286 A TEIP TO MEXICO. 



stem forty to fifty feet high, forming a perfect tree of magnifi- 

 cent flowers. But when cultivated for pulque, the bud of this 

 stem must be cut off just at the time of its starting. The cut is 

 hollowed out in dish-shape, and all the sap, containing the accu- 

 mulated nutriment and life of the plant, flows into this recepta- 

 cle, from which it is drawn out and put into goat or hog skins. 

 One thrifty plant will furnish three or four hundred gallons of 

 this juice, which in a few days after being gathered ferments and 

 becomes, without further care or process, the great drink of the 

 country. To uneducated tastes it is a bad smelling, bad 

 tasting, sour-milky, and miserable apology for a beverage. But 

 it is consumed in immense quantities by the Indians and lower 

 classes. There is a daily train of cars especially for its transpor- 

 tation to the city called the pulque train. The Iturbe family of 

 Mexico have one hacienda of maguey, for the rent of which they 

 are paid $150 a day, over $50,000 a year. It is to me almost 

 inconceivable where all the money and demand for this intoxica- 

 ting product come from. 



Before arriving at our journey's end, the road skirts around 

 the northern edge of lake Tezcuco, in which the city of Mexico 

 was said originally to have been built, but from which it is now 

 distant at least two miles. It is a salt lake, as are all seas and 

 lakes from which there are no outlets. Evaporation carries off 

 all the surplus of water, leaving always the minute traces of 

 mineral matter brought down by the inlet streams; and the 

 accumulations of ages make the briny solutions of all un- 

 drained bodies of water. The shallow margins of this lake" are 

 divided off into beds by low embankments, and in the rainy sea- 

 son the salt water flows into them. When the lake falls in the 

 dry season, there remain in them enclosed bodies of salt water, 

 which drying leave a crust of salt on the surface. This is care- 

 fully scraped up, taken away, and cleaned or re-evaporated. From 

 thence comes the salt supply of this country, both for domestic 

 purposes and for a certain process in the refining of silver ore. 



We are now entering the great Capitol of the Republic, a city 

 of 250,000 inhabitants, the oldest and most interesting city on 

 the American continent. It was first seen by white men twenty- 



