Rio San Juan in the Atlantic Ocean.

The great crater-lake of Nicaragua seems to me to have been produced by some phaenomenon connected with this peculiar eastern site of the Volcan de la Vieja.

North of the city of Nicaragua, on the isthmus between the Lake and the sea-coast, between 10° 30' and 12° 30' lat. some uncertainty still prevails in the synonomy of the volcanos.

Juarros the historiographer of Guatemala, and Antonio de la Cerda, Alcalde de la Ciudad de Granada, whose manuscript maps I possess, adduce merely; 1. Volcan Mombacho, on a mountain a few leagues south-east of the city of Grenada; 2. Volcan de Sapaloca, in the lake of Nicaragua, opposite Volcan de Mombacho; 3. Volcan de Masaya, between Ciudad de Granada and Ciudad de Leon, near the little lake Masaya west of the Rio Tepetapa, which connects the Laguna de Leon or Managua with the Laguna de Nicaragua; 4. Volcan de Momotombo, at the north end of Laguna de Leon, rather to the east of Ciudad de Leon.

According to this nomenclature, the Volcan de Granada, of which Funnel and Dampier speak, describing it as being in the form of a beehive, is omitted in all the Spanish sea-charts.

From a passage in Gomara (Historia de las Indias, fol. 112), it may be concluded that Volcan de Masaya and Volcan de Granada, are synonymous.

The chart of the Deposito Hydrografico mentions:

1. Volcan de Bombacho, probably the Mombacho of the; 2. Volcan de Granada, west of Ciudad de Granada; 3. Volcan de Leon, clearly from its situation the celebrated Volcan de Masaya, 20' south of Ciudad de Leon. I repeat that, in my opinion, the mountain which in the Spanish charts is called Volcan de Granada, is either Volcan Bombacho, or Volcan Masaya,-- for both lie in the neighbourhood (south and east) of Ciudad de Granada.

Volcan Masaya, situated nearer the village of Nindiri than the village of Masaya, was in the first ages of the conquest of the country the most active of all the burning mountains of Guatemala.

"The Spaniards," says Juarros, called it Hell, el Infierno de Masaya."

Its crater was only from twenty to thirty paces in diameter, but the melted lava seethed and rolled in waves as high as towers; the light from it spread very far, as well as its frightful bellowings.

At the distance of twenty-five miles the flames of Masaya were visible.

This volcano peculiarly allured the monks of the 16th century, in their thirst for gold.

A Dominican, Blas de Innena, as Gomara relates, descended into the crater by a chain of 140 brazas long, armed with an iron ladle; with the ladle he intended to have taken up the gold in fusion (the fluid lava!); the ladle melted, and the monk escaped with difficulty.

The secondary circumstances of this story are certainly fabulous; but it is more than probable that Innena ventured into the crater, and that his unsuccessful enterprise induced the Dechan (dean) of the spiritual Chapter of Leon to obtain permission from the king to open the volcano of Masaya, and to collect the gold which was hidden in its interior.

Juarros speaks of another volcano close to that of Masaya, the volcano of Nindiri or Nidiri, which had a great eruption in 1775, when a stream of lava (rio de fuego) flowed into Laguna de Leon, or Managua, and destroyed a great many fish.

From the situation of the village of Nindiri it may be supposed that this phaenomenon was an eruption from the side of the Masaya.

In Teneriffe also I have often heard the Volcano de Chahorra spoken of as if it was a different mountain from the Peak.

It is very common in all volcanic countries for the volcanos, properly so called, to be confounded with the sites of minor eruptions from their own sides.

In travelling from the Volcano de Masaya along the Laguna of Tiscapa across Nagaroti to the city of Leon, east of the city you see, at the north end of Laguna de Leon or de Managua, the lofty volcano of Momotombo; further down, between lat. 12° 20' and 13° 15', or between the city of Leon and the Gulf of Amapala or Fonseca, appear the four volcanos of Felica, the Viejo, Giletepe, and Guanacaure.

The volcano of Felica is still active, like Mombacho and Momotombo:

persons also who visited the harbour of Rialejo last year, saw the Volcano del Viejo smoking considerably.

The volcano of Giletepe is named in the Spanish manuscript charts V. de Cosiguina, from the neighbouring Punta de Cosiguina, as has been correctly conjectured by M. von Buch.

West of the Gulf of Amapala rise, as it were from the same cavernous bed, the volcanos of San Miguel Bosotlan (Usulutan?), Tecapa, San Vincente or Sacatecoluca, San Salvador, Isalco, Apaneca or Zonzonate, Pacaya, the Volcano de Agua, the two volcanos de Fuego or Guatemala, Acatenango, Toliman, Atitlan, Tajamulco, Sunil, Suchiltepegues, Sopotitlan, the Hamilpas (properly two contiguous volcanos of this name), and Soconusco.

Of these twenty burning mountains, those of San Miguel, San Vincente, Isalco, San Salvador, Pacaya, the Volcano de Fuego or de Guatemala, Atitlan, and the Volcano de Sapotitlan, have hitherto been the most active.

The volcano of Isalco had great eruptions in April 1798, and from 1805 to 1807, when the flames often came in sight.

It is particularly rich in ammonium .

We believe that the theory of volcanos held by M. de Humboldt, is a modification of that proposed by Sir H. Davy, in which the phaenomena they present are ascribed to the decomposition of water by the metallic bases of the earths and alkalies existing in the earth.

