An interesting feature of mining life in Mexico is the search for sulphur in the craters of volcanoes. Popocatapetl and Orizaba are the principal mountains where this substance is sought, and an extensive business is carried on. The sulphur rises in the form of vapor, and is condensed around the crater of the volcano. It requires several years for an accumulation sufficiently thick to pay the expense of collection, and sometimes the work is very dangerous. Men are let down by ropes into the interior of the mountain, and sometimes they are killed by the heat and noxious gases. The miners are a hardy race, and seem to enjoy their venturesome occupation. [Sidenote: ASCENT TO THE CRATERS.] The ascent of these mountains is at all times difficult and fatiguing, and very few persons, other than the miners, ever attempt it. Sometimes an adventurous traveler happens along, and is not satisfied till he has made the ascent of one or both of the mountains, but he generally accumulates enough fatigue to last him several months. Of this number is Mr. D. S. Richardson, United States Secretary of Legation, who, in February, 1877, climbed the peak of Orizaba, or Citlatepetl, as it is called by the Aztecs, the star mountain of the Anahuac. He had previously climbed to the top of Popocatapetl, and from its summit had gazed out over a sea of clouds to the frozen top of its mighty rival, and now the position was reversed. Mr. Richardson was accompanied by Mr. Eustace Morphy, who, with indomitable pluck, held out to the last. The point from which the ascent of Orizaba is generally undertaken is San Andres Chalchicomula, a pleasant little town, which lies directly under the great volcano, at its southwestern base. Here the sulphur-miners and the ice-cutters come down to sell the products of their hazardous industry. The time selected, February 5th, was not at all favorable for the ascent. The miners and guides had all come down, and reported the ascension impossible for several days to come; there had been no such storm in fifty years, they said, and to attempt to go up was simply madness. Richardson and his companion yielded to their advice, and for a few days engaged in a hunting expedition—which, however, was a failure in so far as finding game was concerned. They saw one rabbit, and heard wolves and coyotes howling; but that was all. They were high up the mountain side, the weather was pleasant, and, as they had plenty of provisions, and no thought of care, they enjoyed the interval with a sense of absolute freedom. It was cold sometimes, and at night the little stars would look down freezingly through the tops of the pines, as if in derision of their foolishness; but these discomforts were as nothing compared with subsequent ones.