thousand small burning cones, thirty six leagues from the seashore, and forty two leagues from any other volcano. This phenomenon remained unknown to the mineralogists and natural philosophers of Europe, though it took place but fifty years ago, and within six days journey of the capital of Mexico.

Descending from the central flat towards the coasts of the Pacifick ocean, a vast plain extends from the bills of Aguasarco to the villages of Toipa, and Patatlan, equally celebrated for their fine cotton plantations. Between the picachos del Mortero and the cerras de las Cuevas and de Cuiche, this plain is only from 750 to 800 met. [820 to 880 yards] above the level of the sea. Basaltick hills rise in the midst of a country, in which porphyry with base of greenstone predominates. Their summits are crowned with paks always in verdure, and the foliage of laurels and olives intermingled with dwarf fan palms. This beautiful vegetation forms a singular contrast with the arid plain, which has been laid waste by volcanick fire.

To the middle of the eighteenth century, fields of sugar canes and indigo extended between two rivulets, called Cuitimba and San Pedro. They were skirted by basaltick mountains, the structure of which seems to indicate, that all the country, in remote periods, has several times experienced the violent action of volcanos. These fields, irrigated by art, belonged to the estate of San Pedro de Jorullo (Xorullo, or Juvriso) one of the largest and most valuable in the country. In the month of June, 1759, fearful rumbling noises were accompanied with frequent shocks of an earthquake, which succeeded each other at intervals for fifty or sixty days, and threw the inhabitants of the estate into the greatest consternation. From the beginning of the month of September, every thing seemed perfectly

quiet, when, in the night of the 28th of that month, a terrible subterranean noise was heard anew. The frightened Indians fled to the mountains of Aguasarco. A space of three or four square miles, known by the name of Malpays, rose in the shape of a bladder. The boundaries of this rising are still distinguishable in the ruptured strata. The Malpays towards the edge is only 12 met. [18 yards] above the former level of the plain, called las playas de Jorullo; but the convexity of the ground increases progressively toward the centre, till it reaches the height of 160 met. [175 yards.]

They who witnessed this grand catastrophe from the top of Aguasarco assert, that they saw flames issue out of the ground for the space of more than half a league square; that fragments of redhot rocks were thrown to a prodigious height; and that through a thick cloud of ashes, illumined by the volcanick fire, and resembling a stormy sea, the softened crust of the earth was seen to swell up. The rivers of Cuitimba and San Pedro then precipi tated themselves in the burning crevices. The decomposition of the water contributed to reanimate the flames, which were perceptible at the city of Pascuoro, though standing on a very wide plain 1400 met, [1530 yards] above the level of the playas de Jorullo. Eruptions of mud, particularly of the strata of clay, including decomposed nodules of ba saltes with concentrick layers, seem to prove, that subterranean waters had no small part in this extraordina ry revolution. Thousands of small cones, only two or three yards high, which the Indians call ovens, issued from the raised dome of the Malpays. Though the heat of these volcanick ovens has diminished greatly within these fifteen years, according to the testimony of the Indians, I found the thermometer rise to 95o [if centig. 203° F. in the crevices that emitted an aqueous vapour. Each

little cone is a chimney, from which a thick smoke rises to the height of ten or fifteen met. [11 or 16 yards.] In several, a subterranean noise is heard like that of some fluid boiling at no great depth.

Amid these ovens, in a fissure, the direction of which is from N. N. E. to S. S. W. six large hummocks rise 400 or 500 met. [440 or 550 yards] above the old level of the plain. This is the phenomenon of Monte Novo at Naples repeated several times in a row of volcanick hills. The loftiest of these huge hummocks, which reminded me of the country of Auvergne, is the large volcano of Jorullo. It is constantly burning, and has thrown out, on the north side, an immense quantity of scorified and basaltick lava, including fragments of primitive rocks. These grand eruptions of the central volcano continued till February, 1760. In the succeeding years they became gradually less frequent. The Indians, alarmed by the horrible noise of the new volcano, at first deserted the villages for seven or eight leagues round the plain of Jorullo. In a few months they became familiar with the alarming sight, returned to their huts, and went down to the mountains of Aguasarco and Santa Ines, to admire the sheaves of fire thrown out by an infinite number of large and small volcanick openings. The ashes then covered the houses of Queretoro, more than 48 leagues [120 miles] in a right line from the place of the explosion. Though the subterranean fire appears to be in no great activity at present, and the Malpays and the great volcano begin to be covered with vegetables, we found the air so heated by the little ovens, that in the shade, and

at a considerable distance from the ground, the thermometer rose to 43° [109.4° F.] This fact evinces, that there is no exaggeration in the report of some of the old Indians, who say, that the plains of Jorullo were uninhabitable for several years, and even to a considerable distance from the ground raised up, on account of the excessive heat.

