Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Ihtblish- 

 ing Co. 



FROM TOLUCA SOUTH. 



(Ooiicluded.) 



AT last I parted sadly from my gentle friends of the Cal- 

 vario hacienda. My way lay through the barranca of 

 of Malianaltenango. The gulch is ahout five hundred feet 

 deep and shows for that distance a fine geologic section. 

 The name, which means "surrounded by water," is applied to 

 a village on a point of land which juts out from the east 

 bank, and round which flows the ^alado. The great cut 

 gouges throu.gh the plain far to the south, opening at times to 

 show the houses and fields hidden away in the"flat below, 

 and again closing to a width of perhaps not more than three 

 or four hundred j'ards on top. 



Tonatico, where we stopped at nigM, offered nothing re- 

 markable except a church font made out of the carved sac- 

 rificial stone of the early Indians. This was locked up and 

 I will not answer for it. 



I was told that former races lived in an old town in ruins 

 near by, but tliat, disgusted by the Spanish conquest, they 

 liad buried themselves alive. As a proof of this, skeletons 

 and coarse dishes are said to have been dug up by plough- 

 men. The proof may not seem cogent and the alleged 

 antiquity of the ruins was a bubble 1 could prick myself, for 

 I rode over eager to see some strange thing. Certain laborers 

 were at work near by, and, like most of us moderns, search- 

 ing always for jewels of .silver and jewels of gold in these 

 remnants of the past, they asked me with great interest, when 

 they saw me looking over the ruins, whether I had not some 

 skill in the discovery of treasui'e. I feai- 1 dealt a cruel blow 

 in tilling them that the old walls had not been built by early 

 natives of fabled wealth, but were of Spanish times." Very 

 beautiful was the dismantled church and the two or three 

 towered and buttressed fragments of masonry near by. 

 "Amata" trees had grown over the tottering walls, spreading 

 wide their clinging trunks hke molten metal "stiffened in 

 coils and runnels" as it flowed, but the treasure house of the 

 races before the conquest is not here. 



Farther down, as we journeyed along the next day, we 

 passed the old trenches raised by Alvarez, one of the family 

 of hereditary governors of Guerrero (of which at least three 

 generations have held power), when he drove back Santa 

 Ana. The Alvarez with their "pinto" troops, have indeed, 

 until very lately, held themselves to be independent sove- 

 reigns and permitted no meddling. Before the revolution of 

 Mexico the State of Guerrero formed the southern part of the 

 State of Mexico, and, after the divi.sion was made, the men 

 of Guerrero for long kept the name of the "pintos del sur." 



Every one here knows what "pintos" are, either by sight 

 or repute, but definitions are conliicting. Some hold that 

 certain Indian tribes are parti-colored by nature, but educated 

 opinion inclines to the belief that "piuta" is a skin disease. 

 Pintes, though found in other places, live mostly on the 

 west coast, from Sinaloa to Oajaca. They are thickest in 

 Guerrero, where the majority of the people, from the gover- 

 nor down, are spotted. 



The discoloration s appear first on the ankles, then the 

 waist, the wrists and afterward on the face. 



The blotches of varying size are sometimes violet, yellow- 

 isli, or of a dark blue like a powder burn. The borders are 

 indistinct, and though the flesh swells slightly, there are no 

 pustules or eruption. The skin scales off after a time, in 

 some cases to such a degree as to be a plague in itself. 



The disease is inherited and somewhat contagious, and de- 

 velops, at times, comparatively late. It is supposed lo be 

 caused by drinking bad water. 



In Huitzuco, inlxuerrero, where the scanty water is quite 

 brackish, ' 'pinta" is virulent. Mosquito bites are said some- 

 times to carry the contagion, and any bite that shows poison- 

 ous swelling should be burned with carbolic acid. 



Pinta has no effect on the general health except to make 

 the patient more susceptible to cold. It is curable at first. 

 If left it runs a certain course. The whole body gets spotted. 

