Expedition in Southwestern Mexico 343 



Loading Outfit on Pack Mules 



Photo by Nelson 



crowd. This is especially marked if 

 the visitor sets up his instrument in the 

 market place. The people are good 

 natured, and merely gather to watch 

 the doings of the ' ' gringo, ' ' whose ways 

 are amusing but past comprehension. 

 By focusing the camera away from the 

 crowd and then turning it quickly a 

 characteristic group can be secured. 



The tableland is bordered on the south 

 by the mountain wall of theSierraMadre, 

 which in this section has an easterly 

 trend. A belt along the northern base 

 of these mountains and including the 

 adjacent edge of the tableland may be 

 called the Lake District of Mexico. 

 This belt extends from the valley of 

 Mexico to the State of Jalisco, and con- 

 tains over a dozen shallow, fresh-water 

 lakes, varying in size from four or five 

 to seventy miles in length. This belt 



also covers a considerable part of the 

 area of the most recent volcanic activity 

 in Mexico, and the lakes all owe their 

 origin to changes of level due to volcanic 

 forces. Situated more or less intimately 

 among the foothills and outlying moun- 

 tains of the Sierra Madre, they present 

 many beauties of scenery that render 

 them most attractive. 



Lake Patzcuaro, in Michoacan, is es- 

 pecially noted for its beauty. It lies 

 among pine and oak grown mountains, 

 at 7,500 feet above sea level, and has 

 several small islands on its bosom and 

 a number of picturesque Tarascan In- 

 dian villages on its borders. One of 

 these villages is Tzin-Tzun-Tzan, where 

 in a rude little chapel is located the 

 famous painting by Velasquez, repre- 

 senting the Descent from the Cross. 

 After reading the highly flavored ac- 



