The Rifle Rangers | Page 4

dark
wings in quick, irregular turnings, and the great "lechuza" (Strix
Mexicana), issuing from his dark tree-cave, utters his fearful notes, that
resemble the moanings of one who is being hanged. Now may be heard
the scream of the cougar, and the hoarser voice of the Mexican tiger.
Now may be heard the wild, disagreeable cries of the howling monkeys

(alouattes), and the barking of the dog-wolf; and, blending with these,
the croaking of the tree-toads and the shrill tinkling of the bell-frog.
Perhaps the air is no longer, as in the daytime, filled with sweet
perfumes. The aroma of a thousand flowers has yielded to the fetid
odour of the skunk (Mephitis chinga)--for that singular creature is
abroad, and, having quarrelled with one of the forest denizens, has
caused all of them to feel the power of its resentment.
Such are some of the features of the tropical forest that lies between the
Gulf and the Mexican mountains. But the aspect of this region is not all
wild. There are cultivated districts--settlements, though far apart.
The forest opens, and the scene suddenly changes. Before me is a
plantation--the hacienda of a "rico". There are wide fields tilled by
peon serfs, who labour and sing; but their song is sad. Its music is
melancholy. It is the voice of a conquered race.
Yet the scene around them is gay and joyful. All but the people appears
to prosper. Vegetation luxuriates in its fullest growth. Both fruit and
flower exhibit the hues of a perfect development. Man alone seems
stunted in his outlines.
There is a beautiful stream meandering through the open fields. Its
waters are clear and cool. They are the melted snows of Orizava. Upon
its banks grow clumps of the cocoa-palm and the majestic plantain.
There are gardens upon its banks, and orchards filled with the
fruit-trees of the tropics. I see the orange with its golden globes, the
sweet lime, the shaddock, and the guava-tree. I ride under the shade of
the aguacate (Laurus Persea), and pluck the luscious fruits of the
cherimolla. The breeze blowing over fields carries on its wings the
aroma of the coffee-tree, the indigo-plant, the vanilla bean, or the
wholesome cacao (Theobroma Cacao); and, far as the eye can reach, I
see glancing gaily in the sun the green spears and golden tassels of the
sugar-cane.
Interesting is the aspect of the tropical forest. Not less so is that of the
tropical field.

----
I ride onward and inward into the land. I am gradually ascending from
the sea-level. I no longer travel upon horizontal paths, but over hills
and steep ridges, across deep valleys and ravines. The hoof of my horse
no longer sinks in light sand or dark alluvion. It rings upon rocks of
amygdaloid and porphyry. The soil is changed; the scenery has
undergone a change, and even the atmosphere that surrounds me. The
last is perceptibly cooler, but not yet cold. I am still in the piedmont
lands--the tierras calientes. The templadas are yet far higher. I am only
a thousand yards or so above sea-level. I am in the "foot-hills" of the
Northern Andes.
How sudden is this change! It is less than an hour since I parted from
the plains below, and yet the surface-aspect around me is like that of
another land. I halt in a wild spot, and survey it with eyes that wander
and wonder. The leaf is less broad, the foliage less dense, the jungle
more open. There are ridges whose sides are nearly naked of
tree-timber. The palms have disappeared, but in their place grow
kindred forms that in many respects resemble them. They are, in fact,
the palms of the mountains. I behold the great palmetto (Chamcerops),
with its fan-like fronds standing out upon long petioles from its lofty
summit; the yuccas, with their bayonet-shaped leaves, ungraceful, but
picturesque, with ponderous clusters of green and pulpy capsules. I
behold the pita aloe, with its tall flower-stalk and thorny sun-scorched
leaves. I behold strange forms of the cactus, with their glorious
wax-like blossoms; the cochineal, the tuna, the opuntias--the great
tree-cactus "Foconoztle" (Opuntia arborescens), and the tall "pitahaya"
(Cereus giganteus), with columnar shafts and straight upright arms,
like the branches of gigantic candelabra; the echino-cacti, too--those
huge mammals of the vegetable world, resting their globular or
egg-shaped forms, without trunk or stalk, upon the surface of the earth.
There, too, I behold gigantic thistles (cardonales) and mimosas, both
shrubby and arborescent--the tree-mimosa, and the sensitive-plant
(Mimosa frutescens), that shrinks at my approach, and closes its
delicate leaflets until I have passed out of sight. This is the favourite

land of the acacia; and immense tracts, covered with its various species,
form impenetrable thickets (chapparals). I distinguish in these thickets
the honey-locust, with its long