St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1885-08-01
CLIMBING A VOLCANO.
One of the Five Active Craters in
Costa Rica.
"A Graphic Description of a Perflous Ad-
ventnre-A Crater Never Examined
by Observation-Disclosures and
Accidents.

There are five active volcanoes in
Costa Rica, according to the geography;
lrazu. which is 11,500 feet high; Tur-
rialba, which is 1O,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
he considered active volcano does not
have to keep belching out hre and smoke
all the time, for they must have vaca-
tons Ike 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 advant age of vol
canic acquaintance, and being ambi-
tious to look into the crater's mouth, l
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
b. forgotten, but which one would not
care to repeat. You can not go to the
summit of lrazu in a railway car Ike
NeSuvius, 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
Eerveful for a lifetime.
We followed up cart road, thick
with dust for a few miles, then entered
The cornfields and rode through them
for several hours, stopping at the cabin
OF native to get corn for our horses
I'D cup of coffee for ourselves.
thiS was the last house on the noun
Lin. and leaving it we went through a
! asture and struck into forest as dense
IS forest can be- There was a good
moon and it lit up the tree tops with
sfrsrd and fantastic light, while the
great festoons of moss which hung from
the branches and almost obscured our
Way were almost livid where the ravs of
moonlight struck them. The trunks
and limbs of the trees were covered
" tn thick. yellow lichens. which were
as tine as hair, and hung like the beard
Of a patriarch. The trees, too, were
loaded with orchids, that rare plant SO
much priced by botanists, and sought
icre by collectors from all over the
world. Dead trunks covered with moss
that seemed almost phosphorescent
q o~e like phantoms in our way. Huge,
horny cacti, like the candelabra of
-,iaIis. were on every side. while the
1iense 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
Wat 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 fire was
hu It, the animals were unsaddled and
9 ven their supper; we swung our ham,
mocks in the trees and wrapping our
se'ves in blankets Law 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
he fire was terror to them, as it was
a comfort to us. the altitude being some
hing more than 5000 feet and the tenn
perature forty Farenheit. The birds
;hattered 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
20 weird. and the noises our advent
awakened so strange to our ears At I,
$50 we were to be called and continue
he ascent so as to reach the top of the
by sunrise. We were all
awake long before the time, and
eaving the hammocks hanging, and
stripping ourselves of every possible {
except overcoat and
ood, we we're in the saddle ,
and followed the guide as he
plunged into darkness that could be
,ut with knife. There is darkness
md darkness, but that we encountered
n that tropical forest was double-dyed.
Ne might as well have been blindfoided
n coffin at the bottom of a grave
There was a path. trail among the
rees, but the guide couldn't follow it
IN horseback, so he dismounted and
cit for it with his feet They failed
md he crept along on his hands and
,nees, and that method of locomotion /,
,eing ratheEs uasatisfactory, he lit q
apdle he had in hispocket and plodded A
long. IL