I04 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



a piece of lead foil lying on a rock had been blackened 

 by it. That there still is heat in the mountain is dem- 

 onstrated by the fact that the inside of the rim was free 

 from snow, while on the outside it was four feet thick. 



After an hour spent in taking pictures, we went on to 

 the top, which took an hour and twenty minutes. Sierra 

 Club Register No. 7 was deposited in a small pile of rocks, 

 and then began the descent. We got back to the guides, 

 who were a short distance below, and they assured us that 

 it would be impossible to descend in the orthodox manner, 

 i. e. by sitting on grass mats and sliding. The snow was so 

 hard that, once started, we should have been unable to 

 stop. We regretted greatly missing this slide, which is 

 said to be one of the best things about climbing Popo, 

 but there was nothing for us to do but to go down a step 

 at a time. Near the bottom, where it was less steep, my 

 friend tried sliding, and had quite an exciting time trying 

 to stop, which he managed to do by using his kodak as 

 a brake. On reaching camp we packed up, and started 

 for Amecameca, where we arrived at 9:40, returning to 

 Mexico early next morning. 



Ixtaccihuatl means "The Woman in White," and the 

 resemblance can be seen without undue stretch of the 

 imagination. The whole mountain represents the woman. 

 She is lying on her back with head toward the north and 

 feet to the south. And she is certainly white, for she 

 carries more snow than any other mountain in Mexico, 

 and several glaciers besides. The Indians have a legend 

 which tells them that Ixtaccihuatl was the daughter of 

 a rich chief. She loved a youth who had nothing, and 

 when he came to ask her hand, the father would not listen 

 to him and drove him away. Day by day the girl pined, 

 till finally, as she was about to die, she was changed into 

 this mountain, which even to this day preserves her form. 

 Her lover became Popocatepetl, and stands at her feet, 

 keeping eternal watch over her while she sleeps. 



The mountain is reached from Amecameca. The trip 

 takes just as long as the one to Popocatepetl, and the 



