re
quite as extraordinary.] They occupy a considerable space, the
largest not less than one hundred yards in circumference. In this
one the water is exceedingly turbid, of a light brown color, and
boils furiously. The waters in the other caldrons vary in color,
and form deposits of the finest clay of every shade. Steam ascends
in a dense white cloud, shutting out the sun; the ground is all
hot, soon becoming insupportable. In places a little jet of steam
and smoke rises fiercely from a hole in the hills, while in others
boiling water rushes out as if forced from a steam engine. The
water possesses varying mineral qualities.

'All these springs are on the side of the volcano Apaneca, one of a
cluster of which Izalco is the most active, and Santa Anna the
mother volcano.'

These accounts would be equally correct if applied to the Devil's Canon;
but the following appears to surpass it in the power of the volcano
below. It is condensed from a description by the same traveller, whose
name cannot be ascertained:

'On the north side of the volcano of San Vicente (a water volcano
occupying the geographical centre of San Salvador, seven thousand
feet above the sea), at the head of a considerable ravine, and near
the base of the mountain, is a place called 'El Infernillo.'

'For the space of several hundred yards, rills of hot water spring
from the ground, which looks red and burned, and there are numerous
orifices sending out spires of steam with a fierce vigor like the
escape of a steam engine. The principal discharge is from an
orifice thirty feet broad, opening beneath a ledge of igneous
rocks, nearly on a level with the bottom of the ravine. Smoke,
steam, and hot water are sent out with incredible velocity for a
distance of forty yards, as if from a force pump, with a roar as of
a furnace in full blast. The noise is intermittent (although never
ceasing entirely) and as regular as respiration. All around are
salts, crystallized sulphur, and deposits of clay of every shade.
There is no vegetation in the vicinity, and the stream for a mile
is too hot for the hand to bear.'

Such a striking similarity in phenomena at so great a distance apart, in
connection with active or dormant volcanoes, would seem to be enough to
prove the connection in any candid mind, and utterly refute