CHAPTER IX. 



One of the pleasantest excursions in the environs of the 

 capital is to the Castle of Chapultepec, or *'Hill of the 

 Grasshopper." It is situated at the end of the Paseo de la 

 Reforma. About Chapultepec are gathered more of the 

 grand memories of this interesting country than any other 

 spot in America. Here the Aztec kings deposited their 

 treasures and made their homes. Here, also, the ill-fated 

 Maximillian established the most grand and sumptuous 

 court of the nineteenth century. The castle occupies a 

 commanding position, standing upon a rocky hill some two 

 hundred feet in height, rising abruptly above the marshy 

 plain. It is encircled by a beautiful park composed of old 

 cypress trees, draped in gray Spanish moss. We ascend 

 the hill to the castle by a well-shaded road, formed of 

 wood. On the side of this road, about half-way between 

 base and summit, the tourist is shown a curious cave in 

 which the Aztec kings were supposed to have deposited 

 their treasures. In the grove of cypress at the base of the 

 hill, one is shown a huge old tree, fifty feet in circumfer- 

 ence, under which Montezuma I was wont to enjoy its 

 cooling shade. There is plenty of evidence to show that 

 when the Spaniard first came to the country, the plain of 

 Anahuac was covered with a noble forest of these trees, 

 together with oaks and cedars. 



In the cypress grove, at 

 the foot of the hill, I found, in 

 the base of a rotton tree, a ^B 

 large colony of Helix aspersa, 

 a land snail which was not ^elix aspersa. mull. 



supposed, up to this time, to inhabit Mexico. Many of 



