80 Naturalist at Large 



banquet, given to all the assembled dignitaries, was one 

 of the most extraordinary occasions of its kind that I have 

 ever attended. The tables were set on the floor of an enor- 

 mous cave near the pyramids at San Juan Teotihuacan, and 

 not only were the silver and china — brought from the 

 palace in Mexico — decorative in the extreme, but the en- 

 tire floor of the cave was carpeted several inches deep with 

 tens of thousands of gardenia blossoms. Of course these can 

 be bought for a song in the highlands of Mexico, but the 

 effect was amazing and the scent almost overpowering. 



The inaugural festivities in Mexico ended with a proces- 

 sion in which General Diaz walked with the delegates, who 

 wore academic costumes and made quite a show of color. 

 The next day there was a military parade, and after seeing 

 the ten thousand Rurales prance by on their beautiful 

 horses and with their extraordinarily striking costumes one 

 little dreamed that in but a short time Diaz would be leav- 

 ing Mexico for Spain as a refugee. 



Before returning north Professor Tozzer, Clarence Hay, 

 Rosamond, and I visited the ruins of Xochicalco near the 

 boundary of the states of Morelos and Guerrero. The 

 things that stick out in my memory above all else are the 

 buildings which the Indians at the village of Temisco in 

 Morelos made to store their corn; the rock iguanas, big 

 black lizards which decorated every stone wall; the dreary 

 ride, and the uncomfortable night at the ruins. But topping 

 all else, I remember the visit to a near-by cave in which, 

 by the greatest good fortune, I managed to secure with my 

 hat some specimens of a rare bat, Choeronycteris. 



I became so interested in caves at one time that I sug- 

 gested to William Morton Wheeler that we start a Society 



