WHITE IBIS: TAMIAHUA LAGOON 



Photo by Frank M. Chapman 



the climate agreeable, the surroundings 

 picturesque, the vegetation luxuriant, the 

 inhabitants thoroughly Mexican, and the 

 views of Mt. Orizaba of surpassing 

 beauty. A railroad leads not only toward 

 both coast and table-land, but another 

 line goes south, and still another goes 

 north. Cordoba, with an elevation of 

 2,700 feet, is near the upper edge of the 

 humid Tropical Zone, and in an hour or 

 two one may go by train to the heart of 

 the tropics below or to the Temperate 

 Zone above. 



BEAUTIFUL ORIZABA 



But Cordoba deserves chiefly to be 

 known as the place from which. Mt. Ori- 

 zaba may best be seen. From no other 

 spot known to me is one more impressed 

 by the dominating majesty of this great 

 mountain. Towering more than 15,000 

 feet above one, its superb, sweeping, sym- 

 metrical outlines can be seen from flank 

 to flank, from foothill to summit. A 

 single view of this great volcanic cone 



will enrich the remaining years of one's 

 life with a precious memory. To be long 

 enough with Orizaba to experience the 

 ever-changing but never failing demands 

 it makes on one's love of the beautiful 

 and sublime, and to realize its power to 

 stimulate one's spiritual nature, is an 

 abiding inspiration. 



Further studies of the life of the Trop- 

 ical Zone were made at Motzorongo, 30 

 miles to the south, on the lately opened 

 railway to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 

 Here we found as highly developed trop- 

 ical forest as I have ever encountered, 

 and, in addition to many forms of trop- 

 ical birds, tapirs and monkeys are said to 

 inhabit it. Finally, our work in the Trop- 

 ical Zone completed, we turned our faces 

 toward the snows of Orizaba or, to be 

 more exact, toward the clouds of Ori- 

 zaba, for in consequence of a norther 

 which had prevailed for a week we had 

 been surrounded by fog and drizzling 

 rain, and the mountain had been invisible. 



The summit of Orizaba can be reached 



547 



