""""SE COAST AND TABLELAND W^^^ 



every estimate of distance. Thus Orizaba scored a sec- 

 ond time upon us, putting to nauglit the evidence of 

 our senses. 



The town of Orizaba is said to be very healthy, 

 although here, as in Vera Cruz, the sanitary arrange- 

 ments are most primitive, and with the sun come the 

 ebony hosts of the feathered board of health — scav- 

 engers in the shape of Black Vultures and Blackbirds. 



The I'ide of the first few hours beyond Orizaba is 

 one of the most wonderful experiences in Mexico, if 

 not indeed in the world, and both words and pictures 

 fail utterly to describe it. The train is drawn by a great 

 double engine, and the grade is remarkably steep. 

 Round and round Ave slowly wound, in and out of the 

 valleys and mountain clefts, ever higher and higher. 



First we passed along the bottom of a wide valley ; 

 then, leaving it behind, we pierced tunnel after tunnel, 

 five, ten, fifteen, and more, each separated by a beau- 

 tiful vista of the valley below, growing ever more dis- 

 tant. Near the centre of the valley, a tall solitary poplar 

 at the edge of a little pond is a prominent landmark, 

 which comes again and again into view from differ- 

 ent points of the compass. The engines puff laboriously 

 up to a station set deep in the woods, and dark-faced 

 Lulian women cluster at the windows holding up gourds 

 of orchid plants or oranges or enchaladas. " Comjyrar 

 J as naranjas ? Favor de comprar las Jlores ^ " they 

 beseech for an interval, and the train passes on. 



«^ 25 ^ 



