346 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



bor we passed the "Playas de Cojuca," commonly called 

 the " beaches," but a small child on board, noticing this 

 sandy dividing line between the blue surface of the ocean 

 and the dark green foliage of the lower mountains, re- 

 ferred to it as the "Sidewalks of the Sea," surely a very 

 natural and appropriate name for it, I thought. From 

 Acapulco to Manzanillo, a distance of two hundred and 

 ninety-three miles, we covered in thirty-one hours, arriv- 

 ing in port at ten o'clock in the evening. The coast view 

 changed, inasmuch as the mountains along the last trip 

 were neither so high nor steep as those just passed. 



Thursday, November 19th, before any of the passengers 

 had arisen, we were again on the high sea and steaming 

 toward San Bias, at which place some German passengers 

 went ashore, who were connected with a large firm of 

 German merchants in Tepic. As there is no railroad run- 

 ning to San Bias, the stages and mule trains do all the 

 work. Everything is packed on mules; care must, how- 

 ever, be taken that one side of the load is no heavier than 

 the other. Sometimes two or three mules, one after the 

 other, carry long pieces of freight together and it is aston- 

 ishing how much these much abused creatures can pack 

 along. Opposite San Bias are the Isles de las Tres Marias 

 (the three Mary's Islands). I am told that ships coaling 

 there are occasionally lost, either in consequence of some 

 terrific storm or by accident more or less strange. Sea- 

 faring men have their suspicions. I forgot to mention 

 Cape Corrientes which is important as the border outpost 

 of the Gulf of California. The air is cooler but still warm 

 enough to suit me. By three o'clock on Friday afternoon 

 we sighted Cape San Lucas, an isolated hill, about three 

 hundred feet high, which forms the most Southern point 

 of the peninsula of Lower California. That night we 

 experienced the first complete calm during this trip, 

 which made it possible for us to hear the splashing of 

 the mighty wheels of our steamship. Vegetation is not 

 at its best in Lower California, the country looks rather 

 desolate; though the volcanic, rocky mountains, with 

 their many fantastic caves look picturesque enough, I 



