THE VOLCANOES OF GUATEMALA. 
483 
towards the Pacific and away from the lake. Thus both the naked-eye 
form of the ridge, and the geological structure, suggest that it is the lip 
of an enormous crater, and that the volcanoes of San Pedro, Atitlan, and 
Toliman, giants as they are, are merely secondary cones thrown up on 
its floor. If that is so, this crater lake must certainly be one of the 
largest, if not the largest, in the world. 
I made the ascent of Atitlan along with the proprietor of the steamer 
on the lake, with whom I was boarding, and a party of his friends. We 
started from San Lucas, at the east end of the lake, and rode first 
through cultivated fields, then through a woodland track, crossing one 
or two^ava-beds exposed in the bed of a stream, till at a clearing we left 
the horses, which could be got no further, and we entered on foot the 
virgin forest which clothed the slopes of the mountain. We soon had 
to have a path cut, which rendered progress slow, but we pushed on as 
far as possible till nearly nightfall, when we camped under a sailcloth 
brought for the purpose. Plate VII. shows the view from our camp, 
which was naturally the most open spot we could find. The trees are 
covered with mosses and lichens, which in places depend in festoons, 
and with hanging roots which grow down from the branches till they 
reach the ground and take root on their own account. The Mozo has a 
machete in hi^ hand, such as is used for cutting a jDath. The foliage 
overhead is so dense that the place is quite gloomy, even in broad 
daylight. The night was not particularly cold, but the ground was 
damp and disagreeable. We heard the cries of various animals in the 
night, but they did not come near us. Next morning we were up 
before daylight, and, without any special adventure, reached the top. 
The way for the last few hundred feet was over large, rather loose 
scoriae, and the actual top was a sort of plain with a slight depression 
in it, which might be supposed to be the remains of a crater. The 
surface was a mass of small blocks of compact lava, with cracks from 
which vapours escaped here and there. The view was very striking. 
The whole Lake of Atitlan was at our feet, except where hidden by the 
volcanoes of Toliman and San Pedro. The crater ring surrounding 
the lake could be distinctly traced, while the whole volcanic range 
from Santa Maria or beyond, on the west, to Fuego, Acatenango and 
Agua on the east, was distinctly visible. The coastal plain lay below 
us, and we got occasional glimpses of the ocean beyond, but soon the 
moisture condensed, as usual before midday, and instead of the Pacific 
we looked down on an ocean of clouds. I have seen this wonderful 
spectacle from many other heights, but never more grandly than on 
this occasion. On our descent, as we got to the level of the sea of 
clouds we had an opportunity of watching their formation. The warm 
moist air from the Pacific met the cold dry air from the plateau above 
the rim of the old crater of the lake, and the rolling, seething mass of 
cumulus clouds formed a mass never to be forgotten. 
