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GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO
85

land rents for five hundred dollars an acre per year, and the owners demand royalty on oil that may be extracted. The largest well ever discovered produced a million barrels a day, but only for five days. To-day boiling water gushes out into the lake. The next largest well is that of Cerro Azul. Its capacity is estimated at two hundred and sixty thousand barrels every twenty-four hours. It has been running steadily since 1914. The best wells produce more than sixty thousand barrels a day, and no well is considered very productive that does not give up ten thousand barrels between sunrise and sunrise. There is so much oil in Mexico that it gushes out of the ground as soon as a hole from two to three thousand feet deep has been drilled into the mud, limestone and sand. Some gushers have spouted oil six hundred and a thousand feet into the air before they were capped. One well emptied more than a million barrels into one of the valleys before it was capped.

From the railroad station we rode to the camp in a buckboard pulled by four mules. As the driver drew the reins General Enriquez saluted us. At last we were at one of the headquarters of the bandits. With Enriquez were his chief of staff, an Indian general, interpreters and soldiers. The general is short, heavily built and dark complexioned. He has long thin fingers, small feet and dark brown eyes. He wore a brown army shirt, riding breeches and tan boots. Round his