MEXICO AND INDIA 197 



dition, except perhaps a little hungry. The temperature 

 is delicious, about 70° all the time, just what I like ; 

 why can't I introduce this reform, among others, in the 

 climate of Cambridge ? You will hear nothing from me 

 again till I come back from Chichen. We start at day- 

 break to-morrow. 



Love to the boys and the family. Please keep my let- 

 ters, as it 's my easiest way of keeping a journal — not 

 that I want them for their literary finish ! 



TO MRS. LOUIS AGASSIZ 



Izamal, January 7, 1882. 



I write this on the chance of getting into Merida to- 

 morrow in time for the mail. I have got back as far as 

 this from my first trip to the ruins, and it has been a 

 most successful and interesting trip. By the way, Izamal 

 is about fifty miles east of Merida, in case you want to 

 see where I have landed. The ruins I have visited are 

 at Chichen, about one hundred and twenty miles from 

 Merida, in an easterly direction. We left Merida at five 

 on Tuesday last in one, or rather three, of these wooden 

 riding machines on two wheels, such as I made my entry 

 into Progresso. Mr. Charnay had a whole lot of traps 

 for a ten days' stay and was of course well loaded with 

 all sorts of things. 



The first day, as far as Izamal, we got along nicely, 

 the road being quite fair, and the mules were kept on the 

 full gallop all the time except a delay of about two 

 hours for breakfast at a sort of a halfway house called 

 Cacalchen, where we had eggs and beans and oranges 

 and coffee and tortillas. We passed the night at Izamal, 

 but instead of staying at the comparatively comfortable 

 place where I am to pass the night [now], we had to 



