Year: 1876

camp near Guadaloupe the expedition


explored the main branch of the Coneios


for about three miles, and then diverged


on trail through pass in the steep


walls to the west, and over a heavily


wooded ACTIVITY, with q crest about 500
feet above the level. The way up the


hill was obstructed in the earlier stages


by fragments OF rock scattered in every


direction, like the debris of a spent
shower of meteors, and as we mounted


higher, another difficulty appeared in a
dense forest of cotton wood, with an
almost impossible underground of shrubs
and brambles. The facility with which
this tree adapts itself to circumstances
IS one of the marvels of the vegetable


world. When it has room it scars to a
height of seventy feet, spreading itself
out like an old yew, and it seems to
thrive equally well in confined space,
where hundreds Of its species are limited
in growth of six feet, and concentrated
within few inches of each other. It's
leaves are like those of the lilac, small
oval in shape, with the lightness and
sensitiveness of the aspen and the glitter
of the silver poplar. But most beautiful
is the bark, which in nearly all the ages
Of the tree is shade of soft gray, and
as smooth On the surface as piece of
ivory.





Climbing higher we became entangled
in this maize of cotton wood, which hid
us from one another, and knotted itself
in our brides and stirrups, making our
progress more laborous than ever. The
grass WAS tall aud rank, and sprinkled
with blue, yellow, red, and purple flow
ers, the blue and yellow vying with the
sky and sun, which at intervals were re-
vealed through break in the thicket.
Occasionally breath of wind swept
among the cotton-woods, and their leaves
shook and glistened like the drops of
silvery rain. So we went on, with our
arms extended over our mules heads to
ward off the obstructing branches, until
we came to a pile of moss covered lava
at the head of the farther slope Be-
meath us was the junction of two branches
of the main canon--two deep cuttings,
with high, precipitous banks, leading
from an even ridge to flat bottom
Here the cottonwood was still more
profuse and the other vegetation still
more redundant. The bed of the canon
was matted by l1lxuriant shrub, called,
our Mexican guide told me, the jara,
with leaves of vivid green and stalks of
bright red. Underneath this there was
low ripping sound, and when we
swept the branches aside, we discovered
brooklet running with the blush water
of freshly melted SHOWS. Shows Yes
with all the abundance of foliage, in the
middle of an exceptionally hot June,
white mantle still lay on the shady parts
of this canon, 5000 feet above the level
of the sea. The banks were covered
with cottonwoods varying in height
from six to seventy feet, all trembling,
all cleaning, as the WIND touched them.
Some majestic pines, with rugged limbs
and dusky green foliage, We're superad
ded to these ; and dense as the living
timber was, thousands of dead trunks
lay on the hill-sides, where they had
fallen in the laet tempest. Ahead of us
a cloud of blue smoke wreathed itself to
heaven, and presently we came upon
wide patch of land wasted and blackened
uy fires that were still spreading. As
we went through the hollows, the sound
of our steps was drowned in the beds of
MOSES and ferns, and numberless wild
flowers constantly tempted US to dis
mount and pica AfagG-
zine for May.