CHAPTER VII 



( AMl'ING IN A B.\RRANCA 



VERY excursion or ride we took throuoh 

 niesquite or desert, or to the ^vollderful 

 marshes, revealed new mysteries ; we had 

 hardly entered the threshold of Nature's 

 wonder-house, hut each evenin<»" the settin<»" sun called 

 to US as strongly as ever it did to Magellan or Cortez, 

 and het'ore long the summons hecame imperative. 

 Then, discarding all luxuries, we girded on khaki and 

 corduroy, cartridge-belt and revolver, and slinging 

 our cameras over our shoulders, we boarded the train 

 which would carrv us to the end of civilization. Tiie 

 six liours' run from Guadalajara to Tuxpan, on the 

 Mexican Central Railroad, passed quickly, for the coun- 

 try was pleasantlv diversified. Stretches of alkali desert 

 give place to green oases dotted with 'dobe houses ; 

 sun-baked maize-fields and tangles of cactus alternate 

 with plantations green and restful to the eye. Such the 

 foreground, always level, while at a distance, in all direc- 

 tions, low mountains rise in graceful lines, with softly 

 curving, ancient lava-Hows showing gray and barren. 



Wherever a marsh appeared, dark and green, there, 

 as usual, feathered hosts were gathered. My journal 



<4 122 ^ 



