wall, within which stands a chapel now being rebuilt, an earthquake having a few years ago destroyed the old one. The view from the summit is very extensive, and beautiful in one sense. In another, however, one sees so much of ruin and decay in everything in view that it gives a feeling as if the whole world were moldering away. The principal portion of the town itself lies to the north-west of the Pyramid, and is a mass of decaying buildings where once may have been considerable splendor. The church bears evidence of having been an immense property at one time. On the west side are two other small pyramids that have been almost entirely cut away on their faces, leaving square blocks or masses of adobe to the very foundation, and as far as they have been penetrated. All around in every direction are evidences of the ancient city and of its vast extent. The energy of the present people seems to have been exhausted in the building of religious edifices; we counted from the summit about thirty belfries visible in the neighborhood. Returnng, we rode rapidly and with much noise and shouting, creating quite a stir on the road among the travelers. We were evidently taken for robbers, as everybody we met had their hands on their weapons as we passed. Next day we had our miserable little horses again, and visited the hill of San Juan and the fortifications of Loreto and Guadalupe. The officers did not object to our seeing the fortifications. Loreto was a miserable affair, and a few half-naked and barefooted soldiers occupied the ruinous interior.

The guns were dismounted. A solitary twenty-four-pounder iron gun, on a ruinous carriage, occupied one of the bastions looking from the city. The upper fort on the summit is naturally stronger, but still more dilapidated. The commandant showed us the ground on which the French approached on the celebrated 5th of May, and told us how they were repulsed. We spent the remainder of the day in visiting the cathedral, which we found exceedingly interesting. It is more artistically finished than the cathedral in the City of Mexico;

has some beautiful varieties of marble in the altar, under which are buried the bishops of Puebla.

The next morning one of our party left by stage for Apizaco, to return to Mexico; and the day after, we heard at the stage office that the passengers to Apizaco had been robbed, two leagues from the city, and with them our friend. We learned later that the robbery was supposed to have been perpetrated by some of the Rural Guard stationed in the neighborhood. The force was about twenty. They took two of the passengers prisoners, but released them again during the day.

The last morning of our stay we went to visit a glass factory in the city, and some pottery factories. The glass factory seemed to be in good working order. The potteries were very primitive, and evidently the art as transmitted from the Aztecs. In the afternoon we rode out to some other factories, extensive establishments about two leagues distant. As is the case in all the factories in Mexico, of every kind, the foremen were foreigners. They would be profitable and valuable if the country was quiet and certain of remaining so. We also visited the mill, El Molino de San Domingo, where Maximilian stopped for a day or two on his way to Orizaba, when he contemplated abandoning his empire. It is also conducted by foreigners. It adjoins one of the cotton factories that we visited. It was near this mill that the stage robbery had taken place. With this day's excursions our visit to Puebla ended. We found the city interesting in a few of its features. It is clean; free from the offensive odors common in the city of Mexico. The baths are delightful and some of the buildings handsome. It is, however, a lifeless place-lacks business and enterprise. It may do better when the projected railroad reaches it. We enjoyed ourselves very well because we were a party; any one of us. alone would have found it terribly dull and uninteresting.

On our way back to the city we delayed at Apizaco to ride to Tlascala, an ancient place that figures prominently in the history of the conquest of Mexico by Cortez. It is the

capital of the state of Tlascala, and boasts of a palace, and some interesting relics in the way of pictures, grants, and a remnant of the flag of Cortez, and the spear-head of the flag-staff. The palace was far from being palatial in appearance, and consisted of nothing but a large plain building, in which the state of ficials have their offices, and the legislature has its sittings. The charters and grants were mostly of the sixteenth century, and contained the autographs of the sovereigns of Spain of that period. The church on the hill above the town was quite interesting. There were some of the best pictures in the chapel that I have seen in the country. The windows of the chapel were made of transparent spar.

The week after our excursion to Puebla we arranged to visit a woolen factory called San Ilfonso, about eight leagues from the city, on the Rio Grande. It belonged to an Englishman, the member of our Puebla party who had suffered from the stage robbers.

