Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-30
vEsuv1us OF AMERICA.
Great Mountain Of Pure Sulphur viii
Be Worked.

Be Worked.
From the Scientific American.
Every traveller through Ola Mexico
hears OF one spot which is more attrac-
tive to tourists from abroad than any
other This Is tho volcano Of Popocate-
petl. Some have called 1t the "vesuvius of
America" owing to the frequent eruptions
which have marked It's history, but unlike
vesuvius, its crater has been entered by
man. and, remarkable as II may SEEM here
has been for centuries the site of a great
natural industry. Popocatepeti has been
producing sulphur probably for ages. ac-
cording to the opinion of biologists and
other experts who have examined the in
terror of the crater far as 1t has been
possible to venture with safety. True. IL is
Dy no means an extinct volcano. BY day
clouds of steam and smoke arise from the
summit OF the mountain, and at times in
the night the sky above is illuminated by
the glow from the fiery mass whose exist
ence Is revealed through the occasional
vent here and there in the temporary
bottom OF the crater. 1t is a strange
sight to witness human beings toiling in
TINS abyss day after day. extracting the
sulphur ore, as Ii Is called, with pick and
shovel, and packing It on their backs to
the edge of the crater, where IL Is hoist
ed to the top. Some of the poems have
labored In these depths $50 feet benea tn
the earth's surface for the greater part
or their lives. since sulphur mining as 1t
Is called, has been carried on in the bowels
OF Popocatepetl for four centuries: vet no
one knows when an eruption may occur
which would destroy every living thing for
miles around.
From where they toll the workman can
cieafiy discern the assures whence the es-
Gaping sulphur fumes and smoke prove that
peneath them there Is furnace of nature
put were II not for the crevices the accum-
uiation Of the sulphur deposit would cease
Tor they form a portion of the great nat
ural laboratory in which this material is
compounded. The history of Mexico proves
the age OF this Industry. for Cortez obtained
sulphur, probably from the summit of the
volcano, TO use in manufacturing gunpow-
Der for his soldiers. Since that time the
substance has been obtained by the natives
When me volcano was not In such a state
OF activity as to keep them from approa CHI
ing 1t. For several years recently a con-
siderable quantity has been secured al
though by very crude method AS already
s.a.eu. the beds are worked by hand, the
sulphur being placed in bags containing
twenty-five pounds each. They are placed
on the backs of human packers. who carry
them to the foot of the crater and attach
them to a rope suspended from the top
Then each Is hoisted singly by means of a
windlass- At the top the bags are given
to other people, who seat themselves on
straw mats and slide over the snow which
covers the outer portion of the mountain
to the timber line At this point the sui
phur Is placed on mules to be transported to
the railway station about nine miles distant
Various estimates have been made of the
quantity of sulphur which at present exists
In the crater, some figures placing II at
fully 1O0,000,OOO tons. Won Humboldt, who
made an exhaustive study of the interior of
the volcano, gave the opinion that the bed
is the largest in the world. A commission
of experts appointed by the Mexican gov
eminent, however, made a careful study of
the crater and confirm the statements that
the quantity of sulphur is undoubtedly
enormous. These reports have led to such
an interest being taken in Popocatepetl that
1t has actually become American property
and the flag of the United States is prob
ably ere this floating above It's summit, for
a company of capitalists from the states
has actually purchased this great factory
of nature and intends mining the sulphur on
an extensive scale.