(Tzompango) and San Christobal; but has also prevented their waters in the rainy season from flowing into the basin of the lake of Tezcuco. These waters formerly inundated the plains, and purified a soil strongly covered with carbonate and muriate of soda. At present, without settling into pools, and thereby increasing the humidity of the Mexican atmosphere, they are drawn off by an artificial canal into the river of Panuco, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

This state of things has been brought about from the desire of converting the ancient city of Mexico into a capital better adapted for carriages, and less exposed to the danger of inundation. The water and vegetation have in fact diminished with the same rapidity with which the tequesquite (or carbonate of soda) has increased. In the time of Montezuma, and long afterwards, the suburb of Tlatelolco, the barios of San Sebastian, San Juan, and Santa Cruz, were celebrated for the beautiful verdure of their gardens but these places now, and especially the plains of San Lazaro, exhibit nothing but a crust of efflorescent salts. The fertility of the plain, though yet considerable in the southern part, is by no means what it was when the city was surrounded by the lake. A wise distribution of water, particularly by means of small canals of irrigation, might restore the ancient fertility of the soil, and re-enrich a valley which nature

appears to have destined for the capital of a great empire.

The actual bounds of the lake of Tezcuco are not very well determined, the soil being so argillaceous and smooth that the difference of level for a mile is not more than two decimetres.* When the east winds blow with any violence, the water withdraws towards the western bank of the lake, and sometimes leaves an extent of more than 600 metrest dry. Perhaps the periodical operation of these winds suggested to Cortez the idea of regular tides ‡, of which the existence has not been confirmed by late observations. The lake of Tezcuco is in general only from three to five § metres in depth, and in some places even less than one. Hence the commerce of the inhabitants of the small town of Tezcuco suffers much in the very dry months of January and February; for the want of water prevents them from going in canoes to the capital. The lake of Xochimilco is free from this inconvenience; for from Chalco, Mesquic, and Tlahuac, the navigation is never once interrupted, and Mexico receives daily, by the canal of Iztapalapan, roots, fruits, and flowers in abundance.

7.874 inches. Trans.

+ 1968 feet. Trans.

Journal de Savans for the year 1676, p. 34. The lake of Geneva manifests also a regular motion, which Saussure

attributes to periodical winds.

9 to 163 feet. Trans.

*

Of the five lakes of the valley of Mexico, the lake of Tezcuco is most impregnated with muriate and carbonate of soda. The nitrate of barytes proves that this water contains no sulphate in dissolution. The most pure and limpid water is that of the lake of Xochimilco, the specific weight of which I found to be 1.0009, when that of water distilled at the temperature of 18° centigrade was 1.000, and when water from the lake of Tezcuco was 1.0215. The water of this last lake is consequently heavier than that of the Baltic sea, and not so heavy as that of the ocean, which, under different latitudes, has been found between 1.0269 and 1.0285. The quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen which is detached from the surface of all the Mexican lakes, and which the acetite of lead indicates in great abundance in the lakes of Tezcuco and Chalco, undoubtedly contributes in certain seasons to the unhealthiness of the air of the valley. However, and the fact is curious, intermittent fevers are very rare on the banks of these very lakes, of which the surface is partly concealed by rushes and aquatic herbs.

Adorned with numerous teocallis, like so many Mahometan steeples, surrounded with water and dikes, founded on islands covered with verdure, and receiving hourly in its streets thousands of

* 54° Fahrenheit. Trans.

boats which vivified the lake, the ancient Tenochtitlan, according to the accounts of the first conquerors, must have resembled some of the cities of Holland, China, or the Delta of Lower Egypt. The capital, reconstructed by the Spaniards, exhibits, perhaps, a less vivid, though a more august and majestic, appearance. Mexico is undoubtedly one of the finest cities ever built by Europeans in either hemisphere. With the exception of Petersburg, Berlin, Philadelphia, and some quarters of Westminster, there does not exist a city of the same extent which can be compared to the capital of New Spain, for the uniform level of the ground on which it stands, for the regularity and breadth of the streets, and the extent of the public places. The architecture is generally of a very pure style, and there are even edifices of very beautiful structure. The exterior of the houses is not loaded with ornaments. Two sorts of hewn stone, the porous amygdaloid called tetzontli, and especially a porphyry of vitreous feld-spath without any quartz, give to the Mexican buildings an air of solidity, and sometimes even magnificence. There are none of those wooden balconies and galleries to be seen which disfigure so much all the European cities in both the Indies. The balustrades and gates are all of Biscay iron, ornamented with bronze, and the houses, instead

of roofs, have terraces like those in Italy and other southern countries.

Mexico has been very much embellished since the residence of the Abbé Chappe there in 1769. The edifice destined to the School of Mines, for which the richest individuals of the country furnished a sum of more than three millions of francs, would adorn the principal places of Paris or London. Two great palaces (hotels) were recently constructed by Mexican artists, pupils of the Academy of Fine Arts of the capital. One of these palaces, in the quarter della Traspana, exhibits in the interior of the court a very beautiful oval peristyle of coupled columns. The traveller justly admires a vast circumference paved with porphyry flags, and inclosed with an iron railing, richly ornamented with bronze, containing an equestrian statuet of King Charles the Fourth placed on a pedestal of Mexican marble, in the midst of the Plaza Major of Mexico, opposite the cathedral and the viceroy's

* 124,8007. sterling. Trans.-See Chap. VII.

+ This colossal statue was executed at the expense of the Marquis de Branciforte, formerly viceroy of Mexico, brother-in-law of the Prince of Peace. It weighs 450 quintals, and was modelled, founded, and placed by the same artist, M. Tolsa, whose name deserves a distinguished place in the history of Spanish sculpture. The merits of this man of genius can only be appreciated by those who know the difficulties with which the execution of these great works of art are attended even in civilized Europe.