This is not the place to enter into a scientific description of even the little that is known of the volcanic phenomena of Central America; but perhaps my readers will pardon me if I make some few quotations from what Mr. Darwin once wrote me he considered the poetry of geology. I may at the same time show faintly what a tempting field there is for the truly scientific explorer.[62] What I have said already will be my excuse for inaccuracies, and I can only claim to have consulted the best authorities when my personal observation fails, and they must bear the blame of any misstatements. I give first a list of the principal volcanoes, then of their best-known eruptions, and finally an enumeration of the earthquakes. Hot and mineral springs are very frequent all over the country; but as their chemical constituents and medicinal properties have not been determined, and their physical peculiarities are not noteworthy, we may pass them by in this brief survey with the remark that the Indios do not seem to have made much use of their medicinal virtues, and turn at once to a catalogue of the volcanoes. From what I have myself seen of the extinct craters in the republic of Guatemala, I am convinced that I have collected in this list barely a tithe of the distinct volcanic vents. The Soconuscan volcano Istak has never been described, and some have doubted its existence; of the others whose names are in the list very few have been examined by geologists. Beginning at the extreme northwestern end of the chain in Central America, we find it extends south fifty-five degrees east; and while the volcanoes are generally in line, there are several subsidiary lines at right angles to the general trend. Name. Present State. Last Eruption. Height. IN GUATEMALA.