1894 
Orizaba 
(Vera Cruz) 
Maltrata are used for com, wheat, and various fruits such as oranges 
etc. At about 4500 feet begin a few tobacco, banana, and coffee fields 
but neither of these two latter plants begin to do very well until one 
1 t 
reaches an altitude of 4,000 feet in this vicinity. 
* . ' • j; • r * • A .i 
Cool fogs are very ecaicaon at Orizaba, sweeping up from the sea and 
enveloping everything, often for days at a time, in a thick mist that 
sets everything dripping. When the weather is clear the dews are ex¬ 
tremely heavy and the bushes, trees, and grass are glistening with 
moisture in great beaded drops at sunrise, and it is well along in the 
forenoon before this is gone* Birds were remarkably scarce about this 
locality with much fewer signs of the tropical fauna than I expected to 
see. Traps set in grassy end bushy fields about town yielded several 
. k,... • * r "V 
species of mice and in the woods bordering the river we took a large 
V 
new Sjtomys . Opossums of the common species were numerous and a few of 
a smaller gray species were taken with some of the common civet eats, 
like those of the tableland apparently. A Blarina and 2 sp. of Sorox 
with Arvioola qua?iater were also sectored here on north hill slopes and 
among dense thickets in damp places in the valley. The hills are all 
of limestone about Orizaba with the stratification titled up to a wide 
V 
angle from the horizon. She soil is not abundant except in the bottoms 
4 
of valleys and is far less rich than about Jalapa where the rocks and 
soil are all of volcanic origin. As a consequence the vegetation about 
Jalapa is far more luxuriant than here and coffee does much better there. 
The house where I have roams here is owned by a man who has worked 
much for the Mexican and other railroad companies, and so is somewhat 
liberalized in his ideas. At the same time, he is bitterly opposed to 
the present government and aocuses it of tyranny and the creation of an 
enormous debt. These are the common complaints of the opposition 
throughout the country, and I am surprised to find such a considerable 
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