Expedition in Southwestern Mexico 



349 



Photo by Nelson 



Papayo, a Characteristic Hot Country Village in Guerrero 



among the foliage while they peered out 

 curiously at the strange intruders. The 

 memory of this camp is especially im- 

 pressed on my mind by the extraordi- 

 nary beauty of the sunsets. From our 

 elevated position there were several 

 points from which the view was unob- 

 structed across 60 miles of intervening 

 country to the volcano of Colima, on 

 the western horizon. The recent erup- 

 tion of the volcano had filled the air 

 with fine volcanic dust, which at sunset 

 caused the western sky to glow vividly 

 rose red, flooding the mysteriously dark- 

 ening aisles of the forest with rich shades 

 of color. 



The solitaire and other birds made 

 music in the forest throughout the day, 

 but the vesper song of the gray-breasted 

 robin ( Meruld tristis), uttered during the 



expectant hush of twilight, was beyond 

 comparison the most entrancing bird 

 music I ever heard. Every evening the 

 song of this bird came from some neigh- 

 boring tree top with such exquisite mel- 

 ody that one almost forgot to breathe. 

 Our mule-driver was one of the most 

 stolid and unemotional men I ever saw, 

 yet this song pierced even his shell. 



Every day or two Indians came up the 

 mountain, passing our camp, on their 

 way to the summit after loads of ice, 

 which they carried on donkeys down to 

 the towns on the hot plains six or eight 

 thousand feet below. The snowy sum- 

 mit of the mountain and the wintry 

 scene across the top of the range made it 

 difficult to realize while one stood chilled 

 in the cutting wind that the yellow 

 plains along the southern base were far 



