The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-28
ASCENT OF POPOCATAPETL.
A Trip to the Summit of the Great
Smoking Mountain of Old Mexico.
Something That Required Hard Work, bit
Well Repaid the Effort-Seeing Mex
lean Bull Fight in Its Native Glory.

Ascent of Popocatapeti.

Correspondence of the Indianapo is Journal.
| Ascent of Popocatapeti.
I Cry OF MEX co. March 7.-Everybo body intends
to, butvery few persons ascend Popocatapetl, 18,
900 feet above the sea, the highest peak in North
America. 1t is an cid volcano. still smokes with
! sulphurous fumes, and so furnishes supply OF
sulphur for mining, though it has not been
worked for about three years. owing to the re-
fusal of mortgageors. until paid, to permit it;
and to that stoppage of work / am indebted for
my failure to reach the bottom of it's crater, as
you will see later.
Popocatapetl, the Smoking Mountain - for
| such is its meaning in Aztec dialect-iominates
the landscape of central Mexico. 1t is seen from
every elevated point standing serenely lefty,
with its snowy peak above all other peaks, and
| visible often hundred miles away. OF course,
| the view from its summit is correspondingly ex-
tensive and grand / resolved to stand upon its
| summit had spent three days on the sides of
| lxticihuatl-the White Woman, whose head
has never yet been trodden BY foot-and failed
| to do more than get up to her back hair,
owing, l think, to imperfect preparations
| SO, without wasting more time there. took
horses to Amecam eca, fifteen miles from the
foot of Popocatapetl, and with another Ameri
can, as usual hired four horses and pack
mule, two guides and muleteer, bought pro-
Visions tor three days. and, after hasty dinner,
rode to the Rauza-a hut at the foot Of the cone
which we reached after dark, by dreadfully
dusty ride up the foothills, by mule ruts often six
feet deep, along slopes of lava-dust. down ravines
and over logs, across lava ridges, through pine
groves up torrent beds, along streams, and occa-
sionaly through mountain mead0ws-greeu, or
| dry, or beautiful with fowers-and at one time
| charged by mountain bull in mimic bull
| fight A dreary, cold night was passed by the
| gusty fire at the ranch, and at O'Clock A. NJ,
after coffee and lunch, hastily prepared, we
| mounted in the breaking day and rode to La
Cruz-a cross erected to mark the spot of death
| of former climber and cheer future ones
where we left the horses and began to climb
leave you to imagine the glorious views of
mountain, and valley and town, and volcan-
elloes below that rewarded us as we assembled on
horseback, over logs, and DUST and trees,
| through brush, rocks and running streams, in
heat. and dust, and hunger. But when we gazed
almost straight up at the faraloft tip of the
crater, as we began our climb, the prospect to
an unframed man was one OF dismay to him.
For an hour We waded boottop deep in flying
lava dust, prespiring, breathing with gasps and
looking anything but hopeful as the awful mount
ain, too, seemed to grow higher as we toiled up
Then the ascent grew sleeper we painted up
slowly alorc the frozen bed Of glacier covered
ta;ply with vet lava dust, falling down to rest
and breathe every few minutes, when we
| reached the ice field, where we zigzaged about in
| our ascent, through an indescrbable slope of
cactus-like frozen snow icicles inverted, plant
ing our. feet for each lift at the
An hour of this awful toll brought us to bare icS
mixed with rock aud lava pebbles that scarcely
gave footing. and yet we had to 90 on, for the
view down was more dscouraging than that
upward. Ny chest burned with the exsrtion
breath was choking with the exertion and thin
air; clouds formed around us and enveloped US
in dense fog. which blew avE in chilling blasts
and showed the internal mountain still towering
abo"e US. My younger companion gave out and
called OF the Aztec guide for help. And so we
painted up sweating and freezing, and auGibly
breathing, palevand looking like sick men going
up to be executed, for five long, exhausting dis
couraging hours of strain, until. at last, we
| reached drier lava dust, less steep; and, with a
desperate. steady pull we turned at last ragged
ridge of lava pebbles, and the great, smoking,
yawnng crater of Popocatapetl was before u.s.
"a fourth Of a mile across, with pre-
cipitous sides and nearly as deep as
wide pouring sulphurous smoke from its sides
and bottom by holes called fumeroles, yellow
and forbiddlng in aspect, its lips Jagged with
enormous red lava-lke masses Of rock. it's lips
narrow and covered with lava pebbles and ir-
regular in height, one minute whirled in fog as
clouds formed and enveloped the peak, the next
warm in the hot sunshine, while little cascades
of melting snow poured noisily down it's inner
PERCEPTIONS sides into the surrounding crater.
We threw ourselves down on the warm, shell
tered inner lip of the crater edge, and almost
getting to the bottom Of the crater, as the ropes
were rotted by which we could be let down.
rolled down some stones almost in fear lest the
huge boulderlike masses on the inner lip would
tear loose and tumble in, shaking the unstable
looking edge outward or inward and involve US!
From this grand elevation what prospect lay
before us. lxticihuatl, snow-clad OriZaba, NAL
uize, and hundred lesser mountains, and hills,
and old volcanic craters, valleys between, towns
and villages distant Mexico City in blue mist.
Had the air been free from mist we could have
seen the Gulf of Mexico, $50 miles away Pueb-
la and Cholula, and the valleys beyond on the
southern side, and the vast rolling, volcanic
country stretching away into the infinite blue of
distance and indsting uishable smallness A
view forever to be remembered! Worth the
toll. and doubly worth it in the courage Of van
pushed obstacles. After some hours started
down, and found, to our agreeable surprise, that
there was a way down on the south side free
from ice, and icicles, and rocks, very steep,
where lava dust covered the glacier ice, and
down which We strobe in steps of
ten feet, stopped by sinking into the
cloud of dust curving down the mountain to
La Cruz in about an hour; and mounting our
horses we rode the weary miles Of dusty down
mountain road to Amecameca, where we arrived
at o'clock at night, two as tired men as ever as
cended Popocatapetl-and vowng that thou
sand dollars would not tempt US to ascend again,
now that we had done it-but that We would as
cend it. if we had never done so, for nothing.
Of the many interesting things connected with
this mountain, will tell you when / get home,
about the last of March, and many queer things
have delyed out of queer old Mexico.
A Mexican Bull-Fight.
bull-fght in Mexico always occurs on Sun