mainly to bad drainage, a most unhealthy city. The old Mexican railway to Vera Cruz, constructed and managed by an English company, after passing through the great plantations of Agave which supply Mexico with its favourite—but to me very unpleasant drink, known as Pulque, descends beyond Esperanza to the “Tierra templada," where we escaped from the aridity and dust of the “Tierra fria” in which the city of Mexico stands. Here we stopped in the town of Orizaba at a clean hotel kept by a civil young German lady who did her best for us, and here we enjoyed for a few days the charming sub-tropical climate with its wealth of flowers, fruits, birds and insects. Godman, however, had been detained in another part of the country and could not meet us so soon as we expected.
At Orizaba I first had an idea of the extremely rich flora of sub-tropical America, which was quite new and strange to me. Flowering shrubs, orchids, Tillandsias and other epiphytes were very numerous, and I collected quite a number of butterflies, most of which belonged to the great family of Hesperidæ or skippers. There were some fine coffee plantations, mostly belonging to English and German planters, who were thriving and hospitable, and if there was only a fairly civilised Government in Mexico this part of the country would no doubt attract many foreigners to settle in it. But the Mexicans of the well-to-do land¬ owning class as a rule are but half civilised themselves, and the labouring classes are Indians or half-castes and are badly treated in many parts of the country by the governing race. Americans have invested largely in the country in mines, but were not at all popular with the Mexicans; and though Godman was a man who ought to have been exceptionally well received and treated, and who spoke Spanish fairly well, we never received, either when with him or alone, any real hospitality from the Mexicans.
On market days at Orizaba a great many Indians came in to sell their produce, and much fruit including good oranges, fair pineapples, bad bananas, and that excellent fruit the avocado, which is now becoming popular in California and Florida. Food, as a rule, in Mexico was very poor and little varied. Flat maize cakes called tortillas are the staple bread of the country and occupy a great deal of the women’s time in making. Omelettes with tomatoes, and black beans cooked in lard, are also universal articles of diet; whilst coffee, chocolate and pulque are the usual beverages. Sheep are almost unknown, and dried beef and salt fish are about the only other articles of food commonly found in the country towns.
We stayed at Orizaba collecting plants and butterflies until March 21st, and then, hearing that Godman had arrived at Jalapa, went down by rail to Vera Cruz, a most untempting seaport, from which we were glad to escape before daylight next morning. There was a railway as far as Paso de San Juan, and there we went on by a tramcar drawn by four mules to Jalapa, an ascent of nearly 4,000 feet from Vera Cruz, which took eleven hours. Though the vegetation showed that the country was quite tropical in climate, it became quite cold when we ascended into the mist, which turned later into heavy rain, and this extreme variation of elevation and climate is very characteristic of the country.
At Jalapa we found Godman in a very fair hotel, and enjoyed two or
