Brief Notes on Mexican Forests. 279 



with a permanently located overhead cable construction such as is 

 used in modern mines in Peru to transport ore and people across 

 canons. In this case the logs and supplies are transported from 

 the rim of the Sierra towards a point situated 1,500 feet lower, the 

 terminal of the logging railroad. This length of the cable works 

 is 2-J kilometers at a cost of $22,000. This lumber company is 

 located about 200 kilometers north of the city of Durango at the 

 terminal of the International R. R. in the Sierra de la candela. 

 The logging itself is done in a very wasteful manner. The stumps 

 are cut very high. The cuttings spread all over the area, leaving 

 many places unfinished. The laborers are all Mexicans, receiving 

 from 40 to 60 cents gold per day. At least half the amount of 

 the wages must be spent at the commissary, but the most of them 

 spend all their wages, and little cash money is handled on a pay 

 day. The discipline in those camps so remote from civilization 

 appears striking to an American. Any disobedience or drunken- 

 ness is punished at the camp by tying the man to a tree with his 

 arms behind his back and making him stand on his toes, or else 

 he is put into the camp jail. The foreman is a deputy sheriff and 

 wears a pistol and a long sword (not to be confused with a 

 machete). 



The traveling on the Mexican Central from El Paso to Mexico 

 City is very pleasant with Pullman facilities ; the meals are served 

 in the Pullman cars. The trip lasts three days without changing 

 cars, and costs, including Pullman, $36.00. The trip from Mexico 

 City over Vera Cruz to Salina Cruz on the West Coast of the 

 Isthmus of Tehuantepec can be made in two days and costs, in- 

 cluding Pullman, $21 gold. In a year from now, one will be able 

 to travel from Mexico City to Guatemala City in Pullmans, a most 

 interesting cosmopolitan city with about 100,000 inhabitants and 

 a splendid climate. It is located 5,000 feet above the sea, which 

 makes its climate very pleasant. During the evening one can wear 

 an overcoat, although located 15 degrees north latitude. 



Two hours ride on the railroad brings one into the land of real 

 tropics with all its beautiful scenes and plantations. I recommend 

 every reader to make a trip through Mexico. It is not necessary 

 to know Spanish if one travels only to Mexico City as the con- 

 ductors speak English, but further south without knowing the 

 Spanish language, traveling may become uninteresting. 



