122 Ascent of the Volcano of Popocatepetl. February, 
Here in passing I may remark that Orizaba is now said to be 
slightly higher than Popocatepetl, though Humboldt claimed 
that the latter was 600 meters higher than any other mountain 
from Mt. St. Elias to the Isthmus of Panama. Mr. A. H. Keene, 
in the Encyclopedia Britannica, gives the height as 17,176 feet. I 
obtained excellent views of this noble volcano at different points 
along the Mexican railway to Cordova. Seen from the west the 
snow fields stretched in glacier-like streaks down its slopes; at 
the station of Esperanza, however, the clouds parted so that the 
summit could be seen from the south, and it was observed that the 
dark streaks of sand or rock extended in broken patches to the 
very summit. Orizaba rather disappointed me from this point; 
it is far less imposing and majestic a peak than Popocatepetl; it 
is not so isolated, its great height being apparently lessened by 
the high mountains of the Sierra Nigra extending from it towards 
the railroad. Moreover its summit is broken up into subordinate 
peaks. Farther on near where the railroad descends into the 
great arranca or ravine west of the town of Orizaba, the volcano 
of that name is seen to be of solid lava, furrowed by deep ravines; 
while Popocatepetl is more like a vast conical heap of ashes. 
Never, however, shall I forget the magnificent view of Orizaba 
which I had from under the coffee trees and bananas of Cordova. 
It was eleven o’clock in the morning, the clouds had lifted and 
rolled away from the mountain, which rose in a magnificent con- 
ical mass far above its humbler fellows of the Sierra Nigra. 
From the illustrations given by Humboldt I imagine that the 
finest view of this imposing peak is from the forest of Xalapa, 
to the north-east. This volcano is said to have been quiet since 
1566." 
1 Mr. Hugo Finck of Cordova, who has explored the base of Orizaba, told me that 
the crater is one and a-half miles long and a half mile wide, but that it cannot 
entered. He saw Orizaba smokin ng, osaa the gases from the solfataras, and 
stated that the mountain had erupted near the base, where there are small craters. 
- He has'seen a glacier near the sum elage and there are aani soe slide down 
and melt ponies the summit above being bare, with no D h 
It bable that there are at the base of Oriz ag ern rocks, as Mr. 
Finck yer me that gneiss gccurs as far up the sides of thie mountain as 13,000—14,000 
feet, while higher up the mountain is composed of a e) rphy T apa the cen- 
ter of the Sierra Nigra and the mountains southward betw n Esperanza and Oriza 
ba, are Silurian, Devonian, and niferous strata uh: a feetid lack lim open 
netordell by bluish Jurassic limestones containing fossil fishes, oysters, belemnites 
and ferns. In the “bones hills three miles east of Cordova fine ammonites oc- 
It seems probable from what Mr. Finck told me, and my own hasty o bserva- 
tions from Mexico to Cordova all princi ormations occur from the 
center of the Mexican plateau to the Sp at Vera Cruz, the plains of the latter 
State being of Tertiary and Quaterna 
