The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-05-20

utMc4lty IN tnvelng. The most an
H4.y1ng thing. however. WAS the constant
danger they were in of being crushed
Iby' the huge hunks Of ice and rock that
yer" continually rolling down. The
debris is the matter that is loosened
dolly by: the.sun, whose warmth str;xos
on 1ti 10y fetters and suffers gravity to
eaye its way, After two hours slippery
descending, they reached the bottom Of
the pit. About 4.30 in the afternoon of
Thanksgiving Day. 1t was now more
thnn fourteen hours since they had left
the r,nch OH the timber line. During
this time they had assembled over 5000
feet to the summit, and then descended
4,5OO feet into the bowels Of the Volcano.
Ihatsls, they were about eleven hours
going up 5000 feet, and three hours
going down, including stoppnges at the
edge of the crater. Here they found n
hut m"do of stones, inhabited by the
sulphur miners. On arriving ut the hut
they immediately threw themselves upon
a, pile OF mats and sought slumber, but
they lay ail tho long night weariel and
worn, rolling and tossing in Intellectual
attempts to gain little sleep. The next
morning Corchado prepared breakfast,
and summoned them to pnrtake of It.
Aside from drinking n cup of coffee,
they could eat nothing. Their stomachs
were not used to the treatment they had
been receiving the past thirty-Bix hours,
and so refused to be comforted. Their
lungs, too, were also in rebellion. and
were disgusted with tho vapidity of the
mir md the gaseous exhulations of the
'brcnthiny holes" These they now
visited III company with their kind and
generous host. They are the mighty
flssurrs thnt appear in every direction in
the bottom of this vast cavity. They are
not very brond, but ure deep From
these assures issued dense masses of
vapor nnd smoke, heavily laden with
sublimated sulphur. This condenses M
soon as the steam strikes the cold mir
above, and then falls in q fine sprinkle
on the surrounding rocks. This process
has been going on for ages, until the
whole interior Of this great orifice is
thlckly coated with remarkably fine
quality of the -four of sulphur. This is
In Quantities that nre inexhaustible, and
some day will produce colossal fortune
for its owner, Gen. Ochon Forty miners
are now engaged i'll excnvating and hoist
ing it to the top of the crater
To return to the chnsms, however.
The party visited the largest and gnzed
down into it. They could see no bottom,
for 1t ended in styginn darkness. They
rolled huge stone into its ragged thront.
A series of reports, caused by the missile
bounding from side to side of the pit,
came back, loud Mt first, but gradunlly v
diminished until they died away in the
awful depths below. The other holes
were vomiting steam and making a great
noise, which, at times, seemed like the
slow and laboring throb of Cyclopcan
enginery. At others it sounded like tho
believing and shrieking of devils.
Having now seen everything that could
be seen, they bid their new-mndc, but
to-be-remembered friend, Corchado.
farewell, and set out to return, accompa-
MED by four Indians.
The $500 feet climb TO the end of the
rope was fearful job, but the ascent by
the rope was still worse. They were
compelled to kick and push against the
cliff incessantly to prevent being drag
god to pieces on the shnrp rocks They
got to the top in safety, however, and
there found more poems to take them to
the timber line" They made the de-
scent by sitting down on piece Of thick
mating. with IN Indinn seated behind
each oil them, to steer this novel vehicle
while sliding down the mountain, over
the snow and ice. They descended six
miles in less than twenty minutes. One
time, while buried in thick snow-ladcn
cloud, they came near slipping into the
Bdrrdacu del 3fuerte, q chnsm 3. 600 feet
deep. On reaching the end of the snow
fields they found their horses ut La Cruz
and then rode to Tlamacas.
When COrtcz conquered Mexico, Po-
pocatapetl was in state of combustion.
and throwing ont vast volumes of smoke.
which could be seen for 100 miles in
| every direction. Now the quantity is so
small that it cnn be seen only after arriv-
| ing Mt its base. The first white man to
ascend it wns Francisco Mentano, in
1919. He was sent TO the crater for a
supply of sulphur for Cortez, and to i'm
| press the hztecs with the courage of the
Spaniards. Since then numerous asccn-
sions have been made by eminent savans,
travellers and adventures from Europe
and the United States. Mrs. John w.
| Foster, the wife of our minister, and Mrs.
Arthur Terry, of Connecticut, are the
| only women that ever scaled Popoca-
tnpetl to it's top, and S. q. Grasty and
| Harry Stevens. of Cleveland, arc the only
foreigners thnt ever descended to the
bottom of the crater and there passed
the night
The last eruption of Popocntapetl oc-
| CURED, according to an ancient Aztec
Maguey paper MS. now in the posses
| sion of Senior Ramerez, of Mccainccca.
about the middle of the fourteenth cen
tury, nearly ITO years before the Spa
niard first trod the valley of Mexico.
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A London despatch says that Russia il
disgusted at the apathy of tho various
powers in the matter of nm International