 Then the spots turn rosy. In both these conditions the dis- 

 ease is communicable. After this the spots become of a 

 milky color and so stay. The borders of these white blotches 

 are distinct. This stage has no remedy. Few of the cases 

 that I saw were striking. Many seemed to be only disagree- 

 ably sunburned or to be dirty. Here either the trouble was 

 but beginning or the phase' of tiie moon, which, curiously 

 enough, is said to influence the malady, was not favorable. 

 The well marked instances seemed, astne name implies, really 

 "painted." Passing the trenches of Alvarez, 1 saw on an 

 isolated hill a brown pyramidal mound which my guide told 

 me was but natural stone. My suspicions of the guide's 

 ignorance were confirmed on riding nearer and asking an 

 intelligent native about the matter. 



Here at last was genuine antiquity. This mound, which 

 was called Cuautlambiejo was a "momostli" or sacred struc- 

 ture of the Indians. It was, , as nearly as I could guess, some 

 forty feet high and about one hundred and twenty feet across 

 at the base. Near the top a hole made recently in search of 

 treasure could be seen. Isothiog was found except rough, 

 solid masonry, Ai'ound were old stone foundations, buiied 

 skeletons, the coarse dishes called "apastli," the usual com- 

 panions of these remains. 



My informant told me that his father once in a similar 

 mound discovered two vases full of a certain powder. Sup- 

 posing the powder to be a poison or an evil charm he scat- 

 tered it, but a Spaniard afterward told him it was gold dust, 

 that it was the custom of the ancients to preserve their treas- 

 ures thus, and that the finder, "like the base Indian, threw 

 a pearl away richer than all his tribe." 



Nothing else interrupted this day's travel except a 

 moment's stoppage to look at one of the "coal" mines of ob- 

 sidian that are not uncommon in ill-explored disrricts. 

 Before noon we had passed an extensive limestone "pedre- 

 gal" or stone heap, and were bearing down to the little vil- 

 lage of Cacahuaimlpa. 



Near here is the great cave. As we approached I noticed 

 on the hillside opposite and southwest of the town two large 

 sinks, marking spots where the surface had fallen into the 

 hollow mountain. A great limestone ridge here bars the 

 egress of two rivers that flow from the north, and have bur- 

 rowed tunnels through the opposing mass. Probably the 

 cave is the ancient bed of one or both of these streams which 

 have now cut for themselves different channels. 



On the east of the ravine you go down to get to the cave, 

 strata of schist alternate with the lime, but the pitch of these 

 bodies shows that they have been worn away from the hill 

 where the cave is. The ravine is cumbered with, masses of ' 



Forest and stream. 



dirt and trunks of dead trees swept down five years ago by a 

 stream of water which burst out from a land-slide and then 

 subsided. At the same time a flood near Tcuango, coming 

 after a similar land-sMde, and stopping as suddenly, cost many, 

 lives. The scar of still another extensive slide, occurring at 

 the same moment, is seen opposite Mogote, and shows that 

 the earth action was widespread. 



Getting at last lo the bottom you find yourself in the 

 gorge of a brawling river. "Zopates," a kind of rattan, grow 

 thickly. Mingled with the liaiestone lie a few porphyritic 

 boulders, whose source I could not see, and at the right, not 

 two hundred yaids away, rises a sheer wall from the caverns 

 at whose foot dash the rivers of Cuautepec Harinas and Ten- 

 ancingo. 



These streams enter the other side of the mountain by dif- 

 ferent mouths quite distant from each other. They come 

 out not more than fifty yards apart, but that they have never 

 mingled is shown by "the fact that the Tenancingo keeps its 

 distinguishing reddish color at the mouth as well as at the 

 entrance of its tunnel. 



The cliff toward the west is some seventy feet high, rising 

 to twice that height as it bends to the north. The top of the 

 arched mouth of the Cuautepec is thirty five feet or so from 

 the water, while the arch of the Tenancingo is still higher. 



It is extremely impressive to stand, with the roar of the 

 water in your ears, looking down these gi'eat caverns, partly 

 coated with seeping lime and rough stylactites. The jutting 

 rocks grow dimmer in the gathering shadows of the moun- 

 tain's heart, and out of the blackness, foaming among the 

 fallen boulders, rush the headlong .streams. 



