VOLCANOES OF MEXICO. 27 



North of Morelia and of the great Lake Cuitzeo, another group, consisting of 

 seven volcanoes, is disposed in amphitheatrical form round the depression known as 

 the " Vale " of Santiago. The craters of Alberca and of another of these cones are 

 filled with a slightly alkaline water like that of the surrounding district. The 

 ■local centre of underground heat is probably extinguished, but farther north the 

 geysers and jets of hot mud attest the continued action of the subterranean forces. 



Xinantecatl, that is, the "Naked Lord," usually known as the Nevado de 

 Tolica, rises almost due south of the city from which it takes its name. It is one of 

 the highest peaks in Mexico, being over 15,000 feet, or, according to Heilprin and 

 Baker, who ascended it in 1890, at least 14,700 feet, that is about the height of 

 Monte Hosa. The Nevado, with its gentle and regular incline, is easily scaled ; 

 the traveller need not follow the example of Humboldt, who kept to the beaten 

 path made by the woodmen across the pine and fir forests, which become more open 

 towards the summit, where the trees are replaced by scrub and a short grass 

 growing in the fissures of the porphyry rocks near the rim of the crater. 



Precisely at this point lies the parting line between vegetation and the per- 

 manent snows, which here persist on the northern slope even in September and 

 October, the two months of greatest evaporation. In the depression of the summit 

 two basins are flooded with fresh water, and after the rains meres are formed in 

 the neighbouring cavities. The melting snows and rains are sufficiently coj)ious 

 to prevent the two tarns from running dry at any season of the year. They have 

 an average extent of 80 acres, and fishes of a peculiar- species are found in the 

 chief reservoir, which is over 30 feet deep. The water is very pure and cold, 

 43*^ F., and it has been proposed to supply the city of Toluca from this source. 



From Nevado is seen on the eastern horizon the distant Cerro de Ajusco 

 (13,700 feet), which does not quite reach the snow-line. The lava streams from 

 this cone descend almost to the very gates of Mexico. Other less elevated and 

 now extinct cones, such as Culiacan and Ozumba, are disposed without apparent 

 order in the sections of the main range which stretches south of the capital. 



Popocatepetl, the " Smoking Mountain," most famous of the Mexican volca- 

 noes and one of those whose names most frequently occur in geogruj)hical works, 

 was long wrongly supposed to be the culminating point of North America, 

 although it is probably not even the highest jDeak in Mexico itself. The first 

 person known to have ascended Popocatepetl was the Spanish captain, Diego de 

 Ordaz. So early as the year 1519, while Cortes with his little band of conquerors 

 was still at Tlaxcala, this daring explorer penetrated into the Aztec country in 

 order to reach the summit of the " mountain of Guaxocingo," and to learn the secret 

 {saber el secreto) of the giant, whose crests were wreathed in dense vapour. But 

 it is uncertain whether he reached the top, Cortes stating that he was arrested by 

 the snows, while Bernai Diaz asserts that he really got as far as the crater. 



During the period of the conquest, numerous Spanish soldiers, and even Fran- 

 ciscan friars, ascended to the crater, and special mention is made of Montano and 

 Larries, who came hither in quest of sulphur for the manufacture of gunpowder. 

 Since the beginning of the present century, the mountain has been frequently 



