VOLCANOES OF MEXICO. 29 



cross their axes, and from this junta, or converging point, the two systems are 

 merged in one as far as the isthmus of Tehuantepec. 



But if the Western Sierra Madre seems to be abruptly terminated at a short 

 distance to the east of Mexico by a rampart of mountains belonging to another 

 system of crests, the volcanic zone is continued far beyond Popocatepetl by the 

 eruptive character of the prevailing formations. Malintzin or Malinche, the 

 Matlalcueyatl of the ancient Aztecs^ which is called also Dona Marina in honour 

 of Cortes' young Indian interpretress, rises in isolated majesty to a height of 

 13,550 feet in the middle of the Tlaxcala plateau. According to the local legend 

 Malintzin was the daughter of Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl, and had wandered 

 far and wide before finding a favourable resting place. 



Other large eruptive cones stand on the verge of the uplands, on the border 

 range belonging to the Eastern Sierra Madre. In this range the two loftiest sum- 

 mits are the volcanoes of Cofre de Perote and Orizaba, both of which are visible 

 from the sea. The Cofre owes its name of " coffer" to the quadrilateral form of 

 its summit (13,500 feet), which is often wrapped in aerial shrouds, looking like a 

 vast sarcophagus raised aloft. The Cofre, which was the Nauhcampa-tepetl or 

 " Four-ridged Mountain " of the Aztecs, is surrounded by a malpais of lavas, on 

 the west side of which lies the famous Chinacamote cavern. This natural curiosity, 

 said by the natives to be six or seven leagues long, is of difficult access, owing to 

 the huge blocks that have fallen from the roof. 



Parasitic craters, which are now extinct, open on the flanks of the Cofre, and 

 from its base long lava streams descend seawards. Even beyond the tertiary and 

 quaternary deposits which overlie the older formations of the seaboard, a chain of 

 reefs, derived from ancient eruptions, and known as the Boquilla de Piedras, is 

 disposed in a line with the shore. Macuiltepec, or the " Five Mountains," on the 

 slopes of which stands the town of Jalapa, is also an extinct crater now filled with 

 vegetation. 



Orizaba, which overlooks the city of the same name some 30 miles south of 

 the Cofre, exceeds Popocatepetl in altitude. According to the lowest estimates 

 it is at least 17,500 feet high ; some observers raise it to 17,860, while Perez gives 

 it an elevation of 18,400 feet, or about 50 more than Humboldt's calculation. 



Orizaba's Aztec name of Citlal-tepetl, or " Star Mountain," may perhaps be 

 due to the fact that the summit of its cone is seen glittering amid the stars, unless 

 it refers to the burning lavas formerly discharged from its crater. No mountain 

 presents a more imposing appearance in the perfect symmetry of its outlines, and 

 the beauty of its snowy crest towering above the verdant belt of its forests and the 

 ever-shifting clouds of the lower atmospheric strata. 



The lower slopes are easily ascended, but the topmost cone presents great 

 difficulties, so that but few travellers have succeeded in hewing a flight of steps 

 in the higher snows, and thus reaching the ashes and scorise of the great crater. 

 This culminating point was first reached in 1848 by Raynolds and Maynard, who 

 were serving in the American invading army. Three years afterwards Doignon 

 followed in their footsteps, and to him we owe the first description of the crest, with 



