48 The National Geographic Magazine 



like the distant firing of a great gun. 

 We waited expectantly for the earth- 

 quake shock which former experience 

 told us frequently followed such a 

 sound. Nothing came of it, however, 

 and the incident passed from our minds. 

 As we rode down the mountain in the 

 afternoon we had an unobstructed view 

 across the lower land to the volcano of 

 Colima, on the western horizon. The 



We camped in the midst of a noble 

 forest of pines and oaks on the west 

 slope of the mountain at about 7,500 feet 

 altitude. All about us was a luxuriant 

 undergrowth of flowering herbs and 

 shrubs. Numberless blossoms gayly 

 spangled the forest with brilliant purple, 

 blue, white, and yellow. A little higher 

 up the mountain was a forest of firs, 

 and below were lindens, hornbeams, 





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Collared Peccary, Guerrero 



top of the volcano was hidden in a large, 

 well-defined black cloud, forming a flat- 

 tened oval mass, inclosing the entire 

 upper part of the mountain and extend- 

 ing some distance in each direction. 

 This showed that there had been an 

 eruption of the volcano while we were 

 in the forest, and the sound we heard 

 had evidently been the explosion when 

 the eruption began. 



and dogwoods. We cleared a gently 

 sloping spot just below a great oak log, 

 and there, with nothing but the sky 

 above and the forest round about us, we 

 lived for about a week. Just at one 

 side of the camp grew a patch of blue- 

 flowered sage eight or nine feet high. 

 Humming birds were constantly glanc- 

 ing about among these flowers, and 

 many shy woodland birds took shelter 



