Wonders of Creation

s Crater-Eruption of

eat Eruption-Sudden

opaxi-Its Appeara

at Eruption of Mud a

hrow-Pichinca-Humbo

-Sangay-Rancagu

test diameter being 300, and its smallest 200 feet, while its depth is only about 100 feet. From this crater there has been no eruption since 1706, when the finest harbour in the island was destroyed. But from the side of the peak there rises a supplementary mountain named Chahorra, on the top of

s, that about a third of the surface of the island was covered by them, and many towns and villages were destroyed. St. Catalina, a populous and thriving town, was first overflowed by a lava-stream, and then a new crater burst forth on its very site, raising over it a hill 400 feet high. All the cattle in the island fell down dead in one day, and nearly about the sam

maining at rest about fifty years, burst into fresh activity. No less than seven new vents were formed; and from these were poured forth great streams of l

highest volcano in the world, situated in the territory of Quito. So perfect is the form of the cone, that it looks as if it had been turned in a lathe. Its coating

desolated an immense extent of country with floods of lava. On this occasion, it is said, colum

to heaps of ruins. Then the base of Tunguragua was rent, and from numerous apertures there were poured out streams of water and mud, the latter gathering in the valleys to the depth of 600 feet. This mud spread itself far and wide, blocking up the channels of rivers, and forming lakes, which remained upwards of two months. But, strangest of all, quantities of dead fishes were found in the

ron Humboldt. When you see what a queer-looking fish it is, you

on: Pimelod

he level of the sea. It is built on a plain, lying on the flanks of the volcano Pichinca, of which a view is given in the annexed woodcut. Poor Quito

r. Here the celebrated traveller Baron Humboldt nearly lost his life. Having ascended the cone and approached the edge of the crater, he peered into the depths of the dark abyss, and there beheld the glowing lava boiling as if in a huge caldron. A thick mist coming

ation: P

r exceeds in height, its summit being nearly 18,000 feet above the level of the sea. The eruptions of this mountain are accompanied by loud explosions, which are heard at great distances, and they succeed each other with immense rapidity. The fumes emitted are sometimes gray, sometimes orange; and the matters ejected are cinders, dross, and spherical masses of stone. These last are oft

restlessness. Another of the volcanoes of Chili, named Chillan, which had long been in a state of repose, renewed its activity in November 1864. Its usually snow-clad summit b

Spanish historian Gonzales Fernando de Oviedo, from whose description it seems to have presented phenomena resembling those seen in the crater of Stromboli. "In its ordinary state," he says, "the surface of the lava, in the m