VOLCANO OF JORULLO, 



123 



TYRANNUS VOCIFERUS SW. 



many of whom could not speak Spanish. Here we were 



compelled to eat our meals with 

 our fingers, with what little aid we 

 could get from a wooden spoon. 

 Our fare consisted of fried eggs, 

 beans, tortillas, and coffee, minus 

 milk. In the thick woods about 

 the valley were numbers of beautiful 

 birds. Here I saw, for the first 

 time, the handsome blue macaws, 

 and a single toucan of large size. 

 They flew very high, however, and 

 I was not able to shoot one. I 

 was able to shoot a Cassin's King- 

 bird, Crested Cassic, a Western 

 Lark Sparrow, and a strange woodpecker; these, together 

 with a small ground squirrel, were the only specimens 



obtained. 



On the following morning we started on horseback for 

 the volcano of Jorullo. Our road lay over an old lava 

 stream, and was covered with large and small blocks of 

 lava. The base of the cone was reached in about an hour, 

 and here the horses were left and the rest of the ascent ac- 

 complished on foot. The surface of the cone was covered 

 with scoria? and the ascent was difficult, dangerous, and 

 fatiguing. The ririi of the crater was reached at last, 

 and the view afforded fully recompensed us for the 

 exertion. Inside the crater steam was seen issuing from 

 several vent holes, and light detonations could be heard 

 occasionally. On the north, south and west sides, the walls 

 of the crater were intact, but on the eastern side the wall 

 had been broken away, and the lava had flowed out in a 

 great stream, which reached far down the valley. The 

 temperature of one of the vent holes in the crater registered 