Early on the morning of the eighteenth we were all riding out on the San Cosmo road on horseback, by the old tree of the "Triste Noche," on our way to the factory, under the guidance of the administrador of the fabrica. For two or three leagues we passed through villages among trees, surrounded with thrifty and productive gardens, protected by a pleasant shade cast by the trees that lined the highway. We soon, however, entered a more sterile country, more or less hilly and rocky, destitute of trees, dry and glaring in the sun. Here and there we passed a mill, or a fabrica, nestled in the narrow valley of some stream- -a pleasant contrast to the barren hills. As we ap proached the Rio Grande the appearance of the country improved, and we found Ilfonso quite an attractive spot, surrounded with trees, a garden, and a refreshing stream at hand, the largest that is so near to Mexico. The fabrica was surrounded by a wall, and had a main entrance, at which sat a burly porter. The operatives were of all ages and sexes, and seemed to do their work well, and to understand it. The men and boys

attended the looms; the women were used for sorting and washing the wool, and picking the specks out of the cloth. The village where the employés lived was just across the Rio, in better quarters than the masses have in the city. They have a school and chapel erected by the proprietors, also a theater in which they have performances on fete days, and bailles when occasion requires. They had a band of music that collected for practice the first night of our stay. These people, therefore, seemed to be as happy as any I had seen among the working classes. The administradors, however, represented them as not very reliable or trustworthy, requiring constant watching and much patience in dealing with them.

It had been a part of our plan to visit the desaugue for draining the valley of Mexico, now in process of construction. We accordingly prepared ourselves for the ride the morning following our arrival. We started early, intending to return the same day. We found the road much longer than we expected, and approached some huts near at hand to inquire the way. Our appearance created no little commotion. Several persons disappeared in the huts, and two rushed forward and mounted horses. One of these came forward and asked us what we wanted. We made our inquiries through our mozo, who seemed very much disconcerted. The one who remained behind was a tall blackwhiskered man of rather marked appearance. He watched us closely with his large black eyes, and seemed quite prepared to fight or run, as he was well armed and well mounted. Noticing the perturbation of the mozo, after we had received satisfactory answers to inquiries, and got off some distance, we inquired of him what was the matter. He said that the black-whiskered man who remained back was the celebrated robber, Frigosa, for whose arrest the government had offered a price; that he knew him, as he had served in the same regiment with him during the war. He was evidently alarmed at our presence; but we ascertained afterwards that the government could not be very desirous of arresting him, as he had a

contract with the officials for supplying stone on the desaugue, and that it was quite well known where he was.

It was a distance of two leagues from where we came upon the work to the end of the surveyed route. The places for the shafts were indicated along the whole route, and were about four hundred feet apart. In many places the shafts were already connected. At one point we found them putting up steam machinery to raise the dirt from the shaft. In a number of places they were drawing it up with horses and mules by the wheel and axle. The road ran along the line of shafts to the end, where the desaugue terminated in a barranca, which for several miles had been widened and deepened, to serve as the outlet of the tunnel.

We met an engineer and a paymaster at the end of the tunnel. We had the engineer explain it to us. There were quite a number of bones of extinct animals that had been taken out at different times; some of them of extraordinary dimensions; some teeth of the mastodon or elephant which weighed thirteen pounds, and whose grinding surface measured three by nine inches. These bones were found in a strata of white volcanic ash apparently, generally near the surface, and are not well preserved, being very friable and liable to crumble on handling.

