AQUEDUCT OF TEZCOSINGO.

57

perfect as on the day of its completion; and perhaps as good a work, for all the necessary purposes, as could be formed at the present day by the most expert engineers.

"The view over the valley, to the north, towards the pyramids of Teotihuacan, and across the lake to Mexico, was uninterrupted; and the city (beyond the waters, surrounded by a mirage on the distant plain) seemed placed again, as it was three hundred years ago, in the midst of a beautiful lake.

"After we had finished our meal, we gave a small compensation to the Indian, and resumed our route toward Tezcosingo. The road, for a long distance, lay over an extensive table-land, with a deep valley north and south, filled on both sides with haciendas, villages, and plantations. We crossed the shoulder of a mountain, and descended half way a second ravine, near the eighth of a mile in extent, until we struck the level of another ancient aqueduct, that led the waters directly to the hill of Tezcosingo. This elevation was broader, firmer, and even in better preservation, than the first. It may be crossed on horseback-three abreast.

"As soon as we struck the celebrated hill, we began ascending rapidly, by an almost imperceptible cattle-path, among gigantic cacti, whose thorns tore our skins as we brushed by them. Over the whole surface, there were remains of a spiral road cut from the living rock, strewn with fragments of pottery, Indian arrows, and broken sacrificial knives; while, occasionally, we passed over the ruins of an aqueduct winding round the hill. The eminence seems to have been converted, from its base to its summit, (a distance of perhaps five hundred feet,) into a pile of those terraced gardens, so much admired by every tourist who falls into raptures among the romantic groves of Isola Bella.

UR horses seemed to be better aocustomed to the dangerous clambering among these steeps, than ourselves, and we therefore continued in our saddles until we reached a point about fifty feet below the summit, where, in a due northerly direction, the rock had been cut into seats along a recess leading to a perpendicular wall, which is said to have been covered, until recently, with a Toltec calendar. When the

Indians found that a place otherwise so unattractive, was visited by foreigners, they immediately imagined their ancestors had concealed treasures behind the stone; as they supposed that gold, and not mere curiosity, could have lured strangers from a distance to so un

sightly a spot. They consequently destroyed the carved rock in order to penetrate the hill, and there is now not a fragment of the ancient sculpture remaining. In the hole burrowed by the treasure-finders, we discovered a number of Indians, of both sexes, sheltering themselves from the rain; and as they had a supply of nopals, (with which the surrounding rocks are covered,) we were not lot to dismount, and, forgetting our indignation for the moment, crawled into their cavern to enjoy the luscious fruit.

"A few steps upward led us to the summit of Tezcosingo. I found there no remains of a temple or edifice; but as the hill is supposed to have been formerly dedicated to the bloody rites of Indian worship, modern piety has thought proper to purify the spot by the erection of a cross. And never was one built on a more majestic and commanding site. From its foot the entire valley, lake, Tezcuco, Mexico, and lakes far to the north, were distinctly visible, and the beauty of the panorama was greatly increased by the sudden clearing of the skies, and an outburst of the setting sun."

The ruins of Quemada, lying north of the city of Mexico, in the department of Zacatecas, are very extensive, and must be referred to a very remote period of antiquity. The view of a portion of them, which we give, embraces the court-yard of a temple, as drawn by M. Nebel. Captain Lyon, quoted by Mr. Mayer, describes them in the following terms:

"We set out," says he, "on our expedition to the Cerro de los Edificios, under the guidance of an old ranchero, and soon arrived at the foot of the abrupt and steep rock on which the buildings are situated. Here we perceived two ruined heaps of stones, flanking the entrance to a causeway ninety-three feet broad, commencing at four hundred feet from the cliff.

"A space of about six acres has been inclosed by a broad wall, of which the foundations are still visible, running first to the south and afterward to the east. Off its south-western angle stands a high mass of stones, which flanks the causeway. In outward appearance it is of a pyramidal form, owing to the quantities of stones piled against it either by design or by its own ruin; but on closer examination its figure could be traced by the rerains of solid walls, to have been a square of thirty-one feet by the same height: the heap immediately opposite is lower and more scattered, but in all probability formerly resembled it. Hence the grand causeway runs to the north-east until it reaches the ascent of the cliff, which, as I have already observed, is about four hundred yaids distant. Here again are found two masses of ruins, in which may be traced the same construction as that before described; and it is not improbable that