aid to be
always throwing out ashes and vapors like Stromboli, a proof of the
permanently heated state of certain parts of the interior of the earth
below. A year rarely passes in Chili without some slight shocks of
earthquakes, and in certain districts not a month. Those shocks which
come from the side of the ocean are the most violent, and the same is
said to be the case in Peru. The town of Copiapo was laid waste by this
terrible scourge in the years 1773, 1796, and 1819, or in both cases
after regular intervals of twenty-three years. There have, however, been
other shocks in that country in the periods intervening between the
dates above mentioned, although probably all less severe, at least on
the exact site of Copiapo. The evidence against a regular recurrence of
volcanic convulsions at stated periods is so strong as a general fact,
that we must be on our guard against attaching too much importance to a
few striking but probably accidental coincidences. Among these last
might be adduced the case of Lima, violently shaken by an earthquake on
the 17th of June, 1578, and again on the very same day, 1678; or the
eruptions of Coseguina in the year 1709 and 1809, which are the only two
recorded of that volcano previous to that of 1835.[470]

Of the permanent upheaval of land after earthquakes in Chili, I shall
have occasion to speak in the next chapter, when it will also be seen
that great shocks often coincide with eruptions, either submarine or
from the cones of the Andes, showing the identity of the force which
elevates continents with that which causes volcanic outbursts.[471]

The space between Chili and Peru, in which no volcanic action has been
observed, is 160 nautical leagues from south to north. It is, however,
as Von Buch observes, that part of the Andes which is least known,
being thinly peopled, and in some parts entirely desert. The volcanoes
of Peru rise from a lofty platform to vast heights above the level of
the sea, from 17,000 to 20,000 feet. The lava which has issued from
Viejo, lat. 16 degrees 55 minutes S., accompanied by pumice, is composed
of a mixture of crystals of albitic felspar, hornblende, and mica, a
rock which has been considered as one of the varieties of andesite. Some
tremendous earthquakes which have visited Peru in modern times will be
mentioned in a subsequent chapter.

The volcanoes of Quito, occurring between the second degree of south and
the third degree of north latitude, ris