:::::::::*• TWO BIRD-LOVERS IN MEXICO B::::::::: 



found walking little short of torture until we got to 

 windward of the sand dunes outside of the city, where 

 the air was clear, althouoh the wind was so strong- 

 that one had to creep on hands and knees. Crouching 

 in the lee of the great breakwater, we watched the tre- 

 mendous waves roll in ; vast walls of green and white, 

 which curved and broke twenty feet above the line of 

 ponderous masonry. Vessels would be shattered like 

 glass it' they were near shore on the outside, and even 

 in the protected harbour all their anchors were needed. 

 When the waves reached the foot of the breakwater 

 the spray was hurled sixty feet or more into the air, 

 and the sound was like heavy thunder. Now and then 

 huofe, handsonielv mottled crabs were hurled, frantic- 

 ally kicking, throiigli tlie air, over the breakwater, and 

 Cfood-sized fish were twice dashed toward us. 



Other craft than the vessels were riding out the gale 

 near us — a trio of Brown Pelicans, facing up wind, 

 rising and falling on the waves inside the line of fury. 

 Tliey floated upwards a few feet above the water, as 

 we approached, but tlie strength of tlie wind beat them 

 down again. Tlie line of froth of the lilgliest-reachlng 

 wave on the beach was darkened with the bodies of 

 thousands of insects, victims of the storm — tiger 

 beetles and small moths predominating. Behind tiny 

 clumps of grass along the beach, hard-pressed birds 

 had sought safety, and, when forced out of their shel- 

 ters, half ran, half fluttered to the next bit of weeds. 



■^ 18 ^ 



