1892 
P&tzeuaro 
(Michoaoan) 
field, leave it buried there saying that if they take it away the 
crop will fail. The road to Sinsuntsun is across a causeway bull' 
over the eastern end of the lake, 
, i s * ► < ■ ^ f 
Back of the town of Patzcuaro, extending for many miles is the 
• * r 1 .. \ ' i ■ ; ♦' * *- v i „ t . ‘ r f - ( u * i i | ’ . 
’’Pedregal*' as it is called. This is a wilderness of rough, broken 
lava beds covered with a small but dense growth of oaks and other 
! ’ ■ »' ‘ • * . ‘ . * 1 4 * ’ . !• * f 
' 1 • •» * _ •• 4 . ■ - 1 , • k t 1 * 
deciduous trees interspersed with pines on the greater portion. In 
• 1 * ’ > ‘ | ^ i ■ r ’ 
this excessively broken country, like a mass of petrified waves of 
huge irregular size, are some deer and the large speoies of rabbits 
called "chapass". These rabbits are also found up to the summits of 
the high hills or mountains in this district always in the timber. 
East of the town a few miles living among the broken rocks at base of 
cliffs and in dense undergrowth were secured the very small rabbit 
taken here, while still another species was common about the fields 
below the oak timber. At the eastern end of the lake the jaokrabbit 
is found and between it and the summit of an adjacent mountain in a 
distance of 3 or 4 miles occur all 4 species of Lepus . 
In the old craters about the sutaaits of these peaks 
flowers and a great variety of humming birds and other birds occur, 
A fine pair of Ficus imperial Is was taken in the pedregal back of 
Patzcuaro, 
This pedregal leads back toward the low coast country and was the 
resort of numerous banditti a few years since, but the present govern¬ 
ment has pretty thoroughly disposed of them so that at present the 
Jefe Politico informed me that if two or three persons were together 
well-armed there was no danger. 
We hunted there without any sign of danger. It is a maze of 
paths which require careful watching to avoid being lost. Over be¬ 
yond, to the west, lie the famous coffee plantations of Uruapan. 
101 