Near the cerro of Santa Ines the traveller is still shown the rivers of Cuitimba and San Pedro, the limpid waters of which formerly refreshed the sugar canes on the estate of Don Andrew Pimantel. These springs were lost in the night of the 29th of September, 1759: but 2000 met. [near 2200 yards] to the westward, in the soil that has been elevated, two rivulets are seen to break out of the clayey dome of the furnaces, exhibiting themselves as therinal waters, in which the thermometer rises to 52-7° [126-86°F.] The Indians still give these the names of San Pedro and Cuitimba, because in several parts of the Malpays large bodies of water are supposed to be heard running from east to west, from the mountains of Santa Ines to the estate of the Presentation. Near this estate is a brook, that emits sulphuretted hidrogen gas. It is more than 7 met. [near 8 yards] wide, and is the most copious hidrosulphurous spring I ever saw.

In the opinion of the natives, these extraordinary changes I have described, the crust of earth raised and cracked by volcanick fire, the mountains of scoriæ and ashes heaped up, are the works of monks; the greatest, no doubt, they ever produced in either hemisphere. Our Indian host, at the hut we inhabited in the plain of Jorullo, told us, that some missionary capuchins preached at the

estate of San Pedro, and, not meeting a favourable reception, uttered the most horrible and complicated imprecations against this plain, then so beautiful and fertile. They prophesied, that the estate should first be swallowed up by flames issuing out of the bowels of the earth; and that the air should afterward be cooled to such a degree, that the neighbouring mountains should remain for ever covered with ice and snow. The first of these maledictions having been so fatally verified, the common people foresee, in the gradual cooling of the volcano, the presage of a perpetual winter. I have thought it right to mention this vulgar tradition, worthy a place in the epic poem of the jesuit Landivar, because it exhibits a striking feature of the manners and prejudices of these remote countries. It shows the active industry of a class of men, who, too frequently abusing the credulity of the people, and pretending to possess the power of suspending the immutable laws of nature, know how to avail themselves of every event for establishing their empire by the fear of physical evil. The situation of the new volcano of Jorullo leads to a very curious geological observation. It has alrea dy been observed in the 3d chapter, that there is, in New Spain, a line of great heights, or a narrow zone included between the latitudes of 18° 59 and 19° 12', in which are all the summits of Anahuack that rise above the region of perpetual snow. These summits are either volcanos still actually burning; or mountains, the form of which, as well as the nature of their rocks, renders it extremely probable, that they formerly contained subterranean fire. Setting out from the coast of the gulf of Mexico, and proceeding westward, we find the peak of Oribaza, the

two volcanos of la Puebla, the Nevado de Toluca, the peak of Tancitaro, and the volcano of Colima. These great heights, instead of forming the ridge of the cordillera of Anahuack, and following its direction, which is from S. E. to N. W. are, on the contrary, in a line perpendicular to the axis of the great chain of mountains. It is certainly worthy remark, that in the year 1759 the new volcano of Jorullo was formed in the continuation of this line, and on the same parallel as the ancient Mexican volcanos.

A view of my plan of the environs of Jorullo will show, that the six large hummocks have risen out of the earth on a vein, that crosses the plain from the cerro of las Cuevas to the pichaco del Montero. The new mouths of Vesuvius, too, are found ranged along a fissure. Do not these analogies give us reason to suppose, that there exists in this part of Mexico, at a great depth within the earth, a fissure stretching from east to west_through a space of 137 leagues [343 miles] and through which the volcanick fire has made its way at different times, bursting the outer crust of porphyritick rocks, from the coasts of the gulf of Mexico to the South Sea? Is this fissure prolonged to that little groupe of islands, called by Colluet, the Archipelago of Regigedo, and round which, in the same parallel with the Mexican volcanos, pummice stone has been seen floating? Naturalists who distinguish the facts offered by descriptive mineralogy from theoretical reveries concerning the primitive state of our planet, will pardon me for having consigned these observations to the general map of New Spain, contained in the Mexican Atlas.

THE SENSITIVE PLANT. THE sensitive plant is well known by the peculiar property which it has of giving indications of sensibility, nay almost of life, when touched by any substance. M. M. Dufay and Duhamel, two ingenious Frenchmen, have bestowed particular attention on the phenomena of this plant, and have enriched the memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences, for 1736, with the curious result of the experiments they made upon the subject. Their experiments drew the following lines from the pen of Voltaire :

Le sage Dufay parmi ses plants divers; Végétaux rassemblés des bouts de l'uni

vers,

Me dira-t-il, pourquoi la tendre Sensitive Se fletrit sous nos mains, honteuse et fugitive ?

