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present Treasurer of the Mexican National Gas Company, which 
is spending $2,000,000 on an initial plant for lighting and _heat- 
ing, to be ready for service this spring. 
On the morning of January 10, we left by the Mexican Railway 
at an early hour for Orizaba, arriving at 3:30 P.M. The railway 
journey is of great interest, especially during its latter stages, 
The pyramids of the sun and moon; the famous battlefield of 
Otumba; the Plain of Apam, as celebrated for pulque as Munich 
is for beer; Soltepec, with its magnificent view of the four great 
mountains, Popocatepetl, Ixtaccihuatl, Malintzi, and Orizaba ; 
and Apizaco, the supply station for canes made of various native 
woods, are all passed in the first three or four hours. 
Beyond Rinconada, thin woods appear on the mountain flanks 
and subtropical trees hung with Florida moss fill the ravines, but 
these are soon passed and the great fertile plain comes into view 
that extends unbroken to the base of Orizaba. This plain is 
practically one vast field of wheat, with long rows of ripened 
grain, and threshing-machines at work, and also the primitive 
threshing-floors of the Egyptians, where horses are rapidly 
chicomula, the point of departure for the ascent of Orizaba, the 
monarch of Mexican mountains (18,225 feet) anll, with the 
exception of Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America. 
It was first ascended in 1848, by a party of General Scott’s 
officers, and the journey is frequently made now without much 
difficulty. A fine view of Orizaba was obtained at Esperanza, 
where we stopped for dinner. Here, on the edge of the great 
tableland, 8,000 feet above the sea, the train is inspected and 
prepared for its plunge to the coastal plain. 
As we begin to circle the base of Orizaba, we suddenly leave 
the desert and feel the first rain we have seen since leaving the 
mountains above Jalapa; and the change from parched earth and 
cactus to green grass and luxuriant vegetation is very delightful. 
