1893 
Mount Qrisaba 
Poor thatched huts of the Indian peaces were scattered along in irregu¬ 
lar conjunction to form the Barrio de San Francisco, abotsi a league 
fhffi San Andres. 
Eero and there the white groups of Hacienda buildings were to be 
seen and patches and points of pine timber not yet cut away. As we 
left San Andres we ascended a sharp slope, the bluff-like drop from a 
higher bench. In this were to be seen sections of deposits of fine 
slaty black volcanic send that had been thrown out by the volcano. 
V' ” 
Other layers of a paler grayish yellow sand of coarser material alter¬ 
nated and a deposit of finely broken white pumice stone, bearing crystals 
of iron pyrites is one of these beds. This layer of white pumice is al¬ 
most wholly free from foreign matter and varies from 2 to 7 feet in 
.r ' i|l h 
thickness near Ghalehicomula. Lying above this pumice, but at what 
distance I failed to determine, is a layer of fine bluish black vol¬ 
canic sand which is only from 1 to 2 feet thick near Chalchicomula, 
but near the base of the mountain it is from. 10 to 20 feet thick. This 
layer lies near the surface of the ground and was deposited after the 
contour of the country became practically the same as it has today. It 
•follows the slopes of the hills down to the washes and deep drainage- 
ways both on the border of the plain and all up the side of the mountain 
to about 10,000 feet?beyond this I saw no exposures where it could be 
traced, probably due to glacial obliteration above that point. 
Above this black layer is the surface soil varying from a foot or 
two up to 20 feet or more according to the situation* This surface 
soil is a fine yellovleh send at the top with fine intermixed gravel 
of pumice and scoriae below* This is apparently the result of denuda¬ 
tion and disintegration of the higher peaks. 
A few miles out of Chalohicoanula we crossed a small cemented aque- 
•*- «* . *» . 
duct carrying the brilliantly clear water of a large spring near the 
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