Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/279

 Rh geological investigations, and also from the opinion of Baron Von Sontang.

"The temperature of this enormous maimed cone, during the summer season, is about twenty-two degrees below zero, Fahrenheith. The edges around the mouth of its crater are more than five thousand metres in circumference.—Those parts which allow descending into the crater, have a surface of about twenty metres, are covered with snow, and are known as 'Interior edges;' after this come various basalt and porphyry rocks, hanging out over the abyss, one of which is especially worth mentioning on account of its enormous dimensions; on its surface was located the malacate or windlass, holding a cable, by means of which a person was enabled to descend to a projecting acclivity, and from there to the Plaza orizontal of the crater.

"The height from the malacate to the aforementioned acclivity is some one hundred and fifty metres, and its entire depth about three hundred; the surface of the Plaza is about two hundred metres in circumference and the length of the acclivity some six hundred; the interior temperature changes, according to the proximity of the respiraderos or sulfataras.

"The Plaza orizontal of the crater contains rich and numerous layers of sulphur; from all parts more or less dense columns of smoke and deadly fumes are issuing forth, rising up towards the great opening, spouting out the sulphuric vapors. Among the principal sulfataras, some sixty are especially worth mentioning, but principally there are twenty-two, whose yellow outskirts of gold color denote the abundance of sulphur they contain; one of these sulfataras alone is about eighteen metres in circumference, and has several respiraderos in its center, from which a hissing sound is escaping, very much like that of a half-opened locomotive valve: of course, an immense quantity of sulphuric fume is ejected by these beautiful sulfataras, which may be counted as among the finest of the world.

"Complete day-light reigns at the bottom of the crater, as the rays of the sun penetrate down into it, and on account of this circumstance, a more picturesque or imposing scene can certainly not be imagined; but all this changes very quickly