AN ASCI-. NT OF MT. ORIZABA. 



5 2 9 



provisions on the horse and walking with the guides. There was some 

 compensation in this, as it gave opportunity of measuring my walking 

 ability. The guides had the advantage of being accustomed to an 

 altitude of eight thousand feet and of living a life requiring constant 

 walking. But before the close of the first day one of them complained 

 of the difficulty of breathing and on the day of final ascent begged to 

 return before the climb was completed. After three years of moun- 

 taineering with European university students, I am of the opinion that 

 the American college man of average athletic habits can walk with the 

 men of any nation. Good ancestry, good food, good habits of life, pro- 

 duce sood muscle. In the same class with the American come the 



'(- 



Fig. 1. Mount Orizaba, from Chalchico.mula. 



English and the Bussian student, while the German and French are in 

 a second class, and the Latin races in a third largely because of their 

 habits of life. 



By eight o'clock we had started for the mountain. The little burro, 

 buried under food, bedding, ax and shovel, led the procession. A guide 

 followed to encourage the burro and lead the cdballo. The second guide 

 came next to encourage the horse. I followed. The preceding evening 

 I had searched the lexicon to learn to say 'whoa/ Unnecessary labor! 

 The only expression needed was 'Get up!' — and that in the universal 

 language of the birch stick. 



A short climb soon brought us above the toAvn and showed the 

 flat-roofed plaster houses thickly crowded together without door-yards 

 or pavements in the narrow streets. Several churches rising above the 



VOL. lxi. — 34. 



