CHAPTER VII 



CAMPING IN A BARRANCA 



VERY excursion or ride we took throuoh 

 mesquite or desert, or to the wonderful 

 marshes, revealed new mysteries ; we had 

 hardly entered the threshold of Nature's 

 wonder-house, but each evening the setting sun called 

 to us as strongly as ever it did to Magellan or Cortez, 

 and before long the summons became imperative. 

 Then, discarding all luxuries, we girded on khaki and 

 corduroy, cartridge-belt and revolver, and slinging 

 our cameras over our shoulders, we boarded the train 

 which would carry us to the end of civilization. The 

 six hours' run from Guadalajara to Tuxpan, on the 

 Mexican Central Railroad, passed quickly, for the coun- 

 try was pleasantly diversified. Stretches of alkali desert 

 give place to green oases dotted with 'dobe houses ; 

 sun-baked maize-fields and tangles of cactus alternate 

 with plantations green and restful to the eye. Such the 

 foreground, always level, Avhile at a distance, in all direc- 

 tions, low mountains rise in graceful lines, with softly 

 curving, ancient lava-flows showing gray and barren. 



Wherever a marsh appeared, dark and green, there, 

 as usual, feathered hosts were gathered. My journal 



«^ 122 ^ 



