y drop and thus kill before it
begins to devour the carcase. Thus animals, like human beings,
constantly prey upon each other. So prolific are these rabbits that they
will soon prove to be as great a nuisance as they are in New Zealand,
unless some active means are taken to prevent their increase. The wonder
is that the half-starved natives do not make a business of trapping and
eating them; but the poor, ignorant peons seem to be actually devoid of
all ingenuity or enterprise outside of their beaten track.

CHAPTER IV.

Zacatecas.--Sand-Spouts.--Fertile Lands.--A Silver Mining Region.--Alpine
Scenery.--Table-Land of Mexico.--An Aged Miner.--Zacatecas Cathedral.
--Church and People.--A Mountain Climb.--Ownership of the Mines.--
--Want of Drainage.--A Battlefield.--Civil War.--Local Market.--
Peculiar Scenes.--Native Beauties.--City Tramway Experience.--Town of
Guadalupe.--Organized Beggars.--A Noble and Successful Institution.
--Market of Guadalupe.--Attractive Senoritas.--Private Gardens.

The first place of special interest on the line of the Mexican Central
Railroad after leaving Torreon is Zacatecas, the largest town between
the Rio Grande and the city of Mexico, being nearly eight hundred miles
south of the river and four hundred and forty north of the capital. Its
name is derived from the Indian tribe who inhabited this region long
before the coming of the Spaniards. Between Torreon and this city, for a
distance of some three hundred miles, as we have described, the country
is lonely, prairie-like, and almost uninhabited, forming a broad plain
over a hundred miles wide, with ranges of the Sierra Madre on either
side. On these dry and sterile plains sand-spouts are frequently seen;
indeed, half a dozen were counted at the same time from the car windows.
These are created just as water-spouts are formed on the ocean, and to
encounter one is almost equally serious. One must visit either Egypt or
Mexico to witness this singular phenomenon. As Zacatecas is approached,
large flocks of sheep and herds of mules and horses are grouped in the
fields, overlooked by picturesquely draped horsemen. The cultivation of
the land and its apparent fertility improve, and many one-handled
ploughs, consisting of a crooked stick, sometimes shod with iron, are
being used. The marvel is that anything satisfactory can be accomplished
with such an awkward instrument, and yet these fields in some instances
show