vol.. I.] 



Mexican Notes. 



233 



paddling soon brings us safely across. The pueblo on the other 

 side is a mile away across a wide sand-bed and a 'lagoon, and we 

 must walk across the sand and wade the lagoon. At the hotel in 

 El Rio we learn that we can go no further to-day, as the stage with 

 which we should connect is hopelessly mired down, so I start out to 

 see what can be found. 



It is a cloudy day, and but few butterflies are flying. One bu- 

 prestid beetle on a flower is seized, but nothing else, and I turn my 

 attention to the vegetation, which is better here than on the coast, 

 as it is warmer and more sheltered from cool sea winds, and many 

 plants, especially vines, are in blossom. One bearing loose racemes 

 of pink flowers was especially abundant and noticeable. Another 

 more delicate one, found in an old corn-field, is called '* Lachryma 

 de la Maria'' (tears of the Virgin), and is the most exquisite thing 

 I ever saw. A second species of larger, paler flower is called the 

 same name, *' del campo,'' and is not quite so exquisite. Another 

 plant, a red asclepias, is very pretty; it is called *'La Senorita." 

 Still another leafy plant has silk pods like asclepias, but the flower 

 is tubular. Of this I gather all the seed pods I find, and lay them 

 on the ground to bring away as soon as I can get the flowers and 

 some queer grasses. Upon reaching the spot again, lo! my seed- 

 pods had vanished. The attendant crowd of idlers had stolen them. 



Ojo DE LA Monte. Ojo is eye, and monte signifies a wood or 

 forest, including all the trees and undergrowth as well, having thus 

 no exact synonym in English. There are many "Ojos " in Mexico 



of the mountain, of the plain, of water, and others. It means a 

 particularly lovely or sightly place. Ojo de la Monte I found to 

 be situated away up in the mountains, in the center of a wide basin 

 or valley, quite surrounded by serrated mountain crests. The 

 whole basin is covered with trees and brush and climbing plants, 

 with here and there a small clearing, while meandering through the 

 valley a small stream runs over its gravelly bed. In the center of 

 the valley, on a raised plateau, is the town, so that it was plain whence 

 the ** eye" was derived. It has a population of three thousand, and 

 of all this swarming crowd, not one of whom apparently has any- 

 thing to do, only one man can speak English. As the diligence 

 rattled in at its brave rate through the narrow streets, the brown 

 natives crowded the windows and doors and irrupted into the hot 

 streets, for the arrival of the stage is their only diversion and they 



