104 CRUISE OF THE BARRERA 



visit, such as ours, can offer no more than a glimpse 

 at the fauna and flora and that too only in its 

 particular phase of the season, and naturally no 

 attempts can be made to inquire into the life 

 history of the creatures observed. One would 

 suppose that the rapid transit of to-day, condens- 

 ing months and weeks into days and hours, would 

 yield to the collector additional time in the field. 

 Such, however, seems not to be the case. Indeed, 

 the very reverse is the result. The habit of haste 

 has been bred in us, and we must gallop through 

 paradise,time-table in hand. The coming aeroplane 

 packets will still further shorten our days for travel. 



With temporary packing for horseback travel 

 of our very large catch of fragile material it was 

 quite 8 o'clock before we swung into single file and 

 began the slippery journey back to the mine. At 

 the little mogote, surrounded by sandstone hills, 

 we stopped once again to search more thoroughly 

 for Urocoptis, hoping hereby to forge another 

 link in our chain of animal migration and develop- 

 ment, but no trace of this genus could be found, 

 despite much grubbing about in the vegetation. 



Banks of clouds that early indicated an after- 

 noon deluge were forming over the mountains, 