In the office at Zimpango, an hour and a half's ride from the work, we obtained more definite data concerning the work they were prosecuting. The canal was to extend from Trezcoco to a stream about three leagues north of Zimpango. Trezcoco being the lowest of all the lakes, by draining it the entire valley would be drained. An extensive tract of land would be recovered that in value would pay for the expense. The canal was to be about thirty miles long, and would cost ten or eleven million dollars. At the outlet of the canal there would be a tunnel about seven miles long, fifteen feet wide, and thirty feet high. At the present rate of working, it would not be finished in thirty years. The engineering and working was far behind the age. For example, two

or three hundred men and boys were excavating at the foot of the contemplated tunnel, and carrying the dirt out on their backs in sacks, from a depth of about sixty feet, where really no such excavation was needed, for the tunnel could have been continued, in place of excavating a mass sixty feet deep and about two hundred in width at the surface, at the point where they were at work. They were paying the men three reals per cubic vara.

We saw in the office the bones which had been found and were collected there; also many other curiosities that had been found at various points of the work. The bones were evidently from a variety of different animals. There were fragments of tusks five and seven feet long, and seven to nine inches in diameter; femurs five feet long, and weighing three hundred pounds. There were pieces of crockeryware, pipes, and other articles of human manufacture that had been found far below the surface. I was unable to ascertain whether any of these remains of man were found in any relation to the mastodon bones. As far as I could learn they were not.

We spent the night at Zimpango, and rode to the factory in the morning over a very varied country. At times we passed over barren alkaline plains, and then again rich garden spots with abundance of produce; at times a rocky, barren, and uncultivated region, without habitation for several miles; and others, grassy hills, with flocks of sheep and herds of cattle and horses.

About seven leagues from the factory is the "Robber's Cave," a place in the mountains where tradition represents much treasure to be hidden. The story is that a negro chieftain had his headquarters in this cave, and for a long time successfully carried on his freebooting. At length, in robbing a conducta that was said to be valued at three millions, he succeeded in making the capture, and carried it into the recesses of his subterranean haunt. The robbers, however, were so closely pursued by the troops that they blew up the entrance to the cave, and as the robbers all perished, no

one had ever been able to find the lost treasure. All the information at present in the possession of any one had been transmitted by the confessions of an old man to a priest. A company existed for the purpose of making explorations, but funds are wanting for prosecuting the work.

Some weeks later I made a trip to the copper mines at Michoacan. We took the diligencia for Toluca, a nine hours' drive over a dusty road. The scenery was very much varied, and a portion of the road rough, although there was no occasion at any time to get out of the stage to walk. Toluca we found to be quite a large town, situated in the middle of a plain, surrounded by high mountains. The plain is considerably higher than that of the valley of the City of Mexico, and we found the climate much colder, and tropical products entirely disappear. The city has a fine colonnade, or portales; finer than any I saw in Mexico. It was hard to get horses, and they were miserable ponies after all. We however set out, and did not reach Almonaco, the end of the first day's journey, until after night. The first part of the way was comparatively level, bare of trees, and evidently mostly sterile, for there was but little cultivated land. The latter half of the journey was more varied; first a few scattering oaks as the country became more rolling, then mixed with pine as we entered the mountains, and finally heavy pine forest on the mountains which we crossed. Almonaco was on the foot slope of a mountain. We stopped at a We stopped at a rancho called Toleo about noon, and had some tortillas, some eggs, and fried turkey, and a cup of our own tea. There were no knives, but two frail forks and as many spoons, and we were compelled to eat like the Mexicans-with our fingers.

The hotel at Almonaco was such as is usually found in small Mexican villages. There was nothing furnished but a bare room, without a particle of furniture, and no fire. We had to borrow from the parish priest the mattress for one of our company who was ill. The elevation is very great, and the night air was uncomfortably cold.

There was frost on the ground the following morning.

Our journey, after leaving Almonaco, led us over rocky points and across steep ravines, through woods of pine and oak and a partially cultivated country. We passed the hacienda and mill of Santa Maria about ten o'clock, and reached Villa del Valle about noon. Villa del Valle is a romantic village of two thousand inhabitants, located on a bluff in a narrow valley, with high mountains surrounding it. The scenery is exceedingly fine, and we walked out and enjoyed the view from the extreme point of the bluff on which the town is located. One of us lost a revolver, and, to my surprise, on applying to the chief of police had it returned. He accounted for its return by the probability that it was of no use to any one without the necessary ammunition, which in this country is very expensive and difficult to get.

