Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/396

 valley of Puebla, away to the north, lay half veiled in vapor, revealing little lakes, a village here and there, white church towers, and the varied hues of hill and vale, of wooded mountain and populous plain. Rising high above it was the extinct volcano, Malinche, or Malintzin, named by the Indians in honor of Cortés, and far away to the east the peak of Orizaba, a hundred and fifty miles distant, its snowy cone glistening like a diamond above the enveloping clouds. A glorious vision,—one that I could have looked upon for hours; but the gathering clouds of mist, rolling up from the valleys, warned me that it was dangerous to linger longer.

A wide belt of deep sand lay between us and the solid snow, flecked here and there with little drifts and straggling remnants of former storms. Through this we slowly and painfully waded, falling back at least one step in three, and breathing the first sigh of relief when finally among the snow-fields. Simultaneously with our reaching the snow, the threatening clouds gathered about us, and we were enveloped in as dense a fog as any I have ever seen on the Atlantic coast.

The real dangers to be encountered in the ascent of Popocatapetl, as enumerated by a traveller who preceded me by eighteen years, are avalanches, shifting sands, sand slides, lightning playing over the metallic sands, whirlwinds of sand, unseen chasms, and rupture of the lungs. We had passed the sands, and were now in danger only from the two last.

We were now fairly above the cloud strata and walking onward as in a dream, conscious of direction only by the steepness of the incline before us. The only guide-book that describes the ascent of the volcano warns travellers to "provide themselves with overcoats, veils, and alpenstocks, which they dive into the ashes and volcanic sand." It is not absolutely necessary to provide yourself with veils and overcoats "to dive into the volcanic sand," but you must have blue goggles, to prevent the effects of the strong reflection of the sun's rays from this glaring surface of snow. A person with a delicate complexion might also feel the need of a green veil, and the mozo should carry for him an overcoat or extra wraps.