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¶During the last 2 days we have travelled in company with a party going to some coffee ranches lying at the S. end of the Zempoatlepec range.- The man in charge is going out with his wife & boy to live on the ranch & has a considerable number of peones along on foot (men & women) who have been employed in the valley of Oaxaca. He complained of the many men who made a practice of deserting the first or second day out after having drawn the 4 or 5 dollars of advance money it is customary to give. This desertion is a regular thing & every time a set of men are hired a considerable percentage of them desert thus adding heavily to the average cost of getting men to the ranches.
¶Leaving San Carlos we parted from this outfit & went on 18 m. to the village of San Bartolo at 3000 ft. This is a village of grass & palm thatched houses in a hot dry valley.
¶The 22d we reached Las Vacos 18 m. at 2600 ft. in the dry hills where a few huts were grouped together living from the travel that passes here.|¶On the 23d we made 20 m. to the large village of Tequisistlan at 600 ft on the upper part of the Tehuantepec Riv- We were here out of the mts. & had only the trip down the river along the narrow, irregular val. to Tehuan. city. From the time we entered the hills after leaving Tlacolula & starting down the slope toward the canon at Totolapa we were in the arid tropical zone with only a few exceptions when we crossed ridges that took us up to an intermediate belt.
¶From 5000 ft. near Totolapa began the Melanines such as is found