The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1897-11-25
Irazu, Costa Rica's Great Volcano
A Trip to the Crater.

CARTAGo, COSTA RIGA, Oct. 10, 1897.
Whoever visits Costa Rica hears a great
deal about Irazu, the awe-inspiring vol
cano, and of the mischief and terror he
has caused. Living at his feet in the old
city of Carriage, you are constantly i'm
pressed by his majesty, and sometimes by
his beauty-when storm clouds muster
black around his cloven forehead, or
when he wells himself in tieecy mist, or
dons a gorgeous sunset robe of rosy pur-
Pile. You are told how, in the year 1928,
from the middle of February to the mid
die of March, Irazu never ceased roaring
and rumbling, as with the rush of subter-
ranean rivers; at intervals opening his
jaws and rolling forth pillows of smoke.
How people on the slopes and in the val
leys far below were stitled by the sulphur
GUS eXhalations, and how at night balls of
fire were whirled aloft from the crater,
came. tor miles around, more fiercely
bright than was ever known in the hot
test day at noon. All this, and much
more, you may read in the quaint official
report OF the Royal Governor of that day,
Senior Don Diego de la Haya of CartagO
lie relates how, at one time during that
dreadful month, vapor rose out of the
crater. white as cotton and shaped like
Bonded bow; until, at the height of two
lances, it grew into the form of an enor-
NOUS palm-l Leaf, which remained suspend
ed in mid air while one might say an Ave
Maria, then, resuming its former shape of
Bonded bow it slowly descended and
disappeared again within the boiling gulf.
How the rumblings of the volcano grew
louder and louder, until they struck the
bewildered ear with the force of ten thou
sand FORCES all at work at once, while red
lot boulders and scoria, multiplied in
volume, tore asunder the Jaws of the
monster as they gushed forth upon doom
ed Carriage. How at last all the lakes and
streams were turned to seething mud the
afflicted city was buried under burning
dust, and all its splendid churches and
casas, uprooted from the palsied EARTH
lay scorched and blackened, in utter ruin
Nor was this the first or last eruption of
Irazu. The monster has four mouths,
or craters-one of them so old that
enormous oaks grow in it; and Humboldt
and other scientists say that more than
two thousand years must have elapsed
since it was first opened. Another of
these craters forms lake which gives
rise to the river Reventazon, the ON
bouchure of which, according to Thomas
Gage, was a commercial resort as early as
1926. The earthquakes caused by this
i'll tempered volcano have been frequent
and severe. There was one in 1856, and
another in 1922 both OF which overthrow
Carriage. The last of serious consequence
occurred in the autumn of 1872, when, ac-
curding 10 the official account of Senior
Tcltsfaro PeraIta, Governor of the pro-
vince, fully one-third of the citys popu-
lation, Cat that time estimated to be about
~ OOO, lay buried for hours beneath the
ruins of thelr nonts Boz, wonderful TO
relate adds Governor Peralta. ''only
sixteen were were killed." Wonderful
indeed, but not incredible, when we re-
iiect that tie one storied casas are mostly
OF adobe, which easily resolve themselves
into the parent dust. Every house in the
town was demolished in that general
shaking up-except one which deserves
to- stand forever. 1t is the old casa in
whose courtyard Padre Vavordi planted
the first coffee tree in Costa Rican soil in
l>l9. The venerable tree, by the way, is
yet alive, thought long past its useful
ness and continues to put forth a few
snow white blossoms in their season.
Now and then, to this day, the grim
eyclope, frowning overhead, grumbles
and sends up putfs of smoke, as if to as
sure the world that this is by no means a
pipe OF peace. One would think that the
artagoans would heed his threatenings
ana choose some safer site, but, as Don
Ielesfaro Peralta writes: ''Such is the
love which the people of Carriage feel for
lheir native soil, that they bear with pa
Hence all these evils, and as often as their
beloved city is thrown down, they rebuild
their homes out of it's ruins This re-
markable spirit of stick to- a tiveness
seems to be strangely true of the jewellers
near all volcanoes. Think of the towns
and villages on the slopes of Vesuvus
Nh. Leigh Hunt, writing of Tore del
Greco, says that the inhabitants thereof
have always persisted in constructing
their houses, over and over again, ON top
of those that have been buried, thus keep
ing up an obstinate but unavailing strug-
lie with one of the most fearful powers of
nature. 1t may be a wise provision of
Providence which thus keeps the most
forbidding spots on earth inhabited but
with the good people of Carriage, believe
It is more matter of laziness, they being
constitutionally too inert to strike out and
AXE root elsewhere.
You may easily ascend Irazu, by a long
days journey on mule back, starting be-
H. u 7 Io,r .,