accomplished by the use of a long gourd in the hands of the 

 tlachiquero, who thrusts one end of the gourd into the liquid 

 and puts his lips to the other perforated end and sucks, with 

 the result that the sap is drawn into the gourd and then 

 emptied into the whole pigskin carried upon his back. Fermen- 

 tation quickly ensues and the resulting pulque is used in enor- 

 mous quantities. It has the appearance of skimmed milk diluted 

 with water and is characterized by an ill-favored odor which 

 supply, even 



the 



iouthern Mexi 



of the 

 ,g from 



best quality, and the traveler is between the d 

 drinking from contaminated streams, and the disagreeable neces- 

 sity of using the illy flavored pulque with the general result that 

 one is endured at times and the dangers of the other are incurred 

 when the taste of the safer beverage palls. 



On the return to Tehuacan Dr. Rose and I left the train 

 at Santa Catalina where we were met by a section crew with a 



for the examination of the vegetation at closer range than that 

 afforded by a moving train. Many interesting and unrecogniza- 

 ble plants had been seen on the journey southward and we ex- 

 pected to secure some valuable material by the trip. In this we 

 were not disappointed, and by the courtesy of Mr. Morkill who 

 arranged the matter for us we experienced one of the most thril- 



The 



y grade drops 2,346 feet 

 omellin, a distance of : 



i the de 



t from Sta. 



of the 



ing the 



. by 



steeply walled c; 



curves in a short radius made possible by the narrow gauge of 

 the track. Our car was a wooden platform about eight or nine 

 feet long and half as wide which rested by open, wooden U-bear- 

 ings upon two pairs of car wheels. Our crew were evidently of 

 the determination to show us that a Mexican could slide down 

 hill as fast as an American. Standing erect the foreman used a 

 handspike thrust through a hole in the platform against one 



