1890.] Geography and Travel. 763 
the fact that the two measurements were made with the same instru- 
ments, after an interval of only ten days, appear to leave but little 
room for doubt that the latter determination is within close limits the 
correct one. There thus seems no question but that the first place 
among Mexican volcanoes must be accorded to the ‘‘ Star Mountain.”’ 
The sense of excessive fatigue which marked the ascent of this 
mountain as compared with that of Popocatepetl was considered in 
itself a sufficient index of the much greater elevation. Messrs. Witmer 
Stone and F. C. Baker, two of Professor Heilprin’s associates, were 
compelled to desist from the final attack upon the mountain when not 
more than some 300 ‘feet below the summit. Mr. Le Boutillier’s 
strength failed him at an elevation of about 14,000 feet. 
As upon Popocatepetl, the snow cap upon Orizaba, although arising 
2,400 feet, or nearly half a mile, above the summit of the highest peak 
of the Alps, was a comparatively insignificant development. Only a 
quarter of an hour was passed on the crest of the mountain when the 
difficult descent through the numerous seracs of the ice was made. 
The camp was reached at a little after eight o’clock in the evening, 
thus completing a remarkable round of mountain-climbing of fifteen 
successive hours. 
The views from the slopes of the mountain are described as being 
surpassingly grand, far exceeding anything that Professor Heilprin had 
hitherto seen in his travels. Far off to the west the giants Popo- 
catepetl and Ixtaccihuatl were clearly outlined against the sky at a 
distance of about 100 miles, while to the east and south the eye wan- 
dered over a seemingly endless expanse of plateaus and lowlands, 
penetrating through a series of successive cloud-planes. 
ASCENT OF IXTACCIHUATL.—The ascent of the third highest peak 
of the Republic, Ixtaccihuatl, was made on the 27th of the same 
month on which the two other ascents above noted were also made. 
In its general features, this mountain differs broadly from the two 
peaks before mentioned. Although the remains of a volcano, it no 
longer presents either the symmetry or conical outline of its more 
famous rivals. A strong, flowing crest, covered with a heavy deposit, 
* some 75 or 100 feet in thickness, of snow and ice, serves readily to 
distinguish the familiar ‘‘ White Woman ” of the plain of Auahuac. 
Above what is now the highest point there at one time arose the 
crater wall, but the destruction through natural causes of :he summit 
has completely obliterated all traces of both the crater and wall. The 
heavy cap of snow, a true firm, or neve, feeds one or more glaciers 
which descend the western slopes. Across one of these glacial ice 
