102 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



hole was a little old man with a big hat, who was boiling 

 eggs in a kettle suspended by a rope from the end of a 

 stick. This graphic description, however, is not true to 

 life, for, while there is a hole in the top of the mountain, 

 it is nearer a thousand yards in diameter than two, and, 

 while one might boil eggs in one or two spots, the top 

 of the mountain is on the whole better adapted to making 

 ice-cream. If some of the people who, when I was leav- 

 ing California for Mexico, offered me their sympathy 

 on account of the heat I was about to encounter could 

 suddenly be transported to one of Mexico's high moun- 

 tains, or even to Mexico City in mid-summer, they would 

 quickly modify their opinions as to Mexican temperature. 



About three years ago I decided that I wanted to 

 climb this famous mountain. So when a legitimate op- 

 portunity to visit Mexico came my way, I seized it at 

 once. On getting here I found that climbing "Popo," 

 as they call it, is a regular tourist stunt. There is a place 

 called Popo Park, and for the fixed sum of fifty pesos 

 the proprietor thereof agrees to take any one to the edge 

 of the crater, even if it is necessary to carry him part of 

 the way on a stretcher. 



When I at last realized my long-cherished desire Ame- 

 cameca, and not Popo Park, was the starting-point. The 

 chief reason for this was the reduction in the cost of the 

 trip from fifty pesos to fifteen. 



Mr. George Holderer, of New York, accompanied me. 

 Taking an early train, we reached Amecameca at 9:45, 

 and having made arrangement beforehand, guides and 

 horses were awaiting. We set out in a southeast direc- 

 tion, following the road which Cortez is said to have built 

 between Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl for the purpose 

 of attacking Mexico City. But we left this road before 

 reaching the saddle between the two mountains, and went 

 to Rancho Tlamacas. This consisted of a few shacks 

 and some iron retorts, formerly used in distilling sulphur. 

 The sulphur was hauled out of the crater with a windlass 

 and then skidded down the snow-covered sides of the 



