The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-12-29
AT MAYON'S CRATER.
TENNESSEE LIEUTENANT FIRST
TO MAKE THE ASCENT.
BartOn's Description of the Climb
Up the Mountain and the Blaze
of Lava and Puff of Steam

Up the Mountain and the Blaze
of Lava and Puff of Steam
Lieut.. Robert NJ Barton, a son of
Judge Barton, of the Tennessee Chan
Gerry Court of Appeals, is one of two
Tennesseeans who recently made the
ascent of the Mayor volcano, Luzon,
Philippine Islands, winning the dis
tinction of being the first man to reach
its summit.
Lieut. Barton was first lieutenant
of Company NJ of the Sixth United
States Volunteers, of which company
Tom A. Davis was the captain in COM
mand
Of the daring feat of Lieut. Barton
the San Francisco Chronicle says in
! recent issue:
mo man, the first converts of the
early Spanish padres told the white
men, had ever set foot on Mayors
rocky Businesses. The god of the
mountain would blast him with his hot
wrath.
''Once a German geologist, imbued
! with superstition, set out for the sum-
NIT with a guard of Spanish soldiers.
| The natives watched them so, Ominous-
| ly shaking their heads at the sacrilege;
no coed could come of it and who could
tell what disaster might be required to
| appease the fire gods wrath? They
watched the little cavalcade far up the
mountain side, till they were like flies
| scaling the steep declivity. Then the
venturesome band disappeared up the
mists about the peak. They were new
err seen again.
sit remained for two Americans, one
of them a Tennessee boy, to accomplish
the feat that had defied the ages. They
scaled the heights, they snapped their
| cameras into the very pit of the crater
but they came near leaving their bones
to bleach on the Mayor crags. One of
| the Adventures, Lieut.. Barton, has
just returned home with the Ninth
Cavalry, and tells the story of how the
perilous journey was accomplished.
THE premonitory symptoms of
period of activity were evident to
Lieut.. Barton and Corporal H. Fl.
Bubar, of the Engineer Corps, the two
| l.
Lieut.. Barton is a wiry, well-seasoned
young soldier and has that quiet, unas
Stunning manner common among men of
indomitable courage and hardy endur-
ance. But he is free to acknowledge
that the Mayor trip was more than he
cared to tackle again under the same
conditions.
1T was easy to see,' he said, why
previous explorers lad never returned
from their attempts to reach the
crater AS we approached the summit
the sound of sliding and bounding
rocks formed a continuous roar. 1t
was as though the mountains were de-
Tending the approachin with minia
ture avalanches.
1.-The rocks are continuous, being rot
ted away from their supports, and the
whole formation of the mountain Is
loose and shifting. AS long as one
could keep on the ridges he wal safe
from the falling rocks, but it was frf
quently necessary to cross the gorges,
and there we had to keep a constant
lookout The detached masses woLil
come whizzing at us from the size of
a mans head to three or four feet in
diameter. Then the footing was the
loose volcanic sand or volcanic rock,
tumbled in confusion on the mountain
SIDE and not only very hard to climb,
but very treacherous.
cat o'clock the thing was done.
The intrepid pair took little time to en-
joy the magnificent panorama of
mountain, plain and ocean that spread
itself out on all sides, The noxioIS
vapors from the crater stiaed them,
Their aching limbs and their drowsy
eyelids admonished them not to linger
longer. Gaining a point on the very
edge of the big bowl on the windward
side, so that the strong breeze carried
the steam and gases away from them,
they peeped over to see what the ma
tives had told them no man could gaze
on and live The crater was about 200
yards in diameter, they estimated, and
descended almost prependicularly into
the mountain for some 200 feet. There
it narrowed to width of hardly more
than so feet. This choking of the vent
seemed to be the result of lava cooling
there at the close of the last eruption.
1t acts as a stopper on the escape of
the steam and gas from the interior,
and these emerge with a mighty hiss,
evidently under heavy pressure,
"The whole formation about the
crater has been shattered as by an aw-
full explosion to a distance of $50 feet
below the summit, and from the crew
ices thus formed the team is also con-
stantly escaping After taking a few
snapshots at the crater the offers be-
gan the descent Many times on the
return journey they almost gave up
hope of proceeding further. Before
night they had succeededin finding
their comrades who had fallen by the
wayside, though they had only their
instinct of direction to guide them over
the same trail they had followed in the
afternoon.
with darkness the difficulty and
danger of making their way increased
tenfold. Only knowledge that a pause
then meant sure death nerved them to
keep up the struggle. At 8 o'clock they
reached the water hole and found the
doctor Corporal Bubar volunteered to
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