Viewing page 10 of 21

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

At Chijol we slept in an old boxcar half full of scrap iron from some wreck. Finally it was hauled away & we had to rescue our belongings.

On the eve. of the 8th we went down the R.R. to [[strikethrough?]] a station called Velasco where a wood cutting camp is located. The place was in charge of a subcontractor named Fletcher with whom we stopped in a rude hut by the station. The place is in the midst of a great forest of scrubby ebony trees averaging about 15-20 ft. high. They are valueless except for firewood owing to the fact that all of the larger trunks 10-15 inches in diameter are decayed at the heart. 

Remarkably few other trees were mixed with the Ebony but there is much under growth of vines & shrubs & the abundant pineapple-like thorny plant so common along both coasts of Mex. Made a short walk along a trail cut into the forest. Found many sciurus negligens feeding on Ebony seeds. Tracks of deer & peccaries were common on the trail. Owing to the density of the forest we were obliged to give up the idea of hunting there & took the train out the evening of the 
9th  & went toward Tampico to Chijol station when we stopped to try & get some deer & turkeys.

The country around [[strikethrough]] Chil [[/strikethrough]] Chijol is rolling plain covered with alternating grassy prairies & low forest made up largely of oaks. Quail(Colinus) were very abundant, & Turkeys were found sparingly & deer rather common.