lect in vast quantities in the small pools still left
unevaporated, and are then killed in large numbers for their hides,
which when tanned are found serviceable for many purposes. They are
tougher than ordinary leather, and resist water better. Only the belly
pieces are used.

Some few years ago during a very heavy rain, a number of alligators got
taken out of the lake by a small river running into the sea, which was
greatly flooded. They were immediately attacked by the sharks, and a
strange battle ensued between these equally voracious monsters, which
all the people of the village flocked out to witness. The battle lasted
all day, and the noise of the combat could be heard half a mile off.
John Shark was, however, more at home in his native element than his
scaly antagonist, and eventually the alligators were all eaten up or
killed.

THE SCENERY OF THE MEXICAN LOWLANDS.

FELIX L. OSWALD.

[Mexico is made up of two distinctively different regions; one,
the central plateau, temperate in climate, and marked by a
great dearth of rainfall; the other, the lowland areas between
the plateau and the bordering oceans, tropical in climate and
productions, and luxuriant from abundant rains. Dr. Oswald, in
the following selection, leads us through the Valley of Oaxaca,
a section of this Tierra Caliente, or warm country, and makes
us familiar with its interesting vegetable and animal
productions and its scenic features.]

We had a glimpse of the sun before we finished our short breakfast, and
when we plunged into the maze of the forest the occasional vistas
through the leafy vault revealed larger and larger patches of bright
blue sky. Our so-called road, however, was worse than anything I had
ever seen or heard of Flemish or South Louisiana synonymes of that
word,--miry lagoons and spongy mud as black and as sticky as pitch. I
followed at the heels of my carrier, who preferred the lagoons and
seemed to find the shallow places by a sort of instinct, and the Switzer
managed to propel his heavy boots through the toughest quagmire; but his
boy, after losing his shoes five or six times, slung them across his
shoulder and splashed on barefoot. We kept through a comparatively open
forest of cottonwood- and tulip-trees, with a dense jungle on our
right-hand side, while on our left the land sloped towards the bottom of
the Rio Verde, which is here about five hundred paces wide, and