1947a). A second collection of 13 fish in 1867 by Dr. Francis Sumichrast, an ornithologist, came from Cosamaloapan on the Rio Papaloapan, Veracruz, Mexico, where the Smithso- nian had maintained a field station for several decades. The third collection of 68 fish was made by Seth E. Meek in 1902 (Meek, 1904), near the railroad station of El Hule, Oaxaca, Mexico, the last stop of the Transisthmian Railroad before it passed over the Rio Papaloapan into the state of Veracruz. Meek, an ichthyologist, had traveled by railroad from Chia- pas in the south to the state of Nuevo Leon in the north. He detrained  every  other  stop  to  collect  fishes  and  then  con- tinued  his  journey  the  next  day.  Myron,  in  his  search  for platyfish,  made  the  most  sensible  decision:  he  headed  for the Rio Papaloapan. Gordon’s 1930 Mexico Expedition was financially sup- ported  by  the  National  Research  Council  and  by  the  Mu- seum  of  Zoology  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  which wanted  to  enlarge  its  fish  collection.  The  expedition  con- sisted of three men: Gordon, Edward Creaser, a malacolo- gist from Cornell, and Ricardo Ostos, M.D. They drove to Laredo  and  had  to  ford  the  Rio  Grande,  then  proceeded through  Monterrey  along  the  foot  of  the  Sierra  Madre  to Ciudad  Victoria.  The  section  from  Monterrey  to  Ciudad Victoria  was  unpaved  and  every  stream  had  to  be  forded. They learned to wrap their socks around the sparkplugs to keep them dry. This entire distance of 267 km took 10 hours to  drive.  From  Ciudad  Victoria  they  continued  to  Ciudad Valles and then headed southeast to Tantoyuca, crossing the Rio Moctezuma at El Higo. Here they stayed for several days on Ricardo Ostos’ ranch and explored the surrounding area on  horseback  (Figure  1).  One  day,  20  km  south  of  Tan- toyuca,  they  collected  4  immature  swordtails  near  the  Rio de los Hules and Rio Calaboza, which Gordon identified as X. montezumae. Actually, these fish represent the first speci- mens of  X. birchmanni,  a species not described until 1987. No  further  collections  of  Xiphophorus  were  made  in  this region until 1985. From Tantoyuca the expedition headed east to the Estero Cucharas, a small stream flowing into the Laguna  Tamiahua,  about  75  km  south  of  Tampico.  The road  conditions  were  so  horrendous  that  they  had  to  rest for half an hour every 3 km. From there they turned south toward the Rio Cazones and then climbed up over terrible roads  across  the  headwaters  of  the  Rio  Tecoluta  to  the Mexican Plateau. The Rio Tecoluta watershed is character- ized by steep canyons and waterfalls several hundred meters high. In small streams on a narrow plateau above the falls at 1200-m altitude Dr. Gordon discovered a platyfish, some- what similar to X. variatus, many years later described as X. evelynae.  A  series  of  hydroelectric  power  plants  and  dams had been constructed in this rather inaccessible region, and undoubtedly  Gordon  was  aided  by  Claudio  Martinez,  an alumnus  of  Cornell  and  an  engineer  with  the  Mexican Power  Company.  The  expedition  headed  for  Mexico  City, where they rested, and then drove to Veracruz. On  the  way  they  collected  swordtails,   X.  helleri,   at Jalapa and were puzzled by the many large males with in- completely formed gonopodia and undifferentiated gonads (Gordon,  1937a).  The  only  record  that  I  can  find  about their next move states that they hired a boat at Alvarado and headed up the Rio Papaloapan toward Cosamaloapan and El Hule, 45 and 85 km, respectively, to the south, but more than twice that distance by river. A railroad spur from Ve- racruz  ends  at  Alvarado,  but  I  do  not  think  they  took  the train  when  they  could  have  traveled  on  another  one  to  El Hule. It is also unlikely that they took the Ford there, be- cause  the  track  to  Alvarado  on  the  narrow  high  ground between the high dunes to the left and the marshes to the right  must  have  been  blocked  by  the  ever-present  sand drifts.  Gordon  placed  Alvarado  only  20  miles  from  Vera- cruz;  however,  it  is  actually  twice  that  far.  I  think  he  may have  hired  the  launch  at  Boca  del  Rio,  20  km  south  of Figure  1.  Dr.  Myron  Gordon  at  Tantoyuca,  Veracruz,  Mexico, 1930. The  Xiphophorus  Problem S7 Next >>