The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-09-05

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 your face; we were
creeping along. feeling our way step by
step, with arms outstretched to prevent
contact between the trees and our
heads.
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
Their operations on that line until day
light. So we sat down around a fire
and discussed things until the ght
began to filter through 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 like 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 picture one does not
often see, and there are no words in my
vocabulary that will 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 over the volcano with fierceness
that penetrated our very bones. but the
suns rays were hot and piercing. and
soon burned out the clouds. in which
the wind assisted, and the picture
turned into a 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-cape. a brilliant, livid green.
looked like strings of gigantic emeralds
on 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 eypectation of a 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 pied 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
impeachment; and on the other into a
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 the other. The bottom was
honey-combed with craters, where it
looked as if the earth had broken through
in irregular circles. There were seven
or eight of these craters, some of them
centuries old. the last and largest having
opened within the memory of living
men. The older ones were black and
half filled with ashes cast from those of
later origin, while ''the new one" as it
is called-perhaps q quarter of centu-
ry oid-was bottomless as far as we
could see, and its walls were yellow with
sulphur and white with half burned
limestone. 1t was dangerous to go near
the edge for the banks are concave,
and thin crusts of earth reach over
them; but we cast huge stones over and
heard them strike the sides of the crater
as they went down into an abyss which
man nCNCt 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 tn 90 hack for tha walls Of Tho
basin are loose ashes, light and flinty,
and our feet SINK into them almost to
the knees. 1t was fun coming down,
sliding and leaping into the soft sub
stance. but going up it was task that
at times seemed to be beyond endur-
ance. The ashes were fresh and crisp,
and there was no sign of vegetation for
distance of a thousand feet or more
down the outside bank, against which
the wind was constantly blowing,
and where one would think it would
lodge dust and seeds from the