1G92 
Patzcuaro 
(Michoacan) 
October 
planting corn some of which was just ocaning up* How the corn is full 
grown and almost ready to pick* 
After considerable chaffering with the owner, I secured an outfit 
of pack- and saddle-animals far a trip to the village of Hahuatzen, 
about 30 miles BW of Patzcus.ro in the heart of the mountains. In the 
early morning we were astir but had hard work to get away. The owner 
of the animals demanded part of his pay in advance, some of which he 
handed over to the servant who was to go with us. We started out of town 
all right, but missing the man,- sent my assistant back to find him. 
The pack-animals were found on a street owner and the moso had gone 
off to spend some of his wages on mescal and was finally hunted out 
and put on the road. 
From then on during the entire day he was a source of constant 
annoyance to us. In two villages that we passed he stopped and we 
were obliged to send back to get him started again. 
Our route from Patreuaro lay along the lake for about 15 miles 
giving us a succession of beautiful scenes of mountain and water as 
the change in our course opened new portions of the shore. 
Fields of corn walled in with stone (or frequently adobes) along 
the lanes we followed with small adobe houses and occasional villages 
with their antiquated church buildings were of continual interest. 
Several gigantic specimens of Yucca filiform!s were passed, one of 
which I photographed and measured rudely. It had a base covering 
20 feet in diameter at the ground and 6 feot above the ground at 
smallest part the trunk was 8 ft, in diameter. The tree then gradu¬ 
ally enlarged up to about 12 ft, where the huge branches forked. 
Its altitude was at least 50 ft. Several others were seen of similar 
size. 
Near the shore of Lake Patzcuaro we passed several gigantic trees 
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