At Villa del Valle we procured ponies for Istapan del Oro. None could be had to take us to the copper mines on account of the distance; most of the Mexican horses would find it a hard trip on them, if they did not break down by the way. Our road continued westward, and we passed out of the valley through a narrow gorge down the stream that drained the valley. We then passed over a high mountain ridge, and descended to a village and stream, both known as Istapan del Oro. The disintegrated quartz and red soil, as well as the name of the region, indicate gold. The valley is much narrower and much lower than that of Villa del Valle, and the tropical fruits were to be had in abundance and cheap. The town is small, but its red tile roofs and white walls imbedded in a dense green of plantain and orange groves and sugar-cane, and viewed from the high mountain we had to descend to get to it, gave it a most charming effect. Its location is remarkably beautiful and interesting. The valley is very narrow, the mountains very high and steep, and the scenery very grand. The stream was about ten yards wide, and knee-deep to the horses -a clear, beautiful mountain stream. The

We did not succeed in getting horses for Michoacan, so we spent several days in visiting the mines about Istapan. Several silver mines are high up in the mountain to the westward. As we ascended over the rugged mountain path, the Rincon mine was pointed out to me in a deep ravine on the mountain side. By a circuitous route we reached the steep mountain summit near which was the San Cristobal, where nothing but a shaft and inclined adit nearly filled with water is to be seen. We continued

Our

course along the ridge or mountain summit, two miles farther, to the Espirita Santa. This mine we entered along a low narrow passage, nearly horizontal, with here and there a shaft filled with water. One of these shafts was said to be eighty yards deep, and tradition has it that at the bottom of this one the ore is very rich, paying $800 to $1,000 per monton (3,000 lbs.). Eighteen yards deep ore had recently been taken out, paying $250 per monton. These mines were discovered and worked by the Spaniards, it is said, and nothing has been done on them since. Their value is mostly based on tradition. They were abandoned by the Spaniards in 1780, the workmen being driven away by the Indians. The mountain is covered with a dense forest of large trees, and they were found growing on and among the ruins of the temporary works that the former miners used.

We continued along the mountain through the forest, and came to another shaft called the Capuline. The water came within thirty feet of the top of the shaft, and of course little could be seen. The wall rocks of the lead showed it to be thirty feet wide; we were told that it extends for miles, and that the direction and extent of it indicate that

The next morning we visited a gold ledge near the village, on the opposite side of the stream. It is not worked, and was not in a condition to be examined as to its merits. Later we set out on foot to visit the Beneficiating Works of San Pedro del Monte, located several leagues from Istapan on the stream, and about two leagues from the mine. Our walk took us through orange and plantain groves for several miles, until we had ascended to the region of oak and pine. We passed through an Indian village, with quite a fine little church but for its present ruinous state. The groves of orange and plantain, and also some olives, were beautiful. The works consisted of a twenty-stamp mill, with a furnace for roasting the ore, and eight or ten barrels with water power. The ore is brought down from the mine on donkeys by a steep mountain road, crushed in the stamps-wet process-dried, then roasted in the furnace, and amalgamated in the barrels. About twenty men were employed. The whole work, being conducted in a way that was inconsistent with energy and enterprise, showed that it was exclusively in the hands of the employés of a foreign company. The location of the reduction works is very fine; wood and water at hand, and the mine convenient, and it could be made to pay, if we were told correctly that the ore yielded seventeen marks ($136) per monton.

Another group of mines that I visited were the Real del Monte silver mines, at Pachuca. They are reached by train to Ometusco, thence by stage to Pachuca. The road was comparatively level, but rough in places, leading through plantations of maguey all the way.

From Pachuca, accompanied by a guard of twelve mounted men, armed with the Winchester repeating rifle, we visited Real del Monte. The road between Pachuca and Real is a broad, macadamized highway about two leagues in length. The town is