Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-23

rays the snow patches looked infinitely cold
and the black lava blacker still. The air
was quiet. the frost intense.
Thrice that night / rose to light the fire
again. And my two men slept in their
room with fire the floor. The smoke
came through the cracks of the wall and
nearly choked me. i slept and froze, and
woke, and cursed all mountain climbing
and remembered that in Orotava l should
have been sleeping with open windows 1
woke finally at dawn and got my break
fast in a rage. Once more (aS alwayS)
determined to climb no more mountains.
And then Dionisio said he was ready If
was. We started on the last fifteen hun
bred feet just as the rose and the
hard colors of the morning illumined the
cold world.
The wind was bitter I never felt such
cold And we passed much snow The
rough path was blocked with it, and Dion
isio evidently had all southerner's dislike
of it. l found my ice AK useful dozen
times. Certainly l needed II even as a
stick, for my breath grew miserably short.
Every fifty feet 1 had to rest And at last
we came to the Rambleta, another plateau,
once a crater from which the final ash
cone now springs. 1t was at slope of a
little over 30 degrees, and the ashes were
soft. I was glad to see a patch of snow
even if l had to cut steps. But sooner
than go upon the snow Dionisio went half
mile round, while l cut my way UP 1t
slowly At the steep top Of the snow 1
was utterly exhausted and sat down for
ten minutes
The top was yet infinitely far away. I
felt weak, frozen. my heart was feeble. 1t
was obvious that the easy peak was not
so easy TO a man out of condition. to an
invalid. But threw off my poncho, left 1t
on the ashes and climbed again. We came
to the first blow hole, and at the sight Of
the smoke l cheered up. When | came to
Ell Nariz, as 1t is called, knelt down and
warmed my hands. But still the top was
hundreds of feet above us. The last pull
was the worst of all, for now the wind
from the southwest the counter equatorial
current, blew fiercely. When I stopped at
the edge of the high crater l was glad to
fall fiat behind rock and lie there to get
my breath. And l smelt sulphur and sui
phurous acid, and choking fumes of 1t came
at me in gusts, which finally drove me right
to the windward side, which was the last
and final summit Of the peak.
There are days when one sees the whole
world, so to speak. from the rocks above
the sulphur pit. A man may count Tene-
rifles satenites-Grand Canary, Fuertayen-
tura Lanzarote to the east; Palma, Gomera
and Hero to the west These islands swim
IN lucid sea and air; are painted in fine at
mosphere on the climbing wall of the high
sea horizon. But such good fortune was
not mine. The eastern islands were under
clouds and haze, and to the west there was
a mighty sea of cloud. under which Palma
and her neighbors lay like rocks beneath
snow. Yet suddenly the cl0ud-blanket
swayed and sank lower to. the west; the
heights of Palma broke through, and then
Gomera showed darkly and beyond 1t, to
the southwest, Hero. Then the clouds
closed again and there was nothing visible
bue the slopes of my own peak and the
>Canyadas, for even lower Teneriffe itself