496 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



plain, and then descend three times as far. There are two modes of traveling : mule- 

 back and man back. It requires some preparation for such a pleasure-trip. As it ia 

 always cold and usually rainy, the traveler has his face well bundled up to protect it. 

 His hat has a covering of oiled silk ; his poncho, or cloak, which must serve also as a 

 blanket by night, is fastened to his saddle-bow, when not upon his shoulders ; and a 

 pair of leather overalls is drawn over his lower garments. Behind him comes a mule 

 driven by a peon, bearing a huge bundle resembling an enormous feather bed. This 

 is called a vaca, " cow," but no cow's hide would be sufficient to hold it. Besides 

 the usual baggage of a traveler, it contains a mattress, which the pleasure-seeker must 

 carry with him or do without. Women usually, and men not unfrequently, travel by 

 silla. A rude bamboo chair is fastened to the back of a man by two belts — one 

 crossing over the chest and another passing over the forehead. The rider, seated with 

 his back to his bearer, is completely helpless. A story is told, and the scene of it 

 pointed out near Bogota, where a Spaniard wearing huge spurs mounted his sillero, 

 whom he goaded as though he were a mule. The sillero, by a sudden jerk, pitched 

 his rider sheer down a precipice, then took to the woods and was never caught. 



The plateau of Bogota is, upon the whole, a most uninteresting region. It is most 

 noteworthy on account o{ its showing how elevation and local circumstances affect the 

 climate of the tropical regions. Lying just north of the equator, in a latitude indeed 

 in which, rather than under the equator, the hottest regions of the earth are found, it 

 reminds one not a little of the interior of Kamchatka and Alaska, which almost touch 

 the Arctic Circle. 



If the table-land of Quito is the most lovely, that of Mexico is by extent and variety 

 the most remarkable of the lofty tropical plateaus. Commencing at the Isthmus of 

 Tehuantepec, in latitude 16°, it stretches with varied breadth to the limits of the 

 Tropical Zone. With the exception of a narrow strip along the shores of the oceans, it 

 occupies in Mexico the whole breadth of the continent. It rises almost by steps into 

 broad, well-defined terraces sloping upwards, each presenting the climate and productions 

 of different portions of the Temperate Zone. Its highest level is traversed by moun- 

 tain ranges, sometimes rising into lofty peaks ; but its general surface is almost as level 

 as the ocean. A road from the city of Mexico northward for more than a thousand 

 miles would run over a dead level, hardly varying from an altitude of 7,500 feet. 



There is not upon the globe a great region which nature has more assiduously 

 striven to render a fit habitation for civilized man than the greater part of Mexico. 

 There is no one in which man has so persistently set himself at work to counteract the 

 designs of nature. 



Let us, starting from Vera Cruz, make the journey to and across these table-lands. 

 The Gulf bordered by a broad zone of lowlands, called the tierra calienta, or " hot 

 lands," which has the normal hot climate of the tropics. Parched and sandy plains 

 dotted with mimosas and prickly plants alternate with savannas overshadowed by 

 groves of palms, and glowing with the exuberant splendor of equinoctial vegetation. 

 The branches of the stately forest trees are festooned with vines and creepers, whose 

 flowers present the most brilliant hues ; while the thick undergrowth of prickly aloes, 

 matted with the wild rose and honeysuckle, often forms an impenetrable thicket. In 

 this wilderness of sweet-scented buds and flowers flutter clouds of butterflies of 



