1892 
Salazar 
(Mexico) 
Tacubaya 
(Mexico) 
Nov, 
wild hills and mountains, to whom human life would not weigh for a 
moment against the value of a day*s drunken indulgence if the fear 
of a speedy detection was removed, 
While waiting for the release of my assistant from his virtual arrest 
in Lerxaa, X visited the Museum of the Geographical Exp, Com, at Tacu¬ 
baya under charge of Prof, Ferrari Perez, 
They have a much better collection than the Nat, Mus.,- better in 
every way and more complete with large series of skins of birds which, 
unfortunately, have been collected with more idea of number than some 
more useful plan. Prof, F, Perez has studied in the N,S, Nat, Mus, 
and in Europe, and is doing in consequence some much better work than 
has ever been attempted by any Mexican naturalist. His specimens have 
the looality, date, and sex marked on a label, whereas in the National 
Museum birds, mammals, and other things simply bear the legend "Mexico”, 
However, the naturalist there at present. Prof, Herrera, appreciates 
the value of such data although the specimens placed in his charge are 
without them, 
Tacubaya is a prettily located place on high ground west of Chap- 
ultepec and should have been the location of the City of Mexico when 
rebuilt by Cortez,-but for a curious blindness on the part of the Con- 
« 
quistadores who rebuilt the city on the old marshy foundations with a 
beautiful site at the border of the marsh close by. Indeed, when the 
new city stiffened disastrous floods from the waters of the lakes about 
it in later years, the Spanish kinigs suggested its removal to the high¬ 
er ground but it was then so late that the vested interests in property 
were too great to abandon even in the face of flooded streets. Today 
the descendants of these short-sighted founders are hard at work ex¬ 
pending many millions of dollars upon the most enormous system of 
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