El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-10-14

.- LAJUEL.A, Costa Rica, Octo. 12.-
have just returned from the
4 hardest volcanic trip of my life.
As a boy, before the cog railroad was
built, 1 climbed up through the lava
ash Of Nesuvius and came within an
ace of being killed by a change in the
wind which threw out some OF the
redhot stones at my feet know the
volcanic mountains Of the Hawaiian
islands and have climbed up the IA
nous Tenger, the largest volcano IN
Java, which has the BrOmO, another
live volcano in its crater. have seen
StrOmbOI and Etna in eruption and
have made something OF a study OF
seismic conditions In the earthquake
land OF Japan. Ny other experiences,
however, were nothing like the climb
up the Poas volcano, which included a
ride OF more than Is hours in the sad
die of a Costa Rican pony over what
I believe is one of the widest and
hardest mountain trails in the world.
POas and Its Geyser.
I doubt If many OF you nave ever
heard Of old POas. Nevertheless 1t IS
one of the most famous volcanoes Of
Central America 1t belongs to the
volcanic belt Of Costa Rica, which in
cludes Turrialba, over two miles in
the air, Orosi at the extreme north
end Of the country, and Irazu, which
is more than II, 600 feet high and has
MED by earthquakes which have been
felt in the city Of Panama
The POas volcano has two or more
craters, and each is over a mile in cir
conference 1t has one which is on
the very top OF the mountain ulled
with a sheet of blue cold 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 a lake of
s1arl o n f-Elc
Eeyser on earth. At times this geyser
spOuts every few minutes. At other
times II Is quiet for long period and
again it viii throw q column OF sui
phurOus steam thousands OF feet into
the air About two years ago 1t shot
up a great volume of mud, TaDOr and
rock to a height above its surface Of
more than two and One-half miles The
distance to which the column reached
was estimated at over 1900 feet At
the top the steam spread out like a
mighty umbrella over the mountain
ana stones as big as cannon 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 a sec
Ond earthquake several months later
by which the city Of Carriage was
brought TO the ground, and about 500
human beings killed in the ruins.
A Night at san Pedro.
The first part Of our journey was not
eztrao ordinary for Costa Rica. but it
would have been worth a description
had it been made farther north. The
party consisted of myself and stenog-
rapher 1Ir- Carlisle Floeckher; my
interpreter. Air. De Soto, and a guide
whom we picked up at San Pedro, to
AlajueIa on the railroad, a distance Of
about 20 miles, and there packed our
outfit on horseback We had rain
coats blankets and sleeping bags, for
we were expecting to lie out in the
open with the winds of the Andes
bowling about US. We wore heavy
clothing and had on our pajamas over
our underwear and also chamOis jack
cts inside our coats Our blood IS
thin from our stay in the tropics and
we needed all we had on when on the
top of old Poas to keep US from freez-
ing.
Very fortunately, however, we We're