1886. | Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. 121 
An hour was spent on the inside of the edge of the crater, 
where we ate our lunch. The air was delightfully clear and cool. 
We were wonderfully fortunate in having so clear and bright a 
day, as the peak is usually covered with clouds by ten o'clock, 
and for this reason we were advised to start from the ranch by» 
daybreak. The summit is of small extent, the edge of the crater 
is quite free from snow, but a few feet down on the outside from 
the edge on the north side, the snow begins as a perpendicular 
wall, three or four feet deep, like a petrified crest of a wave, as if 
the snow had been melted by the breath of the crater. The fol- 
lowing week on visiting Puebla, which lies due east of the mount- 
ain, we observed that there was no snow on the eastern and 
southern sides of the volcano, the snow fields on the northern 
side being preserved from melting by their more shaded situation. 
Without doubt the snow fields of Iztacihuatl, which extend along 
the western side of the range, are also thin, and give rise to no 
extensive glaciers. 
Whether there has been an eruption of Popocatepetl in historic 
times is a matter of doubt. It is possible that showers of ashes - 
may have been blown out of the crater, but certainly there is no 
recent stream of lava or obsidian on the mountain slopes. Hum- 
boldt, however, quotes from a letter of Cortez stating that much 
smoke rose from the crater, and that clouds of ashes enveloped 
two men who ascended part way up the mountain.’ From this 
it would seem that the volcano was rather more active three and 
a half centuries ago than at present, but it is to be doubted 
whether there has been an actual eruption of lava within a thou- 
sand years, According to various authors there were eruptions 
in 1519, 1539 and 1540, 
déposé par les vapeurs. En parlant de Pétain de Tasco dont ou se servit pour for- 
dre les premiers canons, Cortez rapporte, ‘qu’il ne manque point de soufri ~. 
fabriquer de la poudre, parce qu’un Espagnol en a tiré d’une montagne, de’; i> le 
Sort perpétuellement de la fumée, en descendant, lié à une corde, à la profon? ® r de 
70 à 8o brasses?’ Il ajoute que cette manière de se procurer du soufre est tres dan- 
gereuse, et que par cette raison il sera plus prudent de la faire venir de Serville” (Es- 
vai etc., 11, 673). The depth of eighty brasses “or fathoms would be 480 
1 However Cortez expressly says, “ That their men ascended very high, that they 
saw much smoke go out, but that none of them could reach the summit of the vol- 
cano, because of the enormous quantity of snow which covered it, the intensity of 
ths cold and the clouds of cinders which enveloped the travelers” (Essai politique, 
ete., I, 672), i : 
