Part 6 (1/2)

This grand shallow sheet, then, so saline that fish cannot live in it, and vegetation withers under its blighting breath, is the congenial dwelling-place of the axolotl, and, if I mistake not, its only one in the Valley of Mexico; at least I a northward, their waters salt, too, but at ti only a residuum of mud, its surface an efflorescence, akin to soda, and reseh in a sense the sole inhabitant of Tezcoco, the axolotl is not left to peaceful or undisputed possession of the lake It has its enemies in the predatory aquatic birds--herons, cranes, and cor them To the ”Lake Indian” its capture is aa saleable commodity in the market It is not absolutely relished as an article of food, except by the Indians the and everything that lives, , be it fish, fowl, reptile, or insect This, fro of necessity, not choice, when the Aztec, surrounded by Tlascallan, with other warlike enemies, was confined to the islands of this inland sea, and from it compelled to draw part of his sustenance--to eat indifferently frogs, tadpoles, newts, and such repulsive reptiles; as also the eggs of a curious water-fly--the axavacatl (_Ahuatlea Mexicana_)--a sort of ”caviar,” still obtainable in the markets of the Mexican capital I have seen the axolotl of respectable dith, while specimens of fifteen and sixteen inches are occasionally exhibited Fish or flesh, relished or not, it is often eaten by invalids, the Mexican _ it a specific for liver inflammation and pulmonary complaints, as we do cod-liver oil; while it is also supposed to be serviceable in cases of hectic fever, and as a food for children A elatinous portions and certain medicinal herbs, is sold in the _boticas_ of the apothecaries as a balsahs, and other bronchial ical character of this creature, so strangely abnor to what is already known to you Besides, that is a question for the scientific naturalist, to whoenerally known that, in addition to your Brighton Aquarium species--which is, I suppose, the _Siredon Huuna de Tezcoco--there is a new and quite distinct one recently discovered, inhabiting Lake Patzcuaro

This large sheet of water, lying centrally in the State of Michoacan-- more than a hundred miles from the Mexican valley, in a direction nearly due west--has also its axolotl Its discoverer has named it _Siredon Duist; while its local vulgar naua,” or ”water achoque,” to distinguish it from a sort of land lizard called ”achoque de tierra”--the _Bolitoglossa Mexicana_ of Dues of the Michoacan Lake The Patzcuaro species differs frohton Aquarium in several respects In size it is so blackish, or white, as in the Albino varieties of Huhtly ble black, while the neck, throat, and breast are of a pale, whitish hue

Without dwelling longer on this subject, I will venture to say that when all of the great Mexican saline lakes--such as Chapa'a and Cuitzoc--are searched, there will be found other species of axolotl, distinct from any of those yet known to science Mexico is a fine field for the scientific explorer; its paths hitherto but little trodden by the naturalist, because unsafe frohts of the Road,” ycleped _salteadores_

Mayne Reid

CHAPTER SEVEN

WHO WAS FIRST INTO CHAPULTEPEC?

Captain Mayne Reid returned fro of 1848

He spent the autumn and winter at his friend Donn Piatt's house in the valley of the Mac-o-Chee, Ohio Here he wrote the greater part of ”The Rifle Rangers,” in which he gives us pictures of his Mexican life, returning to New York in the spring of 1849 The question was then going the round of the newspapers, ”Who was first into Chapultepec?”

The following is an extract fro of Chapultepec, and in which he inclosed some testimonies of his part in the affair:

”These docu of 1849, when I heard of other individuals clai to have been first into Chapultepec I do not claiet over the wall at all, but was shot down in front of it; but I claim to have led up the men who received the last volley of the ene the wall a , as scarcely any one was shot afterwards

”While collecting this testimony I was suddenly called upon to take the leadershi+p of a legion organised in New York to assist the revolutionary struggle in Europe, and I sailed at the latter end of June, 1849

Otherwise I could have obtained far more testimony than contained in these scant documents here

”Mayne Reid

”PS--General Pilloas at the ti a life and deathan eye to the Presidency, to prove that the men of his division were the first to enter Chapultepec”

The following testiiven, as only one of these officers wasalmost unknown to i of the 13th of Septeeurs, to which I was attached as subaltern officer, was ordered to clear the woods and the western side of the wall, extending from Molino del Rey to the Castle of Chapultepec, of the Mexican Infantry (light), and to halt at the foot of the hill, in order to allow the stor party of Worth's division to scale the hill

”We drove the Mexicans as ordered, but in so rapid awith some of the infantry of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Ninth of Pillow's division, we kept driving the enemy under a heavy fire from the Castle, and a redan on the side of the hill, clear into their works--the stor them from the redan, I pushed for the south-western corner of the Castle with all the men about me, and scarcely ten yards from the wall, an officer of infantry, and either an officer or sergeant of artillery--judging from the stripe on his pants--were shot, and fell

They were the only two at the ti the narrow path, the rock of which ere scra under the wall of the Castle there were soeurs at the extreme corner of the Castle, and several other officers were there at the same point The main body had halted at the scarp of the hill, so the arrival of the scaling ladders beforethe final and decisive assault

”I ordered two o back a little way and assist the ladders up the hill As they proceeded to do so they passed the point where the infantry officer above alluded to lay wounded, ith evident pain, raised hi out above the din and rattle of musketry:

”'For God's sake, men, don't leave that wall, or we shall all be cut to pieces Hold on, and the Castle is ours!' or words to that effect

”I ier, Captain, of our leaving this Never fear'--or words to that amount

”Shortly after the ladders came--the rush was made and the Castle fell