The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1897-11-25

ing to their work of watering the valley,
and luscious fruits, growing by the way
side, invite you to fill your saddle bags.
Half way up the mountain you see corn
and barley, growing with as much vigor
as in Illinois or Ohio, although it's cult
vators are still scratching up the earth
with wooden pillow, of the same pattern
as those used in Egypt in the time of the
Pharaohs. The seed once scattered broad
cast, receives no care until ready for the
harvest, which comes with the following
dry season. In gathering the corn. the
ear is picked from the stalk and hauled to
dry in the sunny patio, and then stored
away in the corners of the kitchen and
under the cowhide beds, for future use in
the making of tortillas-the unleavened
cakes that take the place of bread among
the poorer classes in all these countries.
The field is now fired and the dry
! ashes forming the only fertilizer known
in the country. The possibilities of
this incompatible zone, throughout
the whole of Central America, where the
climate is absolute perfection from year
to year, are yet in the cradle of develop
ment All the fruits of the temperate
vegetables, might be successfully grown
with little outlay and less trouble, and
find ready market here as luXuries.
Apples command better price in Central
America than oranges in the United
States simply because the supply does
not equal the demand, | have paid a real
yeloped in tissue paper, which Yankee
would no more consider fit to eat than a
Costa Rican would countenance some of
the abortve pineapples and bananas that
are sold in the North. Above the corn and
barley on the slopes of Irazu the Irish
potato grows to perfection. with yield
and commands far greater price, being
sold in the markets by the piece, or at
most by the quart! Beyond the potato
field, you enter belt of scanty timber,
! the gnarled and knotted trees festooned
from top to bottom with brilliant orchids
and swaying wreaths of Spanish moss.
side, and the trail-through dense under
| bush of cedar and arbutus- briars, over
slippery stones and fallen logs, and under
low branches-is very toilsome, a regular
ladder, thousand feet high, the rungs of
which are dead tree trunks, shelving
rocks and brawny roots. Here you leave
the saddle and mount the rest of the way
on foot, finally through yielding sand
which makes every step a mighty effort,
| partly from difficulty of breathing at SO
great an altitude. But all your toll is
amply repaid when at last you stand
upon Irazu's bald head, l., 900 feet above
the ocean, with clouds rolling and tum-
| bling 500 feet below on every side, COM
| pletely hiding the earth. The blue vault
above looks very near, and you feel an
| oVerpowering, awful sense of standing
alone in the universe, face to face with
the Infinite. On a clear day you may see
both the Atlantic and the Pacific at one
| glance This is the crowning recompense
OF the ascent of Ilazu-but it is not
youchsafed to everybody. Johu l.. Steph-
I 4 ,,J
words how he stood on the bleak ridge
above Irazu' S crater and looked out wide
over the remote world. The main crater
is an amphitheatre, I, 800 feet in circum-
ference and 600 feet deep, with ragged,
broken walls, the descent of which is
rarely attempted. Going down is easy
enough, like falling from grace in mora
sense, but to get up again is a more diff
cult matter, by reason of loosened rocks
and sliding lava sands. A couple OF
young men, from Cleveland, Ohio, with
native guide, spent night in this crater
about three years ago. They built a roar
ing fire of cedar brush away down in the
bottom, which tup the great gloomy cav
ity-a faint remainder Of days of long ago
when volcanic fires first shot heavenwarC
and streams of molten lava coursed dowI
its sides. With their boots for pillows
they lay down in their blankets, and Ions
before morning realized that Jack Eros
visits even the torrid zone, if you climl
high enough to find him. Irazu appear
to be possessed of those excellent trait
which we admire in men-a warm hear
and a clear, cold head. One of tn,
Clevelanders relates his morning expert
ence as follows: "The sun just tippins
the eastern horizon as we climbed out O
the crater, revealed to us anothe
panoramic view, grand and imposing
but not SO infinitely beautiful as that o
the evening before, when the COLDER
light OF the setting sun behind the
) rolling pillows of clouds made fl
!, carpeting for angels to walk on
sea of crimson and gold, bound
less as the blue vault of heaven
Toward the east, rosy in the morning
light, the dim outline of the Atlantic la,