14 



A GUIDE TO MEXICO. 



the Republic. " Entering a rocky Canada, the bottom of which barely affords room 

 for a road, you pass between high adobe walls, above which, up the steep, rises tier 

 above tier of blank, windowless, sun-dried houses, looking as if they had grown 

 out of the earth. Every corner of the windings of this road is filled with buildings 

 of mining companies; huge fortresses of stone, ramparted, as if for defence. The 

 scene varies with every moment. Now you look up to a church with purple dome 



and painted towers ; now the 

 black adobe walls, with here 

 and there a spicy cypress or 

 graceful palm between them, 

 rise far above you, along the 

 steep ledges of the mountain; 

 and again the mountain itself, 

 with Its waste of rock and cac- 

 tus, is all you see. The canada 

 finally seems to close : a preci- 

 pice of rock, out of a rift in 

 which the stream flows, shuts 

 the passage. Ascending this, 

 by a twist in the road you are 

 in the heart of the city." 



"Guanajuato impressed us," 

 says another, "with an idea of 

 permanence and comparative 

 prosj^erity rather unusual in 

 this part of the country, in spite 

 of its greatly reduced popula- 

 tion, its languishing industries, 

 and its suburban mining-towns deserted, and tumbling into ruins. It has many beauti- 

 ful private residences, which cannot be excelled in comfort, extent, and elegance, in 

 any part of the United States, and many still wealthy and aristocratic families of 

 pure, or nearly pure, Castilian descent." 



The reservoirs, substantial and beautiful structures thrown across a stream which 

 flows above the city, furnish it with water ; and terraced promenades around them 

 are favorite resorts of the people. 



" Above the city, not far from the reservoirs, is a peculiar high mountain 

 crowned with a curious perpendicular rock, which, from its fancied resemblance 

 to the outlines of a giant buffalo, has been christened 'EI Buffa.' From this 

 mountain is procured in unlimited quantities a species of beautifully variegated 

 sandstone, of all the colors of the rainbow, blue, pale green, and chocolate 

 predominating. The sandstone cuts readily, has a fine grain; and of this material 

 residences have been consti^ucted of the most beautiful style, lining the canon all 

 the way up to the reservoirs. Graceful pillars in long colonnades, arched portals 

 and corridors, and patios decorated with all the flowers of this prolific climate, are 

 seen by the delighted traveller on every side." 



The mint here is said to be the best in Mexico, and one of the few run by 

 steam ; while the reduction-works, though mainly run on the old Mexican plan, 

 are the most famous in the country. In the mountains north-east of the city is 



INTERIOR OF MEXICAN HUT. 



