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Show WHERE AMERICAN TROOPS. ARE MOVING. Describing the northern part of Mexico through which the American army Ib moving, a bulletin of from the National Geographic society, says that when it Ib recalled that even iu an ordinarily comfortable Pullman car the alkali dust creeps in through invisible cracks and gives the traveler trav-eler the appearance of having been working around a threshing machine all day long, it may well be imagined imag-ined what hardships soldiers must meet who have to travel on forced marches across such a region. The shifting waves of heat which hover above the laud create curious mirages. mir-ages. Although tho distance between El Paso and Casa Grandes is only 150 miles, Casa Grandes is approximately one mile higher than El Paso. The .desert region of Chihuahua possesses a vegetation nearly every species of which is supplied with thorns or spines. There Is an almost endless variety of cacti, ranging from tiny plants no larger than a finger to the giant pltaliaya, pushing its tall stem to a height of fifty feet Then there are the mesqults, tho tornilla, the agaves, and the yuccas, all armed with spikes as if to repel invasion. "A great variety of insects and reptiles, rep-tiles, Including lizards, homed toads, tarantulas and rattlesnakes, abound in the desert. Conspicuous among the birds of the region is tho chaparral chapar-ral cock which attacks and eats rattlesnakes. rat-tlesnakes. The desert has its own remedy for snake bites. It is a plant called the sneeze-wort. The juice of its leaves contain a strong alkaloid, which serves as an antidote for snake poison. Snakes have a bitter dislike of it, and it is a trick of the Indians to irritate them into biting it, with the result that they quickly die in convulsions. One of the interesting products of this region is the Chihuahua dog, which resembles the sleeve dog of China and the chin koro dog of Japan. Ja-pan. They are sometimes called "butterfly "but-terfly dogs." Usually they weigh from one to three pounds, and are often no larger than a large rat. Pure bred specimens are distinguished distinguish-ed by a depression about the size of a pea in the forehead and by the possession pos-session of five nails on each foot. Before Be-fore the tourist tide set into Mexico, Mex-ico, these dogs- could be bought for ?5 each. Now they often sell for hundreds hun-dreds and even thousands of dollars Many an American traveler has brought a tiny canine alleged to be a Chihuahua dog only to have it afterwards after-wards develop into a largo and lusty cur. "When one gets out of the desert region of Chihuahua and into tho Sierra -Madre mountains there is found a winter that is like May or w. ,. iiT ijut,iaim ttuu a. summer sum-mer that Is delightful. Game In these mountains Is plentiful. In the northern north-ern Sierra Madre live the Tarahumare Indians, perhaps tho best examples of physical perfection In the world Both men and women are splendid runners, and their endurance is phenomenal. phe-nomenal. A healthy Tarahumare will easily run 170 miles at a stretch. When sent out as a messenger, he goes along at a slow trot, running steadily and constantly. A man has been known to carry a letter 600 miles in five days. While executing these feats of endurance, the Indians live on pinole, which is a dish made of corn and water. The Tarahumares kill rabbits with a species of boomerang boom-erang said to be a relic of the days when they and their Australian kinsmen kins-men are believed to have crossed the Pacific ocean by a chain of islands isl-ands supposed to have linked, at one time, Asia with America and Australia." Aus-tralia." oo . |