Having passed for several days through lonely, cold, and silent woods, now and then interspersed with a slumbering snow-field, it was a real pleasure to come suddenly, though only in the beginning of February, upon plants in full bloom on the high crest that faced the undulating lowlands of Sinaloa, which spread themselves out below, veiled in mist.  The warm air wafted up from the Hot Country brings about this remarkable change in the flora of the precipitous inclines toward the west.  The air was filled with perfume, and it was lovely to be on these high, sunny tops.  Foliage trees, especially alders, began to appear among the pines, basking in the dazzling sunshine.  I also noticed some fine ferns spreading out their graceful fronds.

A few miles farther and much lower I made camp above the Indian pueblo of San Pedro, as far as I could make out the most eastern extension of the northern Aztecs (Mexicanos or Mexicaneros, as they are called here).  From here southward I found them in many of the warm valleys of the Sierra intermingled with Tepehuanes and Coras.

There is an excellent road zigzagging down to the mining place of Ventanas ("Windows,” from the formation of a rock) for the greater part of the distance; but at the outset the way, at two places, is so narrow that parties coming from opposite directions could neither pass nor turn back, which is not pleasant with a yawning chasm of a couple of thousand feet so close at hand.

I was anxious to secure men to go up again into the sierra and farther south; but the people were afraid of the cold, and nobody seemed to know anything about the country except the postmaster, and he only in a vague way.  Mazatlan is not much more than 100 miles off and Durango 125 miles.  There are here a great many dykes of porphyry of different ages, but neither slate nor granite in the immediate vicinity, though there is some granite farther up the river.

Among the mine-owners who lived in Ventanas I was surprised to find a Swedish gentleman.  They all received me hospitably, providing me also with two men, whom I badly needed.  We had to ascend on the other side of the barranca as high as we had been north of this place, and for a day we travelled through snow and rain.  Corn does not grow here.  From one point the Pacific Ocean can be seen.  We then descended again a couple of thousand feet to the village of Chavaria, which is the only Mexican village I have seen where the houses had gable roofs covered with shingles.  The walls of the houses were adobe, but I was told that the earth at this place is not suitable for making the usual flat roofs.

While camping here I saw, on the 15th of February, a flock of six giant woodpeckers pass by in the morning.  Except in the pairing season these birds are not seen in such numbers.  The journey over a high part of the Sierra Madre to the Mexican village of Pueblo Nuevo requires two days.  On the second day I obtained a magnificent view toward the east and southeast.  The high peak towering in the distance is Cerro Gordo, very broad at the base and conical in shape.  Patches of snow were visible on it, and snow lay in the crevices wherever we travelled.