GEOLOGY. 



651 



(about 1G4 feet). The top of this volcano is covered with 

 eternal snow, and by a strange contrast its once blazing 

 summit, now almost extinct, has become an eml:)lem of the 

 alliance between the rigours of winter and the empire of 

 fire. The crater of Popocatepetl is about 1000 feet deep. 





296. .Summit and Crater of Orizaba. 



The descent, which is eflTected by the assistance of a 

 cord Avound on a windlass, is made for the pvirpose of 

 seeking sulphur. Arrived at the bottom we find a mass 

 of snow, and long stalactites of ice which hang from its 

 walls or occupy the soil in every place where the sun does 

 not reach, and which are not heated by the jets of hot 



