The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-07-23

grade of about forty-ive degrees, and
then reversing ran up about the same
grade and distance iD the other diree-
ton, presenting a series of acute angles
ike an enormous rait-fence. Just as
Mr. Whitehouse was turning one of
these corners, where the slope of the
mountain side was almost perpendicu-
lar, his horse stepped upon a rotten log,
which concluded to roll down the preci-
pice, and he and his horse went too.
Nobody saw this decidedly novel aero
batic adventure. 1t was too dark to see
your hand before You. face; we were
creeping along, feeling our way step by
step, with arms outstretehed to prevent
contact between the trees and our
heads ,s,.., .zs,.~s.S -.
J After making what may be called a
cursory examination of the surround
ings, Mr.. Whitehouse clambered up the
bank, where council of war was held,
and it was determined to postpone fur
ther operations on that line until day.
light. So we sat down around fire
and discussed things until the light
began to filter shrough the forest Then
the climb was resumed and we got out
of the woods just in time to see the sun
rise out of what looked ike world full
of soapsuds. The mountain rose like
an island in a shoreless sea of clouds.
great banks of foamy vapor rolling and
plunging in the wind that always rises
with the dawn, as the surf does on the
shoals. 1t was a picture one does not
often see, and there are no words in my
vocabulary that viii convey an adequate
idea of its appearance. If one could
fill the world with foam like that which
hovers over the foot of Niagara Falls it
would look something like it.
The wind was bitter cold, and it
swept oyerthe volcano with aferceness
that penetrated our very bones. but the
SUMS rays were hot and piercing, and
soon burned out the clouds, in which
the wind assisted, and the picture
turned into scenic panorama which
has few equals in the world. Below us
was spread out all Costa Rica, and the
surf-fringed shore of two oceans. Sky,
sea and lands were one vast rainbow,
mingling tints of blue and green, and
and the most unpoetic eyes could not
behold it without awe and wonder.
Mountains seemed to hang in the air
as the clouds surrounded them, long
lines of unbroken forests stretched
away into mirage which seemed to
show the earth inverted, the fields of
sugar-cane, a brilliant, livid green,
looked like strings of gigantic emeralds
OF, the earth's bosom, while the yellow
fields of corn, half harvested, resembled
sand hills, rolling and weltering under
the tropic sun. Here and there were
clusters of houses, with white churches
rising in their midst, and streams link
ing them together like silver bands.
Far off on the horizon, which sur
rounded the picture like a circular
frame, it was difficult to tell where the
sky and the ocean met, their colors
blending imperceptibly. We would not
have known the two seas were there
had not the expectation of view of both
the Atlantic and the Pacific from the
same point been one of the objects of
the climb, this being the only spot in
the world from which both oceans are
visible. The guide said he could dis
tinguish the sky from the water, but l
could not, and only knew that the seas
were there because the lines where the
dark green forests ended and the blue
began were broken and irregular.
Following the crest of a ridge of
pumice stone and ashes, which had
been thrown out in ages past. and were
as regularly piled as if the hands of men
had dumped them there, we looked
down on one side into a, gorge three
thousand feet deep, to the foot of which
stone would roll without meeting an
impediment; and on the other into
basin formed by the mountain side, and
the heaps of ashes that lay in regular
winrow around it--a basin about five
hundred feet deep and quarter of mile
across from the top of one bank to the
top of tire other. The bottom was
with craters, where it
looked as if the earth had broken through
in irregular circles. There were seven
or eight of these eraters, some of them
centuries old, thelast aud largest having
opened within the memory of living !
men. The older ones were black and |
half filed with ashes cast from those of |
later origin, while '1the new one' as it |
is called perhaps quarter Of eenGug
rY old-was bottomless as far as we
could see, and is walls were yenow with
sulphur and white with half-burned |
limestone. 1t was dangerous to go near
the edge for the banks are concave,
and thin crusts gof earth reach over
them; but we cast huge stones over and I
heard them strike the sides of the crater.
as they went down into an abyss which /
man has never measured. How long |
they were in reaching the bottom and
what they found when they got there |
would be interesting to know, but this
volcano has never been scientifically ex
amined, and very few people have ever
been to the crater's edge,
We were glad we went while we were +
down there, but were sorry when we |
tried 10 60 back, for the walls at the +
basin are loose ashes, light and fiinty, |
and our feet snnk into them almost to I
The knees. It was fun coming down.
sliding Snd leapihg into the soft sub
but going up twas . task. that
At times seemed to be beyond endur-
af1ce. The ashes were fresh and crisp, /
and there was no signof vegetation for
q distance of thousand feet or more
down the outside bank, against which /
the wind was constantly blowing,