Ascent to the Summit of the Popocatepetl. 225 
At nine o’clock we reached the celebrated Pico del Fraile, be- 
yond which we could not get last year. Our names which we then 
imprinted with a hammer, remained perfect, only the first letters, 
towards the west, were become of a clear yellow color. 
This peak is a pile of reddish circular rocks, such as is to be found 
on one of the crests which runs down from the summit. Its perpen- 
dicular height is from eighty to one hundred feet, the diameter is 
about fifty. It termimates in a point, and is distinctly visible from 
Mexico. 
Our guides had consented to go thus far, but nothing could induce 
them to go farther. I do not think they were more tired than we 
were, but certainly they were under the influence of some supersti- 
tious fear. | 
Our way to the Pico was long and fatiguing, but not dangerous. 
We had not yet met with any snow, and it had not yet been neces- 
sary, as last year, to climb up with our hands. I felt less oppression 
than I had feared I should, and my pulse beat but 120 per minute. 
We were full of courage, had plenty of time before us, and the clear- 
est sky. 
We had planned to halt at the Pico del Fraile, and to recruit our 
strength by a light breakfast. 1 thought it would be imprudent when 
at that elevation to eat much, or to drink spirituous liquors, for the 
the nervous system is excited to an inconceivable degree. We, 
therefore, took no more than a little bread, and a little of the white 
meat of a fowl, with a glass of weak wine and water; and after one 
hour’s rest at the foot of the Pico, we resumed our journey. 
At nine o’clock the thermometer was at four centigrade degrees ; 
the barometer at 16.472 ; water boiled at eighteen centigrade degrees. - 
I did not make any hygrometrical observation. The sky was ofa 
much darker blue than on the preceding day. Unfortunately, we 
had no instrument wherewith to measure its density. 
At ten o’clock we were on our way without our guides, and, hay- 
ing to carry our instruments, we found them tremendously heavy. 
It is necessary to pass in front of the Pico, and to turn round it on 
the night. After having got beyond the Fraile, there is, on the left, 
or rather on its prolongation, a crowning, which terminates at a mass 
of rocks which exfoliate like slate. They rise up to about 150 feet 
perpendicular. The summit is covered with snow, and long stago- 
nites of ice fill up the crevices. ‘There is no outlet on this side. On 
the right is a tolerably deep ravine, which, from afar, we had taken 
Vou. XXVIIL—No. 2. 29 
