CHAPTER VI 



THE •VLmSHES OF CIL^PALA 



UR visit to the oasis of Afj}ia AzuJ was 

 one of many delights, but Avhen the mar- 

 vel of the bird-life of Lake Chapala and 

 its marshes revealed itself to us, the feel- 

 ings we experienced cannot be put into words ; such 

 one feels at a first glance through a great telescope, or 

 perhaps when one gazes in wonder upon the distant 

 earth from a balloon. At these times, one is for an 

 instant outside of his petty personality and a part of, 

 a realizer of, the cosmos. Here on these waters and 

 marshes we saw, not individuals or flocks, but a u'orhl 

 of birds ! Never before had a realization of the untold 

 solid l»ulk in numbers of the l»irds of our continent 

 been impressed so vividly upon us. And the marvel of 

 it all was the more imj^ressive because of its unexpect- 

 edness. 



A hot, breathless day found our little cavalcade 

 passing the j)icturesque old cathedral of La Barca. our 

 horses' hoofs stirring up a cloud of the omnipresent 

 adobe dust. A New England housewife who spends 

 her life in banishing dust from her home could exist 

 in the houses of Mexicans only in a state of insanity. 

 «4 106 ^ 



