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*near the shore of lake Patzcuaro we passed several gigantic trees of yucca filiformis.  One of these I photographed.  The tree stood about 50ft. high and branched out some 15ft. from the ground.

The base spread so to measure about 18ft in diam. just above ground & in the narrowest part midway to the branches was 7ft. in diameter.


In the early morning we were astir but had hard work to get away.  The owner of the animals demanded part of his pay in advance, some of which he handed over to the servant who was to go with us.  We started out of town all right, but missing the man; sent my assistant back to find him.  The pack animals were found on a street corner & the muso had gone off to spend some of his wages on mescal & was finally hunted out & put on the road.

From then on during the entire day he was a source of constant annoyance to us.  In two villages that we passed he stopped and we were obliged to send back to get him started again.

Our route from Patzcuoro lay along the lake for about 15 miles giving us a succession of beautiful scenes of mountain and water as the change in our course opened new portions of the shore.

Fields of corn [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]] walled in with stone (or frequently adobes) along the lanes we followed with small adobe houses and occasional villages with their antiquated church