122 A NATURALIST IN MEXICO. 



Now and then we met a caravan of burros carrying 

 large sacks on their backs, and driven by half-naked natives. 

 Occasionally, a whole family was seen, consisting of father, 

 mother, several grown up children, and one or two younger 

 ones. Late in the afternoon we reached Ario de Resales, 

 a small village of a few hundred inhabitants, where we spent 

 the night. Next morning we again set out, and about nine 

 o'clock reached a large pine forest, bordering the valley 

 in which was situated the volcano. The view from this 

 point was grand in the extreme; the great plateau upon 

 which we had been travelling ended here, and .dropped, per- 

 pendicularly, into a valley fifteen hundred feet below, leav- 

 ing a bare and ragged mountain wall on the east side of the 

 valley. To the right was seen Jorullo, standing out of 

 the plain, a great, black mass. In the valley were seen 

 plantations, looking beautifully fresh and green, and way 

 off in the distance the Sierra Nevada range of mountains 

 bordering the Pacific Coast. The scene was one of those 

 grand productions of nature which defied the pen to 

 describe, and which only the brush of the artist could 

 adequately picture. 



As we descended into the valley the change from the 

 tierra templada to that of the tierra calietite, or hot lands, 

 was very marked. Pines gave way to palmettos, papaws, 

 and other trees of the tropics. Loose thatched huts were 

 seen in place of the tight, mud-plastered huts of the tem- 

 perate climes. The little village of La Playa was soon 

 reached and we were cordially received by the major domo, 

 who had been advised of our coming. This little village was 

 very unique, and was composed of a single, large house, in 

 which lived the major domo and where all the supplies of 

 the village were kept, which was surrounded by a numbet of 

 thatched huts. The whole population did not number over 

 one hundred, and was composed almost entirely of natives, 



