The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1875-05-28

I
! sharp rocks in a fearful manner. Ste
/ vens said it fairly made his blood run
| cold. and he turned his head from the
! awful sight. Meanwhile Corchado had
! given the man at the MINDLESS a sign to
! lower faster, and Grasty's apparently
| lifeless and mutilated body soon reached
! the spot where they stood. His face
was severely bruised, and his clothing
i badly torn, while the blood was trick
| ling from his nose and ears, but he still
/ breathed. After an hours rubbing and
throwing of snow in his face he came
| to, and the whole party, now augmented
| by the arrival of a number of peOn
miners from below, descended the slop-
| ing side of the crater. COrchado and
| and his Indians led the way, slowly fol-
| lowed by Grasty, who was supported by
! Stevens, and a peOa. After they had
got about half way down the steep they
! experienced from the ice and stones
| great difficulty in travelling. The most
annoying thing, however, was, the con-
stant danger they were IN of being
crushed by the huge hunks of ice aud
rock that were continually rolling down.
This debris is the matter that is loosen
ed daily by the sun, whose warmth
strikes off its icy fetters and suffers
|
hours slippery descending they reached
THE BOTTOM OF THE PIT
about 4:3O in the afternoon of Thanks
giving day. It was now more than
fourteen hours since they had left the
timber line. During this time Jhey had
! assembled over 6, 600 feet to the summit,
and then descended 4, 800 feet into the
bowels of the volcano. That is, they
! IL
| feet, and three hours going down, IN
| cluding stoppages at the edges of the
| crater. Here they found hut made of
stones, inhabited by the sulphur min
ers. On arriving at the hut they imme-
| diately threw themselves upon pile of
mats and sought slumber, but they lay
| all the long night wearied and worn,
rolling and tossing in Intellectual at
! tempts to gain little sleep. The next
| morning CorchadO prepared breakfast.
and summoned them TO partake of it.
| Aside from drinking a cup of coffee,
| they could eat nothing. Their stOm-
| achs were not used to the treatment
| they had been receiving the past thirty
! six hours, and so refused TO be com
! fOrted. Their lungs, too, we're also In
! rebellion, and were disgusted with the
vapidity of the air and the gaseous ex-
| halations of the breathing holes.
! These they now visited, in company
with their kind and generous host.
! They are the mighty assures that ap-
pear in every direction in the bottom of
this vastcavity. They are not very broad,
but are deep. From these assures is
sued dense masses of vapor and smoke,
heavily laden with sublimated sulphur.
| This cOndenses as soon as the steam
strikes the cold air above, and then falls
in a fine sprinkle on the surrounding
| rocks. This process has been going on
for ages, until the whole interior of this
great orifce is thickly coated with a
remarkably fine quality of the flour of
sulphur This is In quantities that are
| inexhaUstible, and some day will pro-
! duce q colossal fortune for its owner,
| Gen. OchO. Forty miners are now en-
gagged in excavating and hoisting it to
the top of the crater.
To return to the chasms, however.
The party visited the largest and gazed
down into it. They could see no bot
tom for it ended in stygian darkness.
They rolled a huge stone into its ragged
throat. A series of reports, caused by
the missile bounding from side to size
of the pit, came back, loud at first, but
gradually diminishing until they died
away III gu6 awful uCpbuS DGlO"s 4u6
other holes were vomiting steam and
making a great noise, which at times
seemed like the slow and lab0ring thrOb
of CyclOpean enginery. At others It
sounded like the believing and skriek-
ing of devils. Having new seen every
thing that could be seen, they bid their
new made but lOng-tO- -be-Temembered
friend, COrchadO, farewell, and set ont
to return, accompanied by four Indians.
THE ASCENT.
The 3, 800 feet climb to the end of the
rope was a fearful Job, but the ascent
by the rope was still worse. They we're
compelled to kick and push against the
cliff necessarily to prevent being drag
ged to pieces on the sharp rocks. They
| got to the top In safety, however, and
there found more poems TO take them to
the climber line." They made the de-
scent by sitting down on piece of thick
mating, with an Indian seated behind
each of them, to steer this novel vehicle
, while sliding down the mountain, over
i the snow and ice. They descended six
miles in less than twenty minutes.
One time, while buried in a thick
| snow-laden cloud, they came near slip
| ping into the BdTrdncG del lllLeTte, a
! chasm 5000 feet deep. On reaching
| their horses at La Cruz, and then rode
| to TlamRcas. When met them scarce
/ ly recognized them, they we're 80 hag
| gard, sunburnt, bruised and dirty.
| When COrtez conquered Mexico, PO-
! pocapetl was In a state of combustion,
| and throwing out vast volumes Of smoke,
which could be seen for hundred miles
| in every direction. Now the quantity
| is so small that it can be seen only after
arriving at its base. The first white
man to ascend it was Francisco MODta-
no. in 1919. He was sent TO the crater
| for a supply of sulphur for COrtez, and
! to impress the Aztecs with the courage
of the Spaniards. Since then numerous
! ascensions have been made by eminent
gavans, travellers, aud adventuTers from
| Europe and the United States. Mrs.
! John W. Foster, the wife Of our minis
! ter, and Mrs. Arthur Terry, of COnnecti-
/ cut, are the only women that ever scaled
! Popocatapetl to it's top, and Col. $. q.
! Grasty and Harry Stevens, of Cleveland,
are the only foreigners that ever de-
/ seended to the bottom of the crater, and
| there passed the night.
| The last eruption of POpocatapetl
| occurred, according to an ancient Aztec
| Maguey paper MS. now in the posses
/ sion of Senor Ramerez, of Macamecca,
/ about the middle of the fourteenth cen
/ tury, nearly 10 years before the Span