96 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



FOUR MEXICAN VOLCANOES. 



By R. W. Poindexter, Jr. 



The City of Mexico is situated in a region marked by- 

 intense volcanic activity. Lying at an altitude of 7400 

 feet, on a plain so level that millions have been spent in 

 draining it, it is surrounded on all sides by lava hills and 

 ranges, and burnt-out volcanoes varying in size from 

 little cones and craters a few hundred feet high to the 

 great snow-covered mountains Ixtaccihuatl and Popo- 

 catepetl, which lie thirty-five miles to the southeast of the 

 city, and form one of the principal features of the land- 

 scape. 



It seems well worth while to tell my fellow-members of 

 the Sierra Club something about the four highest of the 

 Mexican volcanoes; for, although they have not the 

 wonderful charm of our Sierra, which for me surpasses 

 any heaven I have ever imagined or read about, they 

 have plenty of interest and individuality. Moreover, 

 Mexico City is visited each year by many Californians, 

 (that is, when there is no revolution in progress), and 

 from the City of Mexico all four mountains are easily 

 reached. It is surprising how little is written about them 

 when one considers the fact that they are quite often 

 climbed. A partial exception is Popocatepetl. I should 

 mention here a beautifully illustrated article published in 

 the National Geographic Magazine for September, 1910. 

 I was pleased to find Mr. Andrew C. Lawson's card, 

 dated August 23, 1906, on the summit of Nevado de 

 Toluca, and hope that the Sierra Club registers which I 

 left on the other three mountains will soon record other 

 Sierra Club names. 



The names of the four volcanoes, with their respective 

 heights, as given by the Mexican Society of Geography 

 and Statistics, are the following: 



