CHAPTER Yl 



THE IVL-yilSHES OF CHAPALA 



jUR visit to the oasis of Agua Azid was 

 one of many delights, but Avhen the mar- 

 vel of the bird-life of Lake Chapala and 

 its marshes revealed itself to us, the feel- 

 ings we experienced cannot be put into words ; such 

 one feels at a first glance through a great telescope, or 

 perhaps when one gazes in wonder upon the distant 

 earth from a balloon. At these times, one is for an 

 instant outside of his petty personality and a part of, 

 a realizer of, the cosmos. Here on these waters and 

 marshes we saw, not individuals or flocks, but a loorlxl 

 of birds ! Never before had a realization of the untold 

 solid bulk in numbers of the birds of our continent 

 been impressed so vividly upon us. And the marvel of 

 it all was the more impressive because of its unexpect- 

 edness. 



A hot, breathless day found our little cavalcade 

 passing the picturesque old cathedral of La Barca, our 

 horses' hoofs stirring up a cloud of the omnipresent 

 adobe dust. A New England housewife who spends 

 her life in banishing dust from her home could exist 

 in the houses of Mexicans only in a state of insanity. 



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