The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-11-03

1S88.-lSpecial correspondence of tn,
HERALD. I'm his quaint book, Mikrokos
mos, Mr.. Peter Heylin tells US that tn
Spaniards of the Conquest called Mic
aragua the
PARADISE OF MoHAMMED,"
and with equal right a later wandere
has named central Costa RIGA 1.-The Ar.
cadia OF the Ports"
Rafting down into the Carriage Val
ley on top of a rickety diLigencia, ont
no longer wonders that those early ad
venturers forgot their native land. The
cold black-and-Ehite of ink and paper
can give little idea of the grandeur oil
the mountains and the gorgeousness oil
tropical coioring at their base; OF the
emerald meadows lined with spark
ling streams; the wave-like wooded
hills, scanned with red cart-roads; the
immense, vermilion tiled farmhouse
buried in rich foliage; luscious fruits
growing wild by the wayside, blossom
ing vines rioting everywhere, and linn
itless stretches of those delicate floral
favorites which require careful culture
in northern greenhouses here flourish
ing spontaneously; while environing
all and dissolving in the mellow light,
tower the lonesome peaks of the Cen
trail Range.
In the middle of the valley a broad
lagoon
GLITTERs IN SUNSHINE,
and along its rudy margin tall white
cranes stalk composedly, AMI scarlet
breasted famingoes lazlly pursue their
fishing. Beyond this shallow lake are
the oblong pasture-grounds, called por-
trerOS, into which the remainder of the
valley is divided, each marked off with
hedges of coral-bean, cacti and pine
apple.
beyond the portreroS are the low
mountains of AQUA Caliente ("warm
water and overlooking the latter sre
the Candellaria groups, while far be-
yond the Csndellarias rise the sapphire
heights of the Andean chain-shadowy
at this distance, but grandly asserting
their sovereignty. The Aqua Caliente
hills derive their name from the tepid
springs that bubble at their base from q
crevice of quartz and oXyhydiate of
iron. Being situated within two miles
of the ancient capital, from time out of
mind these springs have been fire.
ouented by Costa Rics's distempered
aristocracy, the bitter waters having
been found efieacious for govt and
Though now q dismal wreck, the old
city of Carriage must once have been
Founded nearly four CEN
turles ago, it became a royal capital
under the Spanish crown, second to
none in the new world. Musty records
are i'll preserved in its archives which
prove to have been
F1ouRfsH1NG IN GREAT sPLENDoR
early in 1850. That redoubtsble Briton,
Thomas Gaze, who visited these parts
in 1886 and declared himself to be the
first Protestant who ever came here,
saws in his queer Book of Travels"
that in his time the opulent Cartagoans
traded directly with the Peninsula.
But if eve place was swarmed with
ghosts of vanished greatness, it is the
Cartago of to-day. Its once magnifi-
cent streets-wider than those of San
Jose-are now cold, drowsy and de-
serted. Scarcely soul is to be seen on
them at any hour. except when, at rare
intervals, some Egyptian-like figure
glides slowly along amid the sepulchral
silence, carrying an OVERLOOKING findja
balanced upon it's head. Monstrous
masses of lava stone hurled about in
every direction, highten the forlorn as
pect and testify to the terrible temper
of Irazu, the great volcano VIII Oh
oyershadoWed the town.
Before the traveller has fairly set his
foot On Costa Rican soil, he hears
great deal about this awe-Inspiring VOL
cano. at whose base Carriage is built,
and of
THE MISCHIEF AND TERROR
it has caused. He hears now. in 1713,
for mora than two months it never
ceased roaring and rumDling, as with
the rush of a subteIauren river open
ing its feaful Jaws, now and then, to roll
forth pillows of smoke, and how dwell
lers on the nearby slopes and in the
valleys far below, we're stifled to death
by its sulphurous exhslations, and
how, at dead of night, it sheeted the
skies with fame and whirled balls of
fire aloft, till four miles around it grew
more fercely bright than ever in the
hottest day at noon. How at one time
q vapor rose out of the seething gulf,
white as cotton and shaped like
q Bonded bow. till at the
height of two lsnces above the
crater it assumed the form of an enor-
nous palm-leaf, remaining suspended
in air, while one might say an Ave
Marie; then - nrr 81 to the shape of
bow, and sank the witches CAL
dron beneath. lad this phenome-
non occurred on Palm Sunday, what a
fund of tradition it would have af-
forded. As it wa', however, the good
priesthood of the vicinage did not mis-
improve the opportunity to paint
moral and adorn tale for the benefit of
the superstitious.
They tell Us that the rumblings of
the volcano grew louder and louder
bill they struck the beWildered ear with
The force of
TEN THOUSAND FORCES
I'll at work. Their red-hot boulders-