The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1875-04-29

| they stood. His face was severely bruis-
| ed, and his clothing badly torn, while
| the blood was trickling from his nose
and ears, but he still hreathed. After
all 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 sloping side of the crater.
| Corchado and his Indians led the way,
slowly followed by Grasty, who was sup
ported by Stevens and @ peon. 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
| constant danger they were In of being
| crushed by the huge hunks of ice and
rock that were continually rolling down.
This debris is the matter that is loosened
| daily by the sun, whose warmth strikes
off its icy fetters and suffers gravity to
have its way. After two hours slippery
descending they reached
THE BOTTOM OF THE PIT
about $50 in the afternoon of Thanks
giving day. It was now more that four
teen hours since they had left the timber
line. During this time they had ascend
ed over 5000 feet to the summit, and
then descended 4, 500 feet into the bow
els of the volcano. That is, they were
about eleven hours going up 5000 feet,
and three hours going down, including
stoppages at the edges of the crater.
Here they found a hut made of stones,
inhabited by the sulphur miners. On
arriving at the hut they immediately
threw threw themselves upon pile of
mats and sought slumber, but they lay
all the long night wearied and worn,
rolling and tossing in Intellectual attempts
to gain little sleep. The next morn
irg Corchado prepared breakfast, and
summoned them to partake of it. Aside
from drinking cup of coffee, they could
eat nothing. Their stomachs were not
used to the treatment they had been
receiving the past thirty six hours, and
SO refused to be comforted. Their lungs
too, were also in rebellion. and were
disgusted with the rapidity 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 are deep. From
these assures issued dense masses of
vapor and smoke, heavily laden with
subllmated sulphur. This condenses as
soon as the steam strikes the cold air
above, and then falls in fine sprinkle on
the surrounding rocks. This process
has been going on for ages, until the
whole interior of this great orifce is
tliickly coated with remarkably fine
quality of the -four of sulphur. This is
| in quantities that are inexhaustible, and
some day will produce a colossal fortune
for it's owner, Gen. Ocho. Forty MIN
ers are now engaged in excavating and
hoisting it to the top of the crater.
To return to the chasams, 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 huge stone into It's 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. The
| other holes were vomiting steam and
making great noise, which at times
seemed like the slow and laboring throb
OF Cycopean enginery. At others it
sounded like the believing and shrek
| ing of devils. Having now seen every
thing that could be seen, they bid their
new-made but long remembered friend,
Corchado, farewell, and set out to re-
turn, accompanied by four Indians.
THE ASCENT.
The $500 feet climb to the end of the
rope was fearful job, but the ascent by
the rope was SILL worse They were
compelled to kick and push against the
cliff incessently to prevent being drag
ged to pieces on the sharp rocks They
| got to the top in safety, however, and
there found more 2oeO,as to take them to
the timber line They made the de-
scent by sitting down on piece of mat
| ting, with an Indian seated behind each
of them. to steer this novel vehicle while
sliding down the mountain, over the
snow and ice. They decended six miles
in less than twenty minutes
One time, while buried in thick snow
laden cloud, they came near slipping
into the Ba1ro,ac0 del Naterte, a chasm
5000 feet deep. On reaching the end
of the snow fields they found 5heir hors-
es at La Cruz, and then rode to Tlama-
cas-. When l met them [ scarcely rec
ognized them, they were SO haggard,
sunburnt, bruised and dirty.
! When Cortez conquered Mexico, Po-
| pOcatapeti was IN a state OF combustion,
and throwing out vast volumes OF smoke,
which could be seen for q 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 Montana,
| 1919. He was sent to the crater for 8
supply of sulphur for Cortez, and to i'm
press the Axtecs with the courage of the
Spaniards. Since then numerous as
censions have been made by eminent sa-
vans, travellers, and adventurers from
Europe and the United States. Mrs.
John W. Foster, the wife of our minis
ter. and Mrs. Arthur Terry, of Connect
icut, are the only women that ever scaled
Popocatapetl to it's top, and Col. S. G.
Grasty aud Harry Stevens, of Cleveland,
are the only foreigners that ever decend
| ed to the bottom of the crater, and there
| passed the night.
| The last er1lption of Popocatapeu Oc