256 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May 



1903. 



who got off at San Antonio, and a young English mining 

 engineer who was to establish himself permanently at. Zaca- 

 tecas. The last named was a nice fellow, but very serious 

 withal, and responded with extreme reluctance to any attempt- 

 ed humor. For example, he had noted, as I had, the influx of 

 Americans to the country, and said : 



By the way, those planters now, what do they raise? " 



I replied : " The older ones, who are settled down, raise pine- 

 apples, cacao, and rubber. Most of the younger ones raise Cain." 



•■ But don't any of the older ones go into the sugar bn 

 too ? " he inquired. 



The whole of the first day"s ride on Mexican soil wis through 

 a lofty plateau, 

 very bare 

 first a nd dry, the 



MX. Chief Ve § e ' 

 talion being 



the giant cactus. 

 In spite of the 

 closing of the car 

 windows, the line 

 alkali dust sifted 

 in, coating every- 

 thing.and making 

 it quite diflicult 

 to breathe. To- 

 ward evening we 

 reached the min- 

 ing city of Zacate- 

 cas, which is more 

 than 8000 feet a- 

 bove the sea level, 

 and where we were 

 told that we 

 should have diffi- 

 culty in breathing, 

 because of the 

 rarefied a t m o s - 

 phere. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, none 

 of us suffered the 

 slightest incon- 

 venience. We did 

 suffer a disap- 

 pointment in not 

 being able to see 

 the city, which lies 

 hundreds of feet 

 below the railway, 

 but night had 

 fallen and we 

 could only guess 

 its location from 

 the twinkiing lights far below us. The next morning we passed 

 through Oueretara, where Maximilian was executed, and break 

 fasted at Tula, a station some miles further on. Here we were in- 

 troduced afresh to the staple articles of Mexican food, the tortilla 

 and the frifo/e. The former is a flat cake of unleavened bread 

 made of corn flour that tears like blotting paper and is about as 

 palatable. It is made by the native women, who treat the corn 

 first with a solution of lye to destroy the outer skin and then 

 crush it on a little three legged stone table called a mutate, by 

 means of a stone manoox rolling pin. This, mixed with water, 

 is baked, and is apparently much prized by the natives. The 

 frijoles or Mexican beans are of two kinds, negros and bianco. — 



OPALS. 





that is, black and white. To my palate the black ones are al- 

 together the best, although I enjoyed both. The Mexicans are 

 also very fond of meats which are cooked almost as soon as 

 killed, and, therefore, apt to be tough. In their cooking they 

 use a great deal of lard and make a greasy compound that a 

 gringo stomach finds hard to digest. 



I ["HINK it was at Tula that we got a first sight of Mexican 

 opals. It is well known that almost every visitor to the land 

 of the Aztecs has a vision of the purchase of opals at 

 an exceedingly low price, and the best of stones at 

 that. It was here that we all had our chance. Several dark 

 hued vendors showed packages of stones that were beauties. 



The asking piice 

 was high, how- 

 ever, and was low- 

 ered only when 

 the train began to 

 move. We all 

 knew what this 

 meant. A hurried 

 assent, the trans- 

 fer of the coin and 

 the package of 

 opals, and the sub- 

 sequent discovery 

 that another pack- 

 age of less valua- 

 ble stones had 

 been deftly substi- 

 tuted. So we all 

 refused to pur- 

 chase. Did I say 

 all? One shrewd 

 Yankee watched 

 his chance, made 

 his purchase, and 

 came back chuck- 

 ling. 



" I fixed that 

 tnozo," he said; 

 " I gave him four 

 big Mexican cents 

 instead of as many 

 quarters." When 

 he opened his 

 packet, however, 

 his face fell, for it 

 contained only 

 common pebbles. 

 A few miles 

 south of this we 

 had a fine view of 

 the great Nochis- 

 tongo canal, which in some parts is 600 feet wide and 200 

 feet deep, begun back in 1608, as a drainage canal for the 

 valley of Mexico. The railroad runs for miles by the side of it, 

 and when one appreciates the tact that every bit of the earth 

 was taken out in baskets on the backs of peons, the magnitude 

 of the work is appalling. The canal was never completed, as 

 there was an error in the levels amounting to about 40 feet, over 

 which the water refused to run. 



Soon after this the eternal snows of Popocatepetl and Ixtac- 

 cihuatl sprang into sight, and although few of the 



AIN passengers pronounced either of the wordscorrect- 

 snows. v * v 



Iy, all seemed to be sufficiently impressed. We 



