1893 
Mount 
(Vizaba 
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Juneos, nuthatches and flickers were seen and heard here. Among the 
rooks I caught a lleotama here and a Sprex, A rvlool a. Orog e ny 8. and 
Sit caws were common in the tall grass on sides of the canon. As soon 
Jtf r —■ - -'ft) W 
as night set in the clouds that had hung over the mountain nearly all 
day began to break away, but a high wind rushed through the sturdy 
pines cresting the canon walls end filled me with considerable anxiety 
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for tomorrow. As the sky cleared the stars twinkled and flickered more 
than I had seen them before at this altitude and I feared a high wind 
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tomorrow. My man assured me that it was an impossibility to climb the 
mountain if a heavy wind should be blowing as it would sweep one off 
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the steep slope, Th®» they began discussing among themselves, for my 
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benefit, the various animals claimed to live on the summit. All agreed 
as did my guides at Popocatepetl that a kind of pure white mouse lives 
about the summit of crater. Then a white snake was located there and, 
finally one of the men began to tell of a white skunk but this was too 
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much and all of them began to laugh and ridicule him, 
I soon had my bed down under the shelter of the smoke-blackened 
overhanging rocks. The men clustered up about the fire on the saddle 
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blankets and their chatter soon ceased. The fire flickered low and 
across the canon I could see the dark swaying arms of the pines as they 
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sighed and writhed under the lashing of the windj the stars flickered 
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and glittered mockingly, and then I forgot everything in sleep, 
April 20th: Ascent of Orizaba, At 2 a,m, 1 stirred the men out 
and so slowly did they move that it was four before we finally got off. 
The wind was gone and the stars seemed to shine from a black void as 
we picked our cautious way out from the bright firelight into the inky 
depths of the canon, Finally we were out of it and leaving the trees 
behind wound silently up aoross the steady slope of sand, covered with 
scattered grass bunches, that leads to the foot of the volcano or final 
rise of the peak. 
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