The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-11-17
PDP0CAEEP
Fast Travelling Down the Side of a nexI-
can Volcano.

! Another of Mexico's wonders is the lofty
volcano that lifts it snow-clad peak 900 feet
name Of this grand old giant, ono must take
breath before starting -Popocatepetl, which,
in our simple English, means ''the smoking,
ilaming n9untan:' ! have stood on the
! loftiest peak OF this mountain, and looked
down upon the City of Mexico, embedded
amidst it's silvery lakes, on one side, upon
Puebla on another, and upon the distant ORR
zaba on third, through an atmosphere so
rare that the blood oozed from our ears, our
noses and even from the eyes of some OF our
party. At times, the clouds are away below
| you at others they envelOp you as In an i'm
penetrable veil, and again not q cloud
may be seen, only an immense blue dome
overhead-the most impressive idea OF bound
less space have ever seen. | have been down
| the crater Of this wonderful volcano 1000 feet
deep and 1900 wide, amidst never ceasing
smoke, fire and sulphur. One goes springing
sides are reached. There you find windlass
with a long rope, which lowers you down to
the bed OF the crater where the Indians are
busy gathering the sulphur AS you bend to
look at the beautiful sample your guide shows
you suddenly hear the roar Of 10, 600 batteries
OF artillery that makes you as pale as death.
Quick as thought the Indian pulls you rough
ly by the arm and crowds you behind bould-
er, while the huge landslip PUSHES past you;
ing one visit. Again, with rattling OF loudest
thunders down comes one of the very same
huge boulders, upon which but half an hour
ago you stood, and as you jump to clear It's
track, your foot cracks the thin surface that
covers the lake of burning sulphur beneath
and your Indian shouts Justify as he pulls
you from perdition. One has to be ali the
time lodging here, lodging there-now en-
yeloped in smoke, now choking with the
fumes Of sulphur, and again scorched by the
letting flames that spring up here and spring
up there, like mriad Of fiery demons reach
ing forth to drag you to their hell-hone. This
may possibly be the entrance to that mys-
ferrous region, the existence of which the elo-
quent Bob Ingersoll does not believe in, and
it Is certainly worthy of a visit by him
Once again safe on the peak above, you may
sit on the edge OF the crater, with one leg cold
in the perpetual snow that covers the steep
mountain seaside, and the other hot in the
sulphurous fumes and smoke that rises from
the perpetual fires below. The ascent of this
lofty peak occupies, from the snow line some
slx or seven h0urs1say about five thousand
feet up an angle of little less than fort give
degrees. The Indian guide goes ahead and
you follow, alpenstock in hand, carefully
putting your feet in the little step he cuts In
the snow. Every ten minutes at most you
have to rest for breath.
Once on the summit, the view, it's grandeur, |
Is simply Impossible to be described, and you
can but stand in mute wonder, gazing upon
the wee world below you, and the immensity
Of space around, above you.
Then when you have looked and wondered
your fill, now for the descent. Your Indian
guide sits on a little mat, six feet long, two
feet wide with his heels well into the snow,
and "a stick between his knees. The stick and
heels pressed into the snow hold him firmly |
in his position. You then sit down behind |
him, throw your legs around his body and /
over his Outstretched thighs, and clasp him |
tightly about the chest with your arms An
other places himself in the same position be-
hind you, and more yet, until four or five are |
in place. Slowly, cautiously, he starts sliding |
downward for hundred yards, gradually |
gaining in velocity. Then with suddenness
that startles, he shouts ''cuidado vamonos p
look out; we are goingD and away you fly
over the snow; down, down. as If you would |
never again stop this side Of the other world. |
Within fifty yards Of the snow line, the In
dian dips pole and heel gradually into the !
snow and exactly where the snow ends and |
the sand begins there you stop.
Those 5000 feet you descend in about four
minutes. But the Indian guides so thorough
ly know their work that there is not the |
rernotest danger in visiting Popocatepetl, and |
il the visitor has the good fortune to meet the
proprietor of the sulphur mine, the gallant |
Cen Sanchez Ochoa, chief Of Mexico's engi- |
neer corps, then his visit will be made
pleasant one, one long to be remembered by
the traveller.