It is a long climb to get back from the river to the mouth of 

 the present cave, which, by the way, has no water in it at 

 all except one dripping pool, called "agua bendita." Out- 

 side, on the high places, are more Indian "raomostlis." 

 Within, on going down the great heap of debris time has 

 piled at the entrance, skeletons were found, and with them 

 the usual coarse dishes which perhaps had once held the food 

 prepared for the journey to another land. 



The Empress Carlota visited this cave in her short reign. 

 Later President Lerdo, in order that republican simplicity 

 might not be outdone by the decaying royalty of an effete 

 world, gathered together all that was distinguished among 

 his adherents in civil and military life, summoned several 

 regiments of soldiers and a number of bands of music 

 wholly disproportionate to the force, and camped in the very 

 entrance to the cavern. 



The soldiers were perhaps necessary, for the pronuncia- 

 dos were still rife and, if they could but have caught the 

 entire government at once in the mountain, they needed only 

 to get the range of the opening and bag them all ; but the 

 bands of music I fear must be "admitted to have swelled the 

 national debt for the mere purpose of personal delight. 



Lerdo is also guilty, among the other vulgar, of writing 

 his name on a conspicuous ornament, the only palliating 

 feature being that he wrote it small. Poor Carlota is almost 

 blameless in this matter, as her name was set down by 

 another hand. 



I have never been to the mammoth cave of Kentucky, but 

 from the accounts I have read of it, it is clear that Cacahua- 

 milpa is far inferior in size. Still the latter is extensive. We 

 went in about half past five o'clock and walked slowly but 

 steadily for nearly three hours. Probably we penetrated the 

 mountain about two miles, and there was said to be a good 

 distance more (perhaps a mile) that could be visited with 

 little profit before the ground became impracticable. The 

 roof is lofty throughout, !:ay twenty or thirty feet, and in 

 one place the small rockets we carried were unable to reach 

 the top. Prom the time they took in their ascent, I fancy 

 the roof there must be seventy feet or more high. 



The guide divided the cave into ten "salones," for each of 

 which he had a name. We visited eight. The stalactite 

 formations were not very numerous, but some were beauti- 

 ful. One I rememtjer looked like a jelly fish floating in the 

 water with all his tentacles hanging tangled down. One was 

 a white curtain rippling and waving like an aurora borealis, 

 and one, called the Panteon (a name corrupted to mean 

 cemetery and then as here sepulchre) was like a great 

 shattered column. 



Near Cacahuamilpa is a village called San Gaspar. It 

 holds about two hundred men besides women and children. 

 It is noticeable for the fact that here the people speak the 

 native language entirely, and hardly, if at all, understand 

 Spanish. Nor has the ancient blood lost its old hardihood. 

 The many crosses that testily to murderous robbery along 

 the road, have, in great part, been raised to the memory of 

 victims of this determined band. Last month even there 

 svas a dispute about the ownership of some land near by. So 

 hot the matter grew that two prefects, one from Tasco and 

 one from Tenancingo, came to interpose their authority. The 

 bold San Gasparenians were not to be bluffed by empty 

 titles. They held their ground until finally the difference 

 was healed by profitable compromise. Surely we have here 

 high qualities, both warlike and diplomatic. Signs of no 

 mean augury for the survival of the conquered race. 



Our next stop was at Ixtapan. Ixtatl, in Mexican {i. e. 

 in Indian) means salt. From this comes the modern name 

 Ixtapan de la sal. There are several towns thus called. In 

 my Ixtapan there are many acres of salt works. Three prin- 

 cipal springs have from 96° (36° centigrade) down to about 

 70° of heat. , ^ ^ 



At all these springs tanks of masonry have been built, and 

 the water boiling up from the bottom piles itself over the 

 surface in bubbling mounds. The working is primitive. 

 First the water which besides 1+ per cent, of salt contains iron, 

 magnesium, lime, soda, etc., is run over the ground at in- 

 lerals for seven or eight days. Then the salty dirt is shov- 

 eled into cylinders of masonry with a little well below and 

 water is soaked through the mass. From this strong brine 

 a coarse salt is got by evaporating over the fire or in the 

 sun, and brings an average price of $6 per carga (about $40 

 a ton). _ , 



The salt works are of great age. The little canals for 

 flooding have been raised by constant deposits from the flow- 

 ing water much above the surrounding level. Here Aztecs 

 worked and perhaps bathed. Here their descendants follow 

 their consecrated methods, talk the monotonous falsetto of 

 the native tongue, and also at times bathe, undisturbed by 

 variety of sex and unshamed by the common lack of fig 

 leaves. 



On the way to Tenancingo it began to rain. This gave 

 me a chance to see a classic garment in use. You remember 

 seeing pictures of Indian warriors clad in mantles of split 

 palm leaves that look like a shredded mat? Well, these cloaks, 

 though no longer used for continuous wear, are put on to 

 shed the rain,' I saw a good many of them, and was told 

 that the present, at all events the local, name for them is 

 "pachones." 



{Ato. 6, 1885. 



Beyond here you again begin to find many magueys. There 

 are three principal kinds: the "mano larga" (long hand), the 

 ceniza ("ash," probably meaning ash colored) and the "tlac- 

 amelo." The first two have bluish leaves, and are used for 

 making the inferior kind of pulque called "tlachique." The 

 "tlacamelo" produces, either alone or mixed with the sap of 

 the others, the "pulque fino" of Mexico. 



Three broken down horses and two men sufficiently disor- 

 ganized to command respect at last reached Tenancingo. 



Gumecindo soon came to me with the news that two rob- 

 bers, who had attacked a pack train on the road immediately 

 after we had passed in the morning, had just been brought 

 in by the "rurales'' (the federal volunteer cavalry). Either 

 "a martial and a swashing outside" or the evident leanness 

 of our treasure chest had guarded us from assault. 



.lustice here, when it is anything but the shadow of a name, 

 takes the form of government lynch law. The people have 

 not the energy to right themselves. The courts are so much 

 of a farce that, on the occasion of a recent ignoble murder, 

 the friends of the victim were compelled to get letters from 

 influential men to the judge in order that the assassin shotdd 

 be tried at all. But when crime is so common as to need 

 strong repression, the government .strikes with a heavy hand. 

 There are three ways of going to work. Either a colonel is 

 sent down with a detachment of soldiers, or men called 

 "agentes de seguridad" (a committee of safety) are intrusted 

 with power, or a single man worthy of confidence receives a 

 more permanent appointment under the name of a "comision- 

 ado." In the hands of these officers is placed complete con- 

 trol. The misdoer is condemned beforehand, caught and 

 shot and sometimes hung afterward as a terror to his fellows. 



Here my trip ends. My stud is sold. We have taken 

 places in the coach and roll bravely over the sunht plain, 

 while on the horizon gather rain clouds, and behind darkly 

 looms the great volcano wrapped in his robe of storm. 



My tattered but still magnificent servant leaves me, seem- 

 ingly not ill-content to be rid of the imperious rule of the 

 restless Saxon. 



I part with him ^vithoat regret. Others I grieve to lose. 



Ah! Don Ramon! Don Cypriano! Men moulded of earth's 

 choicest clay and tempered by heaven's directest fire, if you 

 ever wander may you meet your likes. I can wish you no 

 better fortune. 



Everywhere I found friends. Everywhere I left friends. 

 No one except the traveler seemed to weary of his company, 

 and if he, as the tombstone says of the drunkard, was his 

 own worst enemy, the kindly souls who cheered his journey 

 and lightened his rest are not the cause of that. 



God bless their hospitable hearts. H. G. Diilo«. 



A DAY ABOARD THE "SNEAK." 



THERE were three of us, Seven-up, Sneak and the Skip- 

 per. Seven-up was a dog, alleged a setter, but cer- 

 tainly a dog; Sneak was a 14x4 sneakbox provided with a 

 lug sail, a dagger board and oars; the Skipper— as Joe Em- 

 met say.s — "dot vos me." The skipper had gambled for the 

 dog and won him at a game of seven-up, hence his name. 

