VoL. I. | Mexican Notes. 215 
healthy flats. One arm of the estero passes through the town, 
branching off in the rear into indefinite, muddy shoals. Over this 
branch a small bridge is built, the timber used being the mahogany 
previously mentioned. Loitering on this bridge, I could see large 
schools of fish, of small and of moderate size, in the rather clear 
water, while the immediate mud flats, covered at high tide, were 
alive with pink-clawed crabs which lived in holes in the mud. When 
undisturbed for a few moments they would come up and wave their 
claws about in a curious manner, but a movement of the visitor would 
cause every one of them to disappear. This little side estero over 
which the bridge is thrown, forms the chief sewer and, as it 
is in the heart of the town, it is peculiarly and emphatically a 
most noisome, stenchable abomination, even in the cool weather of 
winter, while as to its possibilities in the heats of summer, it is evi- 
dent that the English tongue would lack adjectives adequate to the 
circumstances. The shores of the river mentioned a while back are 
well-timbered, furnishing supplies of many kinds of wood and tim- 
ber, of which, however, only cedar or mahogany is cut and exported. 
This timber is cut and hewed to a square form in long sticks in the 
forest, and then floated in rafts down the river and into the estero at 
the town, where it is held for sale and export. No saw-mill adorns 
the shores of these waters, for by the wisdom of the rulers, the export 
duty on squared sticks is but moderate, but upon lumber it is pro- 
hibitory. ; 
- Ashort mile back of town, as I have said, is a hill of some 200 or- 
300 feet, a sheer precipice of basaltic rock on the seaward side, thinly 
veiled with lianas and climbing vegetation of various kinds, but on 
the landward side sloping gradually back, and covered with an im- 
penetrable jungle of trees, vines, immense reeds, cacti and thorny 
bushes, among which are zapote trees and plantains growing wild, 
perhaps escaped from cultivation. As I went up the rather steep 
‘trail leading from town to the summit, I noticed that in places 
the path was over flat stones which appeared singularly out of place, 
yet well in place. Soon I found out that this was a real and original _ 
pavement laid by the old Conquistadores of Cortez’ time, and led from 
the port where they built their ships to their homes upon this 
-salubrious elevation, and upon it they tramped up and down at 
“eve and at morn, as they went back and forth to their work, three 
: hundred years ago. At the top of the hill are yet remaining miles _ eae 
