MEXICAN HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 19 



steps, so as to be almost perpendicular to the base. This platform is forty-eight 

 Spanish feet broad and seventy long, and the steps rise on all the sides indicated 

 on the above ground-plan by the letter S. The entire structure is of sand, lime, 

 and large stones taken from the bed of the stream; and though very old and of 

 course covered with a thick mantle of tropical plants and trees, its form is declared 

 to be almost perfect. At first it was supposed to be solid, but an entrance was 

 discovered from the west, but so small and clogged that the explorers were not 

 disposed to venture within for fear of venomous insects and serpents with which 

 the interior in all likelihood is swarmins;. 1 



1 See Museo Mejicano, II, 465, for plate and description