24 
CAVE AND CLIFF DWELLERS. 
toms: after passing the first one you are 
by no means through with them, for the 
next two, three, or even four towns may 
also have customhouse officers. I was 
in a Mexican town, La Ascencion, and 
had a wagon unloaded before I knew 
they had a customhouse. I expected to 
be shot at reveille the next morning; 
but instead they politely passed all my 
personal baggage without even asking 
to see it, simply examining the papers 
received at the first customhouse. 
After leaving Las Palomas our course 
lay southward across a high mesa , or 
table-land, until we reached the Boca 
Grande River. The scenery along the 
Boca Grande is picturesque and some¬ 
what peculiar. The river bottom is flat, 
very wide, and rich in soil; but on the 
flanks rise the Mexican mountains sheer 