 The Sneak had been cruised in, fished from and hunted out 

 of, knocked about in lumber wagons and bumped about in 

 freight cars for four seasons. The skipper owned his first 

 canoe in '72, had owned half a dozen others since, and had 

 just made the important discovery that there were better 

 craft than canoes for single-hand cruising in open waters. 



We hadn't intended that Seven-up should be a passenger, 

 and the skipper had driven him home from the boat-house 

 and reasoned with him about the matter with a trunk strap, 

 but the Sneak hadn't gone a mile on her course along shore 

 before the dog was seen loping across the fields to head off 

 the boat at the point. Arriving there first he jumped into 

 the water and swam for the Sneak. Such heroism and 

 fidelity could not go unrewarded, and the skipper slipped 

 the boat-hook in his collar, used an oar for a skid, and 

 yanked Seven-up in out of the wet. 



The breeze was light and a catboat containing a party of 

 happy girls and boys walked past us easily. " The merry 

 crowd laughed derisively at the clumsy, plodding boat as 

 they swept by, and as a little Skye terrier on board sent back 

 a shrill yelp of triumph, Seven-up arose in all his majesty 

 and hurled forth from his dripping form such a hoarse roar 

 that the Skye sank back in affright and the skipper was 

 forced to subdue the irate setter's wrath with the bight of 

 the sheet. As we reached the lighthouse and rounded what 

 a certain lady cruiser calls "the corner of the land," the 

 breeze sensibly increased, and we made good time for ten 

 miles, when the sun's height and the skipper's stomach both 

 declared that dinner-time had arrived. 



Now all well-regulated sneakboxes have a large-sized cud- 

 dy in the stern for carrying half a hundred decoy ducks. 

 When you are cruising instead of ducking, that is just the 

 place to have vour alcohol or kerosene galley stove, with all 

 cooking appurtenances, and this is the very spot where the 

 Sneak's galley outfit was; but the skipper prefers to cook 

 ashore when he isn't in a hurry— and he can't recollect that 

 he has ever been in a hurry yet on a cruise— so the tiller 

 was shifted just a half inch' the sheet was paid out, and we 

 squared away for a shelving beach. Now the tide was 

 strong ebb, half out. The Sneak is a heavy boat and the 

 skipper a light man. who has had one foot in the grave for 

 nearly thirty years (and only kept the rest of his body out by 

 poking around in a boat at every available chance), there- 

 fore it is certain that if the receding tide leaves the Sneak 

 high and dry while dinner is receiving attention, she will stay 

 high and dry till the returning tide floats her off again. The 

 skipper has "been caught in this trap once, and while he was 

 •sitting on the sand for half the night among the doodlebugs 

 and mosquitoes, waiting for high water, he invented ashore- 

 anchoring device that has accompanied him on every tide 

 water cruise since. As the Sneak approaches shore he pre- 

 pares this device for use. The sail comes down first and 

 then the anchor is hove from the stern in a fathom or more 

 of water. The anchor rope runs through a galvanized block 

 attached to the anchor and has one end'pernianently fastened 

 to the stern. As the anchor falls the skipper pays out the 

 slack rapidlv, the boat has w^ay enough to draw the line 

 through the" block till her nose is ashore, the skipper lands, 

 passes the slack of the rope around a rock and ties the end 

 to the boat's bow. As soon as dinner outfit is ashore the 

 Sneak is pushed off and the skipper on shore hauls her out 

 to her moorings, stern foremost, by pulling the rope through 

 the anchor block, and there she rides in water enough to 

 float her at the lowest tide, while the skipper makes fast the 

 double line ashore. A pull on the portion of the li ne attached 

 to the bow will bring the Sneak ashore, and a pull on the 

 portion rove through the anchor block and attached to the 

 stern will send her back again to her moorings. 

 Driftwood makes a poor cooking fire, as it bums quickly 



