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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



general mass of buildings gave picturesqueness to the scene. Before 

 us not more than a dozen miles away, and seemingly less, was Orizaba. 

 Usually the traveler in mountain regions is disappointed in the peaks 

 he would visit, because they are dwarfed by the neighboring hills and 

 mountain spurs surrounding them, and seem flat and tame. But on 

 that August morning Orizaba was the most majestic mountain that 

 could be conceived. It was the very picture of just such a mountain as a 

 plainsman would draw. Its sharp summit pierced the sky with such 

 favorable perspective that the great height could be really appreciated. 

 Snow came far down upon its sides. The treeless tract below the snow 

 line stood out plainly and ended with thick forests which covered the 



Fig. 2. Chalchicomula, and Outfit for the Ascent of Mount Orizaba. 



hills rounded and piled up over the mountain's base. A well-marked 

 trail led through the fields, some filled with black stalked corn, some 

 bristling with thousands of that valuable cactus, called maguay in 

 Mexico and century plant in the United States, and some entirely 

 barren. A horseback rider with a revolver at his belt came dashing 

 through the thicket and asked a drink of the guides. Though they 

 were going on a three days' trip and had but a quart of wine between 

 them they handed the man their bottle, how unwillingly I do not know. 

 Possibly the beggar was the proprietor of the hacienda through which 

 we were passing and took that means to levy toll. After two hours' 

 walking we reached the forest belt and spent the remainder of the day 

 within it. As in all mountain regions here the most common and stately 

 trees are pines and spruce. The pines nourish from nine thousand feet 



