"'About the year 1850, an enterprising Mexican named Corchado visited the crater, and brought away samples of the sulphur, which he carried to Puebla. A company was formed, and a considerable amount of sulphur was taken out, but owing to lawsuits and political troubles, the enterprise was soon abandoned. When General Ochoa was a student in the mining section of the military college his tutor was a gentleman who had known Baron Humboldt, and was greatly impressed with his remarks about the value of the sulphur deposits in the volcano. Through this gentleman's advice the general applied to the Government for permission to work the deposits, and he obtained a concession that gave him control of the mountain down to the limit of vegetation. Afterwards he purchased the rancho of Tlamacas, and established a refinery there; he has spent a great deal Of time in the crater, and as he is an able geologist he has much to say about it that is interesting.'
"According to his theory, which is based on the lignite formed at the bottom of the crater, there has not been an eruption of Popo for seven thousand years; by that he means an eruption on a scale corresponding to the size of the mountain, and not an occasional disturbance, in which the crater throws up a few discharges of stones and an unusual quantity of steam and sulphur vapors. In Prescott's 'History of the Conquest of Mexico' there is an account of an eruption in 1521, taken from a letter of Diego Ordaz, one of the captains under Cortez; but modern writers think that Ordaz mistook a violent thunder-storm on the summit of the volcano for an eruption. From what we saw at the crater we can readily believe that he made such a mistake.
LOOKING FROM THE TOP OF POPOCATEPETL.
"The view from the top of the mountain was the grandest we have ever taken, and one we will never forget while we live. The air is so clear that distance is strangely diminished; towns and villages that seem to lie at our feet are really many, many miles away, and as we looked to the eastward our guide told us that the streak of silver bordering the horizon was the Gulf of Mexico. Mountain, valley, table-land, lakes, plain, forest, all were spread before us, and in the range of vision from the top of Popocatepetl an area of twenty thousand square miles is said to be included. On one side of the mountain you can look down into the tierra caliente of the coast region, while on the other the eye is lost among the mountains and table-lands that stretch away until lost in the limitless distance."
So ends Frank's account of their visit to the great mountain of Mexico.
A DANGEROUS PLACE.