106 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. VI. 
the monuments of that country, remains have been recognized, especially 
in the ruins of Mayapan, the severe and unornamented style of which 
claims an antiquity contemporary with that of Palenque. There, as in 
the latter city, the walls are almost always covered with a plastering of 
stucco, to which oxide of iron has given a tinting, which would seem to 
denote that iron was formerly known in America, although no imple- 
ment fashioned of this metal has ever been discovered. 
Another interesting relic of ancient architecture preserved at Palenque 
is a fine bridge thrown over the river Michol, a short distance from the 
palace. It is built of square hewn stones, joined together without mortar 
by means of their shape only; it has no parapet. Sixty feet long by 
forty-five wide, it rises twelve feet above the ordinary level of the water. 
But a singular thing is that the opening which giyes passage to the 
river, square above, goes on enlarging convexly, contrary to the style of 
our bridge arches, the form of which is concave. This mode of con- 
struction is evidently opposed to solidity, but the stones are so well 
matched in the edifice in question that it has been preserved intact down 
the centuries. 
Three miles east of the city appears another monument of the same 
character. It is a canal or subterranean aqueduct, a hundred and eighty 
feet long, six in width and twelve in height, through which runs a strong 
stream of exceedingly limpid water, coming from the wooded mountains 
and flowing from south to north. The dimensions of this monument 
vary in some places. It is made of large stones laid without cement and 
fitting by their individual shapes, and the roof is formed of other flat 
stones which cover the entire breadth of the aqueduct. It is hard to say 
what purpose this great hydraulic construction served; perhaps it con- 
ducted the waters of the mountain to the public baths of this great 
metropolis, or it may have served to facilitate the passage of the water 
from one quarter to another. 
It is to be observed that in the buildings of Palenque no brick is 
found, although so often employed in other parts of America; every- 
where stone only appears. It is true that the quarries were so near the 
city and so easily worked that the inhabitants may never have dreamt of 
using other materials. Wood, if it were ever made use of, has entirely 
disappeared. It is hard to say whether the architects of Palenque made 
use of lintels of hardwood, suchas those found at Tulha and in Yucatan. 
As for the openings serving for windows, they are small and generally 
capricious in form, surrounded within the buildings with arabesques and 
patterns in bas-relief, at times very pleasing It is thus that the Latin 
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