Of the eruptions of the Central American volcanoes none in the historical period have surpassed that of Coseguina in 1835. This mountain forms the eastern gate-ward of the Gulf of Fonseca, Conchagua rising on the other side of the rather narrow entrance. Not remarkably high (3,600 feet), it rises directly from the sea, and by its irregular outline, scarred slopes, and desolate appearance conveys the impression of a greater than its real mass. On the 20th of January, 1835, the disturbance began with very loud explosions, heard for a hundred leagues. Above the mountain rose an inky cloud which spread outwards precisely as Pliny describes the terrible cloud that rose above Vesuvius in 79, spreading like an Italian pine. From this column of heated vapor and sand darted lightning-flashes, produced either by the friction of the immense quantity of rough mineral particles, or by the sudden projection of hot gases and minerals into the much cooler atmosphere. As the cloud spread, the light of the sun was obscured, everything looked sickly in the yellow light, and the falling sand irritated both eyes and lungs. For two days the explosions grew more frequent and louder, while the eruption of sand increased; and on the third day the terrible noises were loudest in an almost absolute darkness. The rain of sand continued until a deposit of several feet had formed for many leagues around the crater. At Leon, in Nicaragua, more than a hundred miles away, the sand was several inches deep, and it fell in Vera Cruz, Jamaica, Santa Fé de Bogota, and over an area nearly two thousand miles in diameter. At Belize the noise of the explosions was so loud that the commandant mustered his troops and manned the forts, thinking there was a naval action off the anchorage. For eight hundred miles these noises were heard, and the vibrations near the volcano must have been indeed terrible. We can credit the accounts of the terror of the wild things of Nature as well as of human beings. For thirty leagues around, the astounded people believed that the Last Judgment had come, and in the darkness, thick with the falling ashes, groped hither and thither, bearing crosses and uttering prayers inaudible to themselves in the crash of elements. At the end of forty-three hours the earthquakes and explosions ceased, and with a strong wind the ashes were gradually blown away from the atmosphere. The returning light of day showed a gloomy outlook. Ashes covered the country on every side. On Coseguina a crater had opened a mile in diameter, and vast streams of lava had flowed into the gulf on one side, and into the ocean on the other. While the verdure was gone from the land, pumice covered the sea for a hundred and fifty miles.