*• t» VT 
1892 
Lake 
Patzcuaro 
(Mlchoacan) 
broad belt of a yellow water-lily ( Nymphea mexieana) in the open 
spaoes along shore. 
Froia the shore of the lake the hills rise in sweeping contours, 
nowhere forming cliffs but ever in harmonious slopes and rounded 
butresses of volcanic soil over which is spread a cover of vivid 
green along the lower slopes, broken by areas of com land or the 
roofs and walls of the numerous towns and villages that lie dose 
to the water»s edge, feck of this the slopes rise to the tops of 
round-topped hills and long ridges from a few hundred up to 1500 feet 
above the water. The higher slopes are dark green from the growth of 
pines and oaks of several species which begin some 200 feet above the 
water and cover all the hilltops with few exceptions* 
Over these hills sweep a wonderful variety of cloud formations. 
Now that the rainy season is in progress these vapor masses afford 
a source of great interest. Now sweeping in voluminous masses, one 
piling on the other blotting out all the landscape, and dashing down 
torrents of water into the ruffled bosom of the lake, while a for¬ 
bidding gloom as of approaching night shuts us in. Then again, a 
cloud comes silently over the hillorests and marches across the 
horizon with a trailing gray veil of falling water reaching down to 
the earth, while all about a vivid sunshine and patches of brilliantly 
blue sky aloft and reflected below in the lake make the scene worthy 
a poet’s praise. 
Abort this lake and in the surrounding districts live the numer¬ 
ous tribe of Tarasco Indians who are an industrious and remarkably 
rough, ugly-featured people, still retaining much of their primitive 
customs and dress. 
These people were one of the most powerful of the Indian tribes 
inhabiting the country at the time of the oonquistadores, (There are 
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