Z^^rm OASIS AND DESERT ^ife; 



The most remarkable manoeuvre is a flying switch 

 performed with a single mule, a diminutive car, and 

 a bridge built across a sand-gully on a road leading to 

 the northwest of the city. As the car approaches the 





THE OUTSKIRTS OF GUADALAJARA 



bridge, a full gallop is attained by means of constant 

 and vigorous applications of the whip, while the con- 

 ductor hurls stones and Spanish epithets at the wildly 

 flying mule. At the critical moment, just as the open 

 ties are reached, the mule's traces, in some inexplicable 

 way, are cast off, he is swerved into a path at the left 

 of the road, and, well trained by long experience, 

 dashes down across the gully and up on the other side, 

 where he trots slowly along the track. Simultaneously 

 with his frantic scramble, the car's momentum carries 

 «4 67 ^ 