A princess, who was acquainted with the peculiar property of this simple, persuaded her maids of honour, while taking the air with them in a garden where the sensitive plant was very abundant, that it would only recede from the touch of such as had forfeited their virgin ity. "In proof of what I say," she added, "you will perceive that when I, who am a married woman, touch it, the plant will shrink." The result of course verified the prediction, and much astonished the ladies. But their surprise was increased, when one among them, a reputed virgin, having laid her finger on the leaf, caused it to draw back. We doubt much whether the other damsels followed up the experiment.

ORIENTAL SENSITIVE PLANT.

In the East Indies grows another species of sensitive plant, which not only inclines its leaves when touched by any foreign substance, but turns its stock in conformity to the course of the sun, in the same manner as the

sunflower. A philosopher of Malabar, like a second Aristotle, ran mad because he could not explain the origin of this plant's singular properties.

THE MOVING PLANT.

Nature, ever admirable in her productions, possesses treasures in all countries. There has long been cultivated in our botanical gardens, a perfect vegetable prodigy, called "the Moving Plant." Some superstitious persons have attributed extraordinary virtues and qualities to the moving plant. June 15, a plant of this species was fifteen inches, in height: its motions which are truly singular, did not commence until the middle of May, in the same year. These motions proceed from an internal impetus, whereas those of the sensitive plant are the result of external impulsion. The operations of this singular plant, are impeded by a tolerably strong blast of wind, which has the effect of instantaneously suspending its movements and agitations. The moving plant has its leaves divided into three parts. The extremity of the leaf is broad, and from the different positions which it assumes during the day, it is evident that the course of the sun has a strong influence upon it. Its most remarkable movements are collateral, but they do not always exactly accord with the motion of the great planet.

QUINQUINA.

The following is a brief history of this plant. A considerable time previous to the arrival of the Europeans, chance made the Indians acquainted with the febrifuge virtues of Quinquina. They long withheld the secret from the knowledge of the Spaniards, whom they detested; and it was not until the year 1640

that any of the article was brought to Europe. Although as a remedy in feverish cases, quinquina is now accounted infallible; a considerable period elapsed before it obtained any repute. The vice-queen being attacked by a violent fever, the corregidor of Loxa sent her some of the drug, which she took, and was speedily cured; after which she distributed it among her friends; who

denominated it "The Countess's Powder." About the year 1649, the procurator-general of the Jesuits in America visited Europe, and on his arrival at Rome, prevailed upon the members of his order to give publicity to this specifick, of which he had provided himself with a large stock. Every Jesuit now cured fevers as it were by the power of magick. The quinquina, accordingly, received a new name, and was thenceforward called "The Powder of the Fathers," or, " Jesuit's Bark." Some physicians, who were wholly unacquainted with the peculiar virtues of the remedy, ridiculed and decried the use of it, and, indeed, the high price at which the Jesuits sold it tended not a little to impede its dissemination. It was at this period, that Italy was deluged with pamphlets under the titles of "The Funeral of Quinquina," "The Resurrection of Quinquina," &c. &c. In 1679, however, one Talbot, an Englishman, by dint of vaunting the utility of this specifick, and exaggerating its admirable properties, succeeded in once more bringing it it into vogue. In the following year, a comedy in three acts was brought out at the ancient Italian theatre, entitled, "The English Nostrum, or Harlequin Prince of Quinquina.” A new secret was now founded upon this famous drug, which Lewis XIV. purchased at an enormously high price. At the present day, however, every apothecary's apprentice is acquainted with the uses of Jesuit's bark.

CHINESE PRODUCTION,

Alternately Plant and Animal. Hias-Taa-Tomchom, is the name of the most extraordinary plant that has hitherto been discovered in China. The appellation implies, that during the summer the plant is a vegetable, but that at the approach of winter it becomes a worm; and, indeed, on closely inspecting it, nothing can be conceived to present a more lively representation of a small reptile than it does. The colour is a dirty yellow, its length about nine inches, and the head, body, eyes, legs, and both sides of the trunk appear to be most accurately formed. This plant grows in Tibet, and is very rare. Its medicinal virtues are nearly the same as those of ginseng, with this differ ence, that, like the latter, the frequent use of it does not engender hemorrhage; it fortifies the stomach, and is a grand restorative of debilitated constitutions. The manner in which the Chinese administer it is this: they take five drams of the plant, root and all, with which they stuff the craw of a duck, and roast the latter by a slow fire. When the bird is dressed, the drug is taken out, its virtue being transfused into the flesh of the duck, which is to be eaten morning and evening, for the space of ten days. This remedy is never employed except at the court of Pekin, on account of the great rarity of the plant.

EUROPEAN PRODUCTIONS Not inferiour to the Chinese: or Animals the Offspring of Plants, and vice versa. This Chinese Hias-Taa-Tomchom may be thought sufficiently wonderful; but the wonder it excites will be abated by our ascribing the notion of a change so extraordinary to the inaccurate observation and unphilo. sophical speculations of the oriental naturalists. Well, then, it is but justice to those sages to inquire what have been the opinions or con