It was rare that we met with a single timber cart, as four or five usually went together.

The drivers who were in charge of them were pure Tarascans.
For a considerable distance a fine slope rose to our left, strewn with loose rock masses, and covered with a growth which was chiefly _pitahaya_, some of the plants attaining the size of grown trees.

Many of them presented an appearance which we had not seen elsewhere--the tips and upper part of the upright branches being as white as if intentionally whitewashed; the simple explanation of this strange appearance was that the branches in question had served as buzzards' roosts.

Our journey of twenty-five miles was made with two relays of horses.

After perhaps three hours' riding, we reached the Zamora River, which we followed for some distance.