"I said we came without accident; for the sake of exactness I must add that Colonel Watson was pitched out of his vehicle at the end of his ride, and stopped with his head and shoulders buried in the sand. Fred had a similar experience, with the difference that he went in feet foremost; as neither suffered any injury, and was ready to laugh over the mishap, my original statement holds good.
PACK-TRAIN FROM TLAMACAS.
"The Doctor had gone back to the sulphur rancho at Tlamacas, and thither we followed him as soon as we found our horses. It was too late to get to Amecameca that evening, and so we had another night among the sulphur refiners. The sulphur is brought here just as it is dug from the crater of the volcano; it is refined at Tlamacas and made ready for market, and is sent thence to Amecameca on the backs of donkeys or mules. General Ochoa says that in spite of its abundance he cannot compete at the coast towns with the sulphur from Mediterranean ports, and his only market is in the interior of Mexico. He intends to place some improved machinery at the edge of the crater, so as to reduce the expense of hoisting out the crude material; and in this way he hopes to lower his price. His plan is to run his machinery by means of the jet of air from one of the large solfataras, which he estimates at twenty horse-power.
"While we were absent on the mountain General Ochoa's agent told Doctor Bronson the following story about how the general came to own the mountain:
"'Serious attention to the richness and abundance of sulphur in the crater of Popocatepetl was first called by Baron von Humboldt; the existence of sulphur in the crater was known long before, as the Spaniards seem to have made use of it in the time of the Conquest. In one of his letters to the Emperor Cortez says, "As for sulphur, I have already made mention to your Majesty of a mountain in this province from which smoke issues; out of it sulphur has been taken by a Spaniard, who descended seventy or eighty fathoms, by means of a rope attached to his body below his arms; from which source we have been enabled to obtain sufficient supplies, although it is attended with danger." There is other evidence that the conquerors obtained sulphur from the mountain, but their methods were of the most primitive character.
AN IMPROVED REFINERY.