rush circling along with it for miles, sustaining
the mass in the air, two hundred feet or more in height. This phenomenon
was often observed while traveling on the Mexican plateau. Sometimes, as
has already been said, half a dozen were seen at a time. Between
Chihuahua and Juarez they were again observed. The course of these dusty
pillars of sand was generally towards the foothills of the high ranges.
The moment any large obstacle is encountered, as is the case with a
water-spout at sea, they are at once broken and disappear. Any ordinary
cabin or other frail building which is struck by a sand-spout is pretty
sure to be demolished. This might not always follow, as they move with
different degrees of force, some being vastly more powerful than others.
Trees are not infrequently broken and destroyed by them. We were told
that horses and cattle exposed upon the plain were sometimes taken up in
the suction of air caused by their progress, carried a hundred rods or
more, and then dropped to the ground lifeless. Other stories were heard
of the erratic performances of sand-spouts on the Mexican plateau, but
they were of a nature requiring too much credulity for us to repeat them
in these pages.

As one approaches the frontier, a feeling of regret steals over the
traveler that he is hourly leaving behind him a country in which so much
delight has been briefly experienced. That discomforts have been
encountered is very true,--withering heat, dust, fatigue, and
indifferent food, but these quickly fade into mere shadows. Not the
pains, but the pleasures, of such a journey remain indelibly fixed in
the memory. No cunningly painted canvas is so retentive as the active
brain. While we roll over the broad cactus plains, closing the eyes in
thought, a panorama moves before us, depicting vivid tableaux from our
two months' experience in Aztec Land. We listen in imagination at the
sunset hour to distant vesper bells, floating softly over the hills, and
see the bowed heads and folded hands of the peons. Once more we gaze
delighted upon lovely valleys, dark shadowy gorges, far-reaching plains
of cacti and yucca palms, bordered by lofty, snow-tipped mountains; we
see again the exuberant fruitfulness of the tropics, and the loveliness
of the floral kingdom in this land of the sun; once more we stroll
through the dimly lighted aisles of grand cathedrals, listening to the
solemn chant of human voices, and the organ's deep reverberating tones;