Page:Appleton's Guide to Mexico.djvu/263

Rh farm of San Pedro rested. The hill, which I have indicated in my plan, forms a ridge directed east and west, and its preservation at the foot of the great volcano is most astonishing. Only a part of it is covered with dense sand (burned lapilli). The projecting basaltic rock grown over with ancient trunks of Ficus Indica and Psidium, is certainly, like that of the Cerro del Mirador and the high mountain-masses which bound the plain to the eastward, to be regarded as having existed before the catastrophe."

Referring to the eruption of the volcano, Humboldt remarks that the natives ascribe these wonderful changes in the earth's surface to the work of the monks. At the Playas the Jorullo, the Indian, whose hut the German traveler occupied, told him that in 1759 the Capuchins belonging to the mission preached at San Pedro, but failed to receive hospitable treatment. Accordingly, they pronounced anathemas upon this beautiful and fertile plain, predicting that first of all the houses would be destroyed by flames, which would issue from the earth, and that afterward the surrounding air would cool to such a degree that the neighboring mountains would, remain eternally covered, with snow and ice. The former of these maledictions having been verified, the lower class of Indians already see in the gradual cooling of the volcano the presage of a perpetual winter.

Should the tourist wish to visit the hornitos that have just been described, it may be said that they are about 12 miles from Puerta de la Playa. There is no hamlet in the vicinity. The famous copper-mines of San Pedro de Jorullo are about 15 miles distant. These ore deposits were worked before the Conquest, and consist of the sulphides and oxides of copper. Several tunnels have been driven into the side of the mountain about 2,000 feet above the adjacent plain. There is from 25 to 60 per cent of metal in the copper pyrites; and from 80 to 100 arrobas of ore are extracted monthly, and carried by mules to Santa Clara (see p. 221).