Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/318

Rh From this unfrequented spot we turned towards the Antigua, passing between the two celebrated volcanoes. In this situation the mountains exhibit themselves in aspects singularly interesting; the one towering to a height of above fourteen thousand feet, presents a rich and diversified soil, clothed with verdure to the very summit, and girded by a belt of thick forests,—the other rising to an elevation equal if not superior, exhibits its three bare and rugged peaks, covered with dried lava and ashes, still trembling under the working of the mighty furnace within, and breathing out a column of pale blue smoke, which perpetually ascends fmm its crater. The contrast is striking,—the horrible and the beautiful in nature, are not often to be met with so closely united, or linked together as these are by the junction of their bases. The greater part of the road between the two, bears evident marks of the violent shocks to which it has been subject; immense chasms formed by the opening of the hills, still remain in the rude state in which nature left them, when she convulsively tore them asunder; huge stones seem to have been hurled in every direction, and lay in the wildest confusion; while in some parts the deep bed of ashes, and cinders, and scorified lava, which at different times have been vomited forth, produce an appearance of desolation, strangely opposed to other