GUANACASTE—PUNTARENAS TO LIBERIA 439 



mixed with lapilli and pieces of lava. Although the summit 

 was again veiled in clouds, these were not yet very thick and 

 one often saw the summit. About one o'clock we had 

 reached the main ridge of the mountain and could hardly 

 stem the fury of the raging northeast wind. We followed 

 the main ridge for a short distance toward the east southeast 

 until we halted opposite the last peak where my guides as- 

 sured me that it was impossible to go farther. And indeed 

 going farther was not easy. Often one must walk along a 

 ridge hardly a foot wide, falling away steeply on both sides, 

 where the loose lapilli and the raging northeast wind in- 

 creased the difficulty, and then it was necessary to climb up 

 an almost perpendicular cliff. Twice was I compelled to 

 turn back here, but the third time I found a better ascent 

 and soon was standing at the very crater. For three days, 

 in August, 1863, this crater had emitted strong smoke and I 

 was therefore not a little astonished to find in the crater a 

 shallow, plate-like, completely enclosed basin in which the 

 rain from the driving clouds produced a rippling and which 

 sought exit through a small cleft toward the north. Under 

 these circumstances I believed that a second crater, more to 

 the southeast, must be expected, but in vain. On all sides 

 the crater fell away steeply and I could not discover any 

 other as far as the mist permitted seeing. I estimated the 

 crater on which I stood to be 500 paces in diameter and 

 hardly 100 feet deep at the highest, south, summit and only 

 5 feet at the north edge. From the edges of the crater, 

 when the wind tore the clouds apart, I had a glorious view 

 of the wide plain of Guanacaste and of the Pacific Ocean on 

 the one side and on the other toward the north and east, of 

 the forest wilderness of the Rio Frio as far as the beautiful 

 Lake of Nicaragua. ... A measurement of the height of 

 the crater was not to be thought of; I was glad that I es- 

 caped with my life." 