We presume, therefore, that when he states the volcano here mentioned to be rich in ammonium, it is to be understood that it evolves a large quantity of muriate of ammonia, from which circumstance M. de Humboldt infers that ammonium, the supposed metallic base of ammonia, is abundant in its interior.

E. W. B.

The volcano of Pacaya lies three miles from the village of Amatitlan, and consequently east of the Volcano de Agua.

It is not so isolated as the latter, but is prolonged into a vast ridge with three apparent summits.

Streams of lava (which the inhabitants here as well as in Mexico call desert-land (mal pays)), pumice, scoriae and sand, have laid waste the surrounding country.

At the end of the sixteenth century (according to the Cronista Fuentes, tom. i. liv.

9. cap. 9.) the Pacaya emitted day and night not only smoke but flames.

The greatest and most celebrated eruptions of the volcano of Pacaya were those of 1565, 1651, 1664, 1668, 1671, 1677, and of the 11th of July 1775.

The last eruption was not from the summit itself, but from one of the three lower lateral peaks.

The Volcan de Fuego, or as it is also called Volcan de Guatemala, is situated five miles west of the water-volcano and two miles south-west of the city of Antigua Guatemala.

It still at times evolves flame and smoke.

Its greatest eruptions since the arrival of the Spaniards were in 1581, 1586, 1623, 1705, 1710, 1717, 1732, and 1737. It is in the shape of a beautiful cone, near its top, however, disfigured by several hills of scoriae, the remains of lateral eruptions.

The order of succession in which the extinguished volcanos arise south of Laguna de Atitlan, between Nueva Guatemala and Zapotitlan, seems to me, as a fact in geological science, very remarkable.

They stand on two chasms east and west, and look as if they had slidden; so that the more western row lies four leagues more to the north.

On the eastern chasm are the volcanos of Pacaya, the Water-volcano, the two volcanos of Fuego, and the volcano of Acatenango; on the western, nearer the lake of Atitlan, are the volcanos of Toliman, Atitlan, and Sunil, with several isolated mountains, the names of which are unknown to me.

The Water-volcano (Volcan de Agua) is, in comparison with the twenty-one partly extinguished and partly still burning volcanos of Central America, one of the highest and most celebrated.

It lies twenty miles east of the great Laguna de Atitlan, between Antigua Guatemala and the populous villages of Mixco Amatitan and San Christobal.

As the altitude of not a single mountain of the Guatemalan Andes has been measured, I draw my opinion of its height merely from the circumstance that the mountain often remains covered for many months together with rime, with ice, and perhaps even with snow.

In so southern a latitude the height cannot be less than 11,000, nor above 15,000 English feet.

Mountains which exceed the latter are real Nevados, that is, covered with eternal snow.

Capt.

Basil Hall estimates the two volcanos of Guatemala at 14,331 and 14,562 feet, an admeasurement taken at the distance of forty leagues, and which cannot therefore be much relied on.

Pater Remesal, (Hist. de la Provincia de San Vincente, liv.

iv. cap. 5.) who plays with numbers in the old-fashioned way, asserts, that in 1615 the Water-volcano, as it is called, was still three leagues (leguas) high, although it lost its crown (coronilla), which was one league high, by the eruption of the 11th of September 1541, when Almolonga, or Ciudad Vieja, was destroyed!

The geognostic relations of this water-eruption are wholly unknown.

Juarros relates, that neither burnt stones nor any traces of volcanic eruptions were discoverable in the declivity of the mountain; perhaps however ashes and lava are covered by the vegetation; perhaps not merely subterranean caverns have been filled for centuries by rain-water which has flowed into them, but a crater-lake also may have existed in the summit itself.

In the province of Quito, I have been told, that the volcano of Imbabaru, which has been extinguished longest, near the Villa de Ibarra, from time to time (probably after earthquakes) casts forth water, slime, and fishes; thus much, however, is certain, that the Volcano de Agua, which lies between the Volcano de Pacaya and the Volcano de Fuego, has the form of a blunted cone.

Two-thirds of the slopes of this great mountain-root, which is said to be eighteen leagues in diameter, are cultivated as a garden; further upwards arise majestic woods, and on the top there still exists an elliptical cavern, the diameter of which from N. to S. is 400 feet long.

This is without doubt a crater (caldera); and Juarros, although he denies that there are any traces of fire in the water-volcano, describes (tom. ii. p. 351) it himself exactly as several intelligent natives of Guatemala have described it to me.

North of the group of the volcanos closely ranged between Pacaya and Sunil, at the western extremity of the lake of Atitlan, the heat-exhaling cavern of Central America seems gradually to close.

The volcano of Soconusco, of which Juarros makes no mention (in Bauza's chart, 15° 59' lat., and 95° 41' long.), is the limit imposed to the series of volcanic eruptions on the western edge of the granitic-gneiss mountain of Oaxada: on the shore of the South Sea there is no volcano for 220 leagues till you arrive at the Volcan de Colonia.

After having named, in these pages, between the parallels of 8° 50' and 16°, in a direction from S. E. to N. W., five-and-thirty conical mountains, which are considered on the spot as volcanos, and of which fifteen have undoubtedly emitted smoke or flames within the last half century, I may safely repeat my assertion,--that in no part of the globe, not even in Chili, or the Indian Archipelago and the Aleutes, is there so lasting a communication by means of caverns between the interior of the earth and the atmosphere.

Future travellers will ascertain which among the thirty-five so-called Volcanes de Centro- America are cones of trachyte, and which are real open burning mountains.