Four Mexican Volcanoes. 



107 



body of water just east of Mexico City, are included. 

 Coming down was easy, with several places where sliding 

 on the snow was possible ; the rest of the way being gravel 

 and loose rock. We all returned to Amecameca the same 

 day and to Mexico City on the following morning. 



The highest mountain in Mexico, and the third highest 

 in North America, is Pico de Orizaba, or Citlaltepetl, as 

 the Indians used to call it. It is situated less than a 

 hundred miles west of Vera Cruz, and can be seen well 

 out to sea in clear weather. While the approach from 

 the west is over a plain having an elevation of more than 

 7,503 feet, from the east it rises practically from sea- 

 level. It is a long slope, with the tropics at the base and 

 glaciers at the top. The mountain is sharply pointed, 

 but lacks the symmetry of Popocatepetl on account of a 

 spur on the north side. 



The usual, and most convenient way of approach is 

 from the town of San Andres Chalchicomula, in the State 

 of Puebla, 220 kilometers east of Mexico, on the Mexican 

 Railway. The town is eight kilometers from the station, 

 and several little cars, first and second class, travel between 

 the depot and the town at train-time. Four mules each 

 are required to pull the cars up to the town, but, as there is 

 an even grade, they coast all the way down again, the 

 mules being sent on ahead. The country which these 

 cars cross, and even the mountain itself, belong to a huge 

 hacienda eighty kilometers long by thirty wide. San 

 Andres is an attractive little town of perhaps 5,000 inhab- 

 itants. Snow-covered Orizaba and the dark dome of 

 Cerro Negro, a crater 15,000 feet high just south of it, 

 fill a large part of the horizon in a direction north of east. 

 The two mountains are about fifteen miles from the town. 



The trip to the cave, from which the climb of Orizaba 

 is made, is a very beautiful one. The road, or trail (it is 

 half-way between the two) goes on a gentle up-grade to 

 the suburb of San Francisco, passing at one place through 

 a narrow cut, whose vertical walls are spanned by masonry 

 aqueducts. Then rolling, cultivated country is crossed, 



