i:}2 A NATURALIST IN MEXICO. 



ties of minerals cropped out, and quite a collection was 

 obtained. 



About noon I reached the little village of San Anto- 

 nio, situated in a ravine, and on the opposite side of the 

 ravine the marble quarry was seen. The village consisted 

 of but a half dozen huts, and the inhabitants scampered 

 out of sight as soon as they saw me. The onyx quarries 

 were just outside of, and several hundred feet above, the 

 village. Here were lying about huge pieces of onyx sev- 

 eral feet square. One block was fully twelve feet long, 

 and a foot and a half in thickness. The whole mountain 

 seemed to be a mass of this mineral, and the road was 

 paved with polished marble made bright by the constant 

 travel over it. This onyx was a crust, interbedded with the 

 distinctive limestone. Hippuritc fossils were found above 

 and below, which determined its position. The beds were 

 several feet in thickness 



The absence of animal life about these mountains was 

 remarkable. Scarcely a bird was to be seen, and they were, 

 curiously enough, mostly birds of prey. A few ground-col- 

 ored lizards and a cotton-tail rabbit were the only other 

 animals seen. On the following day we left Tehuacan for 

 Veracruz. 



