214 Mexican Notes. [ZOE 
Blas, like Mazatlan, is hidden from view by a hill on approaching by 
sea. This hill has for seaward front a bluff or cliff about two hun- 
dred feet high, crowned with bushes and small trees. The hill is 
the high extremity of a narrow peninsula, which is quite low op- 
posite thetown A small river enters the ocean between this pen- 
insula and the low, flat sand-spit upon which the town is built, only 
a yard or so above high tide, so that a tidal wave of very moderate 
size would completely obliterate every sign of habitation. Be- 
tween the peninsula and the town isa sheltered, shallow Dota. 
which forms the only harbor. Vessels of four feet draft might float 
in it, but it is chiefly navigated by canoes and dug-outs. Formerly, 
or say three hundred years ago, in the days of the old Conquistadores, 
it is said, the depth of the harbor was greater, and it was the most 
secure and valuable one on the the entire coast. A mile or less 
back of the modern town is a hill, about 300 feet in height, sloping 
gently backward from the sea, so that the bluff has an appearance 
of increased height and boldness. Upon this high place the San 
Blas of the Conquistadores was built. It is a magnificent site for a 
town and gives the visitor a view of the surrounding coast and coun- 
try, and why the modern inhabitants should choose instead to live 
down upon the low pestiferous sand-spit, is certainlya puzzle. One 
of the larger rivers of this coast empties into the ocean ten or fifteen 
miles to the northward, coming from the high “Tierra templada” 
_of the interior mountains and the plains beyond. This river is 
known by different names in its different altitudes, as is customary 
in this country. At the immediate coast it is connected with San 
‘Blas harbor by an estero.or tidal lagoon, by which boats and rafts 
from the river come to San Blas at high tide only. But the estero 
proper, or shallow tide waters and resultant mud flats that extend a 
long way back of the town, reeking and odorous in the hot sun at 
low tide—how can I do them justice! Suffice it to say that the first 
smell of it sent me to my quinine bottle for a tonic, and every day 
thereafter during my stay I renewed the dose; a precaution hardly 
- ever thought of at any other place during my journey in Mexico. — 
_ But the birds! Oh, the birds! What quantities without limit were 
there ; all sizes, all colors, all voices! On these mud flats vast num- 
bers of aquatic birds find a most congenial home. Evidently they © 
have no noses, nor sense of smell. Nor does yellow fever trouble 
them. Caymans of large size also adorn these unattractive and un- 
