Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1912-10-13

st
the Hawaiian Islands and have climbed up
the famous Tenger, the largest volcano in
lava. which has the Bromo, another lye
volcano, in its crater. have seen Stromboii
and Etna in eruption and have made some
thing of study of seismic conditions in the
earthquake land OF Japan. My other expert
ences, however, were nothing like the climb
I'D the Poas volcano which included ride
OF more than Is hours in the saddle OF
Costa Rican pony over what ! believe is one
of the widest and hardest mountain trails OF
the world.
Poas and Its Geyser.
doubt if many of you have ever heard OF
old Poas. Nevertheless, it is one OF the
most famous volcanoes Of Central America.
It belongs to the volcanic belt of Costa RicF
which includes Turrialba, over two miles IN
the air. Orosi at the extreme north end OF
the country and Irazu, which is more than
1000 feet high and has had half dozen
eruptions, accompanied by earthquakes
which have been felt in the city OF Panama
The Poas volcano has two or more era
ters and each is over a mile in circumfer-
ence 1t has one which is on the very top
of the mountain filled with sheet OF cold
blue water and surrounded by. semitropical
vegetation 1t has another, which is as
ragged and bare as the shores OF the Dead
sea and down which you look into lake
of acid, from which shoots up the greatest
peyser on earth At times this geyser
spouts every few minutes. At other times
il is quiet for long period and again it will
throw column of sulphurous steam thou
sands of feet into the air. About two years
ago it shot up great volume of mud, vapor
and rock to height above its surface OF
more than two and one-half miles. The dis
lance to which the column reached was esti-
mated at over $4,000 feet. At the top the
steam spread out like mighty umbrella
over the mountain and stones as big as can
non balls fell, breaking trees and limbs and
going deep into the ground. At that time
there was an earthquake which threw down
many of the buildings of San Jose, and this
was followed by second earthquake sew
eral months later by which the city of Car
tago was brought to the ground, and about
600 human beings killed in the ruins.
A Night at San Pedro.
uC ilISt paw VI Jul JS'uiASy was AsOS ~
traordinary for Costa Rica, but it would
have been worth description had it been
made farther north. The party consisted OF
myself and stenographer, Carlisle Flo
cckher; my interpreter, Mr.. De Soto, and a
guide whom we picked up at San Pedro
We came from the capital San Jose to Ala
juela on the railroad, distance of about &c
miles, and there packed our outfit on horse
back We had raincoats, blankets and sleep
ing bags, for we were expecting to be out il
the open with the winds Of the Andes howl
ing about u.s. We wore heavy clothing and
had on our pajamas over our underwear
and also chamois jackets inside our coats
Our blood is thin from our stay in the trop-
les and we needed all we had on when on
the top of old Poas to keep us from freezing
Very fortunately, however, we were able
to dispense with our sleeping bags by stay
ing at little inn at San Pedro, about two
hours ride from this point, and starting
from there at 2 o'clock in the morning.
shall not soon forget that night at San Ped
70. My flesh is soft from the spring mat
tresses which Uncle Sam furnishes at Pana.
ma, and the San Pedro bed was board
There was no light but candle, and so we
lay down at about o'clock counted the
hours rung by the church bell until mid
night, and then dropped off by taking the