1894 
Tuxtepec 
(Oaxaca) 
April 
Clumsy oars poles to us© when advancing along the banks make up the 
motive power, The clumsy oars are lashed to a peg in the gunwale and 
are used, without the least feathering, by short strokes made mainly by 
the arms,- the rowers making very little body motion, The poles are 
forked at lower end and are 12 or 16 feet long. They are thrust into 
the mud and the poler then pushes heavily against the end and runs back 
about l/3 the length of the boat. Two or three men pole heavy canoes 
along 2 miles an hour or more in this way. These canoes are flat- 
bottomed with a broad flat platform extending up and out from bow and 
stern. This is the general shape of both large and small canoes ex¬ 
cept the very small ones which are merely dugouts* All of the larger 
canoes have wooden knees cm the inside. 
April It Today we left on horseback for a camp that I made on the 
edge of the virgin forest about 10 miles north of town. The road led 
over slightly rolling country covered with thick second growth. Our 
* r 
road led through some miles of matted jungle where long thorny vines 
and bushes interlacing across the trail caused us much trouble in making 
our way. We camped under a ruined hut partly thatched with palm leaves 
and open on all sides to the weather. The thickets came close up on ail 
sides and a few hundred yards away began the rougher hills covered with 
virgin forest. The trees and bushes were wholly tropical - cedar, maho- 
” ;'Vy? ; 
gcny, rubber, palms, Ceeropias and others being conspicuous. The rocks 
are all limestone but water is very scarce everywhere except along the 
Streams which occur at considerable intervals. had an Indian hunter 
( \ 
with us and a boy to attend to the camp. Peccaries, deer, Temesates, 
and monkeys (Atetes vellerosus) were the main game animals here but the 
two large speoies of pheasants were common and Chaohalaooas abundant. 
The two last nights of our stay oocurred heavy showers and on the 
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