1 14 A NA T URALIS T IN MEXICO . 



height. On the sides of the gorge, forests of pine and 

 spruce were growing. All in all, this was about as wild 

 and grand a scene as one could well imagine. At one point 

 the path skirted the edge of tlie precipitous sides of the 

 gorge, and was very narrow, the gorge on the left and a 

 high wall of rock on the right. 



We soon came in full sight of the cold, snow-capped 

 peak, and dreary and desolate it did indeed look, but very 

 grand and sublime in the light of the late afternoon. We 

 now continued at right angles to the peak, and soon struck 

 another patch of pine woods; crossed a little stream, des- 

 cended the mountain a hundred feet or more, and prepared 

 our camp in a sheltering cave, formed by the lava as it 

 flowed from the crater. We were now at a height of 13,220 

 feet above the sea. 



While supper was under way a thunder-storm came up, 

 and we witnessed a royal battle of the elements. The 

 thunder rolled among the crags of the mountain, and the 

 lightning was almost blinding. The storm was so fierce 

 that we ceased eating until the worst of it was over. In 

 the midst of the storm a blinding flash descended, a deaf- 

 ning peal of thunder followed, and we beheld a large tree 

 cut in twain by the lightning bolt. We could plainly see 

 the electric bolt leave the clouds above and strike the tree, 

 from which a little column of blue smoke arose, and the 

 stricken half of the tree fell to the ground with a crash. 

 After the storm was over, I descended to the stricken tree 

 and found its stump black and burnt, and the tree cut in 

 two as clean as if done with an axe. 



A snowstorm followed this war of the elements, and we 

 were treated to one of those rare sights, of seeing, far away, 

 on the opposite mountain, the ground gradually become 

 white, but not being able to discern a single flake in the 

 air. 



