Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-04-15
crater. So they lay all the long night

CIatci. ~ tAOy ray dA Guc long night
wearied and worn, rolling and tossing IN
Intellectual attempts to gain little sleep.
About twelve o'clock Stevens felt Grasty
crawling over him for the door. He
asked him where he was going, and
Grasty replied in rather queer manner
that he was going out to get some fresh
air. Stevens thereupon followed him,
shook him by the shoulder and said :
Halo, Colonel what's the matters"
Grasty turned around in wild and con-
fused manner, and wanted to know how
he had got out there. 1t was plain that
his long fast and great fatigue had
brought on light hallucinatlon. He
aroused himself and they remained
where they were and observed the
CHASTITY effect of the moonlight on the
gigantic and fire-split walls of the
crater. The moon was nearly overhead
anu poured her effulgent beams directly
into the crater, the rim OF which, so far
overhead that it made their necks ache
to look SO high, was silvered with ever
lasting snow and looked like great ring
or halo against the black sky. The south
crn sides rose precipitously for thousands
upon thousands of feet while those of
the north were sloping to within thou
sand or fifteen hundred feet of the sum
nit. The bottom was the surface of q
mighty caldron of lava that had gradu-
ally cooled until it now presented the ap-
pearance of small plain, circular in
form and covered with small mounds and
crossed in every direction by great cracks
In some OF the darkest of the caves and
crevices of their rocky environment
could be seen little streams of liquid sui
phur trickling down the stones, and in
other places pools Of the same, coated
with an etfiorescence of sublimated sui
phur. AS the vapor and blue flames
darted up from these fiery little lakes,
and floated skyward, they appeared to
Grasty and Stevens like demon spirits
from hell, wingiHg their midnight way
to spread contagion to the slumbering
world without. Impressed with the
horrors of this unearthly region, they
returned to the hut, and once more
buried themselves in the cherries mats,
and there shivered and groaned till nine
o'clock the next morning. Corchado
then prepared breakfast, and summoned
them to partake of it. Aside from
drinking cup of coffee they could eat
nothing. Their inner men were not
used to the treatment they had been re-
ceiving the past thirty-six hours, and so
refused to be comforted. Their lungs
too, were also in rebellion, and were dis
gusted with the vapidity of the air and
| the gaseous eXhalations of the " breath
ing holes.'
These they now visited in company
with their kind and generous host They
are the mighty assures that appear in
every direction in the bottom of this vast
cavity They are not very broad, but
ooh, jimminy" they are deep. From these
assures issued dense masses of vapor
and smoke, which are 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 orifice is
thickly coated with remarkably fine
quality of the flour of sulphur. This is
in quantities that are inexhaustible, and
some day will produce colossal fortune
| for its owner, Gen. Ochoa. Forty miners
are now engaged in excavating and hoist
| ing 1t 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 bottom,
for it ended in Stygian darkness. They
rolled huge stone into its ragged throat
A series OF reports, caused by the missile
bounding from side to side of the pit,
came back, loud at first but gradually
diminishing until they died away in the
awful depths below. Who knows where
that rock went to? The other holes, like
helPs nostrils, were vomiting steam and
making great noise, which at times
COZ IL ulA al I,l ~ 4,
OF Cyclopean enginery. At others it
sounded like the Kisses of antediluvian
serpents; again like the believing and
shrieking OF devils. Having now seen
everything that could be seen they babe
bered, friend, Corchado, farewell, and
set out to return, accompanied by four
Indians
The $500 feet climb to the end of the
rope was fearful job, but the ascent by
| the rope was stil worse. They were
compelled to kick and push against the
| to pieces on the sharp rocks. They got
| to the top in safety, however, and there
| found more poems to take them to the
| by sitting down on piece of thick mat
tluS Will al luuiaH Scdteu Dcllluu SdCu
of them to steer this novel vehicle while
sliding down the mountain, over the
snow and ice. They went like the wind,
and accomplished six miles in less than
| twenty minutes.
One time, while buried in thick,
snow-laden cloud, they came near slip
ping into the Barranca del Muerte, u
chasm 5000 feet deep. On reaching the
end of the w-fields they found their
horses at La Cruz and then rode to Tala-
macas. When l met them | scarcely
recognized them, they were so haggard,
sunburnt, bruised and dirty.