66 
from Cuba and erected sugar-mills, the one at Atlacomulco be- 
ing the oldest crushing-mill on the continent. 
The railway journey from Mexico City to Cuernavaca is most 
delightful, affording a splendid view of the Valley of Anahuac, as 
the train climbs the north side of the great Ajusco range, and an 
equally fine view of Morelos Valley, as it descends the southern 
slope. Mixcoac, where flowers are cultivated for the city markets, 
San Geronimo, surrounded by strawberry fields, and Contreras, 
where baskets of yellow hawthorn apples are offered for sale, are 
soon passed, and we enter the regions of lava and forest, broken 
at intervals by valleys filled with corn. Ajusco, near the sum- 
mit, is the center of the charcoal industry. Although pines are 
the most conspicuous trees here, oaks are by no means lacking, 
and they are cut in great quantities for charcoal. About fifteen 
ent: dollars worth of charcoal is consumed each day in the 
ity of Mexico alone. Indeed, the supply of timber is beirg 
rapidly exhausted in this way and prices are increasing at such a 
rate that a gas company has concluded that it will now be profit- 
able to supply the city with gas for fuel. 
The train now runs for miles across a comparatively level plain, 
the giant crater of Ajusco, covered with coarse grass and fields of 
wheat and corn, dotted with volcanic hills and clumps of pine, 
juniper, oak, willow, and spruce or fir. La Cima, the highest 
point of this plateau, is nearly 10,000 feet. Beyond Las Tres 
Marias, the southern wall of the crater is crossed and the descent 
begins. The railway station of Las Tres Marias, so called from 
hree mountain peaks to the east of it, is a collection of about 
fifty huts, half of them built of grass, in a low, fertile meadow 
where there is more or less water. It is a pity that there are no 
accommodations at this point for sleeping and eating, as it would 
an excellent base for visiting the crater and the fringe of 
ravines below. There is no doubt that this region, including 
the barrancas near Cuernavaca, is botanically one of the richest 
and most varied to be found anywhere in the world. Even in 
the middle of winter, we found there a profusion of flowers hardly 
equalled on the moister and lower elevations of the eastern slope. 
