THE VOLCANO IRAZC 1 29 



look down into its depths at its own daughter-craters within. 

 We could look far north of Irazu also and see the windings 

 of the Rio Sucio through the forest plain, and to the west 

 parts of the volcanoes Barba and Poas were visible. Our 

 bed was made by laying the tentsack and newspapers on the 

 soft dry moss, upon them the rubber poncho, on that an old 

 shawl, then ourselves in winter clothing and rolled up in 

 blankets, two each. We were cold at times during the night 

 but we slept, even if not continuously. 



The lightness of the tent astonished us even before the 

 moon rose, and at times when the stars were temporarily 

 covered with clouds — at all times during the nights it was 

 almost light enough to read our watches. The tent was 

 fourteen feet long; it had belonged to Mr. Schaus and had 

 been especially waterproofed by having a coat of lard, paint 

 and linseed oil rubbed into it and then while still moist 

 treated with white paint and it proved perfectly water 

 tight. 



At five the next morning the moon and stars were shining 

 most brilliantly and we felt that one of the reasons for 

 camping up here was fully justified, for the early morning 

 is usually the clearest part of the whole day. We took a 

 bite and set off at once westward from our tent across the 

 main crater, which is nearly a mile in diameter, and then 

 climbed up a ridge of ashes and cinders to the summit of Ir- 

 azu, which our aneroid made 11,300 feet. As we climbed 

 a very strong wind blew from the east, but from time to 

 time we passed a low tree or small shrub and although the 

 branches and foliage of these were not dense they afforded 

 an astonishing amount of shelter from the cold wind. On 

 reaching the summit we saw a thick layer of cloud all around 

 the mountain several thousand feet lower down, blotting 

 out Cartago, San Jose and the other towns. Only the ex- 

 treme upper tips of Barba and Poas (which are 9524 and 



