;:::::::ae THE TROPICS a^"""- 



and a cornet, the performers were interpreting a bit 

 of grand opera. They bent painfully over the low 

 box, and when a gust of wind snuffed the candle, the 

 music ceased for a moment, to be taken up at the 

 same note when the taper was relighted. With miser- 

 able instruments and with no leader, they yet kept 

 perfect time, and hardly a note was flatted. The 

 rapt attention of the crowds of Mexicans and their 

 enthusiastic applause were hearty incentives to the 

 musicians to do their best. 



Before daylight we were up and mounted again, 

 feeling our way down steep barranca!^ and splashing 

 through ice-cold streams. Suddenly a warm glow of 

 light flooded us, and, glancing up, we saw that the 

 sun had lighted up the gray-white, lava-covered slopes 

 of Colima, which reflected the glory to us, deep in the 

 twilioht of a narrow o()roe. At the magfic touch of 

 this light the spell of silence was broken, as sleep re- 

 leased a great host of living creatures. Macaws, her- 

 alded by their harsh cries, passed over from their roost 

 in the piney depths of the mountain. The chorus of 

 Canyon Wrens rang out, and an oriole stirred the 

 echoes with a liquid whew-whew-whew-o ! A certain 

 species of Avild fig, a very characteristic and notice- 

 able tree in this portion of Mexico, grows upon the 

 sheer, rocky w^alls of the barrancas. It has a hard, 

 smooth bark, yellowish wdiite in colour, and its roots, 

 which are of necessity exposed to the air, are also cov- 



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