CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY NO. li SI 



we were dumped out in the brush. This place was a station and a water 

 lank. All sorts of autos were waiting in the brush, and every one seemed 

 to be engaged to carry passengers who had booked ahead, but I finally 

 found a Ford truck that was not engaged, and the driver, a boy, agreed 

 to carry me to Carbo for 20 pesos. The car was like most Mexi- 

 can cars, in the last stages of decomposition, but it would run. So we 



nff. flvinp aloni? at the rate o f 25 miles an hour over a 10 



soon 



slipp 



knew how, but hitting the high places and all the mud holes, and diving 

 nearly straight down into new washes 10 feet deep, and out of them by 

 the skin of our teeth, but always getting there, as Fords do. ^ And so by 



__•-,! . J A_ ii Li; :i..^nr} +^iim PorKrt in flip hni<;h 



town 



by the side of what once was a raging river, but now a great sand 

 stretch, where the round house was hanging by one comer where the flood 

 had left it There was a sea of ifaces, men, women and children, and 

 dogs. There had been a string of houses facing the track, but half of 

 them had squashed down in the last rain, and the people liad set up some 

 poles and made a temopary roof of brush, which would protect them 

 from the sun. My baggage was piled in the waiting room of the .station 

 among the babies and dogs, and I elbowed my way through the thron? to 

 get something to eat Most of the people slept anywhere where they couia 

 •^et room to lie down in the brush, and they would put a tin can on a 

 fire and make some vile coffee and cook soraetortillas and call it a meaL 

 The men worked on the repair gang mostly, or gambled for a living, ana 



and 



was home. I soon 



So I went over 



told a woman was making coffee and tortillas near by. So I went over 

 there and asked for something to eat and she said Quien sabe.^ then i 



r^.A^ .: e „„*:„„ „r.A ..Vo ^^\A «'Si." and soon brought out some 



centavos 



[ no milk, some cliili, and tortuias, aim ^"--^B-^ • -" 



Then I sought a place to sleep. I found that at a ranch, 

 half a mile off, I could get a cot for a peso, and so I P°f ^. ^^". ^'7^^ 

 Returning the next morning I struck off acro.<^ the wash to botanue for 

 an hour Then when I reached the station hou.^ I found my gr.p had 

 been stolen. I hunted up the station agent and made ^/^^^^^^^^°^^'. '"^ 

 got him to start with me for the jefe politico Just then two Mexicans 

 came utp with my valise and said thev bad found it out ^J^Jf^ j^^;^f ' 

 rifled, and my things scattered over the ground. So I P^^^. ^^,^,^^^^^^^^^ 

 a peso and tcik the grip and jumped onthe outgoing tram J or Heirnosill 



nen worked a cute 1 

 All the way down 



grip ^d found it had not been opened 



So 



remains of fallen Mexican 



houses wherever we passed a ranch. Everywhere ^-^.^XTAMt th" 

 outs, railroad rails-hung up on the bushes where th^flood had lef t th 

 and the brush bent over, and the soU ^'^edout There were no f on 



anywhere, but brush everywhere. 10 to 20 ^f ^ ^/K>^ ^^f ,^Sld 

 bush with sharp thorns that tore the flesh ^"^ '^J^*^"^. ,^1"^^'^; 

 jolted along at 1 5 miles an hour till we reached the first station out 



