Across the Mexican Mountains 129 



I am not sure of him. The lightning here is most 

 vivid, and on the sides of some of the mountains 

 of medium height, I found seared and scathed 

 patches of timber and undergrowth, as if ignition 

 of the electric fluid had taken place at those spots, 

 possibly attracted to them by the presence of iron; 

 if this is so, how terrific would be the destruction 

 to our company if such an event occurred where 

 we were encamped. 



July 28th. Paragarto. We did not leave camp 

 until nearly noon, waiting for a train of one 

 hundred and eighty-two mules packed with noth- 

 ing but flasks of quicksilver; the usual length of 

 trains is about forty to fifty, with six or eight men. 

 Our road was the usual ascent and descent, and on 

 the second descent I saw fifteen or twenty swifts, 

 about double the size of our common chimney swift 

 at home. They appeared to nest on the cliffs 

 opposite to the trail, a location similar to that of 

 the first Republican swallow my father^ found near 

 Cincinnati. 



Sundown found us in a beautiful little valley, 

 setting up our tents in the usual rain, and trying to 



^ The. Q\\^ ^-wzWow i^Petrochelidon lunifrofis) is described in 

 Audubon's Birds of America^ ed. 1840, vol. i, p. 177. Audubon 

 proposed the name Hirundo republicana in 1824, but Say had 

 named the species Hirundo lunifrons the year before. I am in- 

 debted to Dr. F. H. Snow for reference to the synonymy and 

 the account of the discovery of this species in Coues's Birds 

 of the Colorado Valley^ part i, pp. 426-429. 



