Photo by Frank M. Chapman 



ICE MINERS ON ORIZABA '. 13,200 FKKT 



son's flapjacks, and we learned that, rep- 

 resenting the owner of the region, his 

 duties were to permit only those to cut 

 wood or mine ice who paid for the privi- 

 lege. The men who had passed our trail, 

 it appeared, were on their way to the ice 

 deposits near the head of the Jamapa 

 barranca. This cutting of ice near the 

 summit of Orizaba to take to the hot 

 lands at its base is a primitive industry 

 which appeals to one as an eminently 

 practical demonstration of the effects of 

 altitude on climate, and to see it prac- 

 ticed we followed the trail of the cheer- 

 ful little men from the tropics 



Crossing rock-slides where pikas would 

 have been at home, we passed timber- 

 line, which on the northern slope of the 

 barranca was at 13,000 feet, but on the 

 southern slope appeared to be at least 

 800 feet higher. The short-leaved pine 

 was the only tree occurring here, and to 

 the last it stood erect, was symmetrical, 

 and attained a height of about 30 or 40 

 feet, or about one-half its maximum size. 



a city's ice: supply 



Where the barranca narrowed until it 

 seemed a mere crack in the mountain we 

 found a burro staked, and a short dis- 

 tance farther heard voices and the musi- 

 cal sound of cutting ice. We had traced 

 to its source the original "nieve" which 

 a thousand times itinerant peddlers had 

 nasally invited us to "tome" (take) in 

 the streets of Cordoba. Cordoba, it is 

 true, is now supplied with artificial 

 "nieve," but Huatusco and other towns 

 to the north not reached by- rail still draw 

 on the deposits of Orizaba. 



The men were working at an isolated 

 pocket of clear, crystal ice about 100 feet 

 above us. With serapes thrown over 

 their heads for protection from the rays 

 of the sun, and apparently not affected 

 by the altitude, which made us avoid 

 unnecessary exertion, they vigorously 

 chopped out blocks weighing about 75 

 pounds. With the aid of a lariat these 

 were carefully lowered down the steep 



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