The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-09-05
CLIMBING A VOLCANO.
One Of the Five Active Craters in
Costa RIGA.
A Graphic Description of q Perilous Ad.
venture-A Crater Never Examined
by Observation-Disclosures and
Accidents.

There are five active volcanoes in
Costa RIGA, according to the geography;
lrazu, which is IL, 500 feet high; Tur-
rialba, which is 10,35O; Poas. DeBarba,
and Mirravalees, which have not been
measured, and several smaller ones
whose craters have shown evidence of
former activity, but have emitted
nothing since the memory of man. To
be considered active volcano does not
have to keep belching out hre and smoke
all the time. for they must have vaca-
tons like the rest of us; but an extinct
one is that whose crater has been. per-
mitted to fill up with debris and never
shows signs of life.
Not having had the advantage of vol
canic acquaintance, and being ambi-
tious to look into the crater's mouth,
determined to explore Irazu, and in
company with Mr.. II. Remsen White
house, Secretary of the United States
Legation in Central America, made
the ascent
1t was an experience which will never
be forgotten, but which one would not
care to repeat. You can not go to the
summit of Irazu in a railway car like
Vesuvius, and no one has ever taken
the trouble to build carriage road,
therefore the journey is not recon-
mended to ladies, invalids, or timid
men; and one such trip will do the most
nerveful for lifetime.
We followed up cart road, thick
with dust for few miles, then entered
the cornfelds and rode through them
for several hours, stopping at the cabin
OF native to get corn for our horses
and cup of coffee for ourselves.
This was the last house on the noun
tain. and leaving it we went through q
pasture and struck into forest as dense
as forest can be. There was a good
moon and it lit up the tree tops with a
weird and fantastic light, while the
great festOons of moss which hung from
the branches and almost obscured our
way were almost livid where the rays of
moonlight struck them. The trunks
and limbs of the trees were covered
with thick, yellow lichens, which were
as fine as hair. and hung like the beard
of patriarch. The trees. too, were
loaded with orchids, that rare plant so
much priced by botanists, and sought
here by collectors from all over the
world. Dead trunks covered with moss
that seemed almost phosphorescent
arose like phantoms in our way Huge,
thorny cacti, like the candelabra of
giants, were on every side, while the
dense growth of underbrush made it
almost impossible for the horses to push
through.
Through this we kept climbing until
the horses were exhausted and the moon
went down. For some inscrutable
reason, but really for no reason
whatever, it is considered best TO
make the climb in the night. but we
couldn't 60 any further, so a fire was
built, the animals were unsaddled and
given their supper; we swung our ham,
Knocks in the trees and wrapping our
selves in blankets lay down to pleasant
dreams.
The blazing fire frightened the ami
mails OF the forest. and all around us
we could hear the protests of the tiger.
whose cry is like that of child. Now
and then the deeper tones of the noun
tain lion could be distinguished, but
they were more frightened than we, for
the fire was terror to them, as it was
a comfort to us. the altitude being some-
thing more than 5000 feet and the tenn.
perature forty Fahrenheit. The birds
chartered and gossiped, being awak-
ened by the unusual light and disturb
ance in their solitude. There was little
sleep for any of us, as the situation was
so weird. and the noises our adyent
awakened so strange to our ears. At
$50 we were to be called and continue
the ascent so as to reach the top of the
mountain by sunrise. We were all
awake long before the time, and
leaving the hammocks hanging. and
stripping ourselves of every possible
circumference except overcoat and
food, we were in the saddle
promptly and followed the guide as he
plunged into a darkness that could be
cut with knife. There is darkness
and darkness, but that we encountered
in that tropical forest was double-dyed.
We might as well have been blindfolded
in coffin at the bottom of a grave.
There was path. trail among the
trees but the guide couldn't follow it
on horseback. so he dismounted and
felt for it with his feet. They failed
and he crept along on his hands and
knees, and that method of locomotion
being rather unsatisfactory, he lit a
candle he had in hispocket and plodded
along.
The path went zigzag up the noun
tain side, like the trail Of a goat. 1t ran
q few hundred feet on the bias at a
grade of about forty-five degrees, and
then reversing ran up about the same
grade and distance in the other direc-
ton, presenting series of acute angles
like an enormous rail-fence. Just as
Mr. Whitehouse was turning one Of
these corners where the sloDe of .ba