274 CAVE AND CLIFF DWELLERS. 
In a little over four hours we dropped 
from the land of the pine to the land of 
the palm, and this too on mule-back, a 
feat that could be performed in few coun¬ 
tries outside of Mexico. We were now 
out of the land of wild forests and wild 
men, back again among Mexican civili¬ 
zation, but of a kind almost unknown to 
the outside world, although one of the 
richest mining districts and one of the 
oldest points of colonization on the North 
American continent. 
Our path was now lined with lovely, 
flowering, thorny shrubs, that stretched 
out and tried to scratch us, and often 
succeeded as we passed by. When we 
reached the little plateau of the first 
orange grove we rested awhile, and from 
here could look back to the cool place we 
had left but four short hours before. 
