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Wonders of Creation by Anonymous
page 58 of 94 (61%)
natives call them, there rose six large masses, the highest of
which is sixteen hundred feet in height, and constitutes the
volcano of Jorullo. The eruptions of this central volcano continued
till February 1760 with extreme violence--the crater throwing out
large quantities of lava; but in the succeeding years it became
less turbulent in its activity. It still, however, continues to
burn; and the mountain emits from the wide crater at its summit
several jets of vapour. The foregoing woodcut gives a view of this
volcano, and of the little steaming ovens which stud the whole
ground around it, giving it at a distance the appearance of the sea
in a storm. And now confess that Mr. Jorullo's monument is far
grander than the pyramid of Cheops. Surely the loss of his farm was
amply compensated to him, by the perpetuation of his memory and his
name, through the rearing of such a marvellous cenotaph.

For a long time after the first eruption, the ground for a great
distance round the volcano was too hot to be habitable or capable
of cultivation. It is now, however, so much cooled down, that it is
once more covered with vegetation; and even some small portions of
the raised ground containing the ovens have been again brought
under culture.

Besides this volcano, so recent in its origin, Mexico contains
other five--Orizaba, Toluca, Tuxtla, Popocatepetl, and Colima. What
is rather remarkable, these five, together with Jorullo, all lie
nearly in a straight line running east and west. The tracts of
country which these volcanoes have desolated with their lavas are
called by the Mexicans the "Malpays."

The most remarkable of these mountains is Popocatepetl. Although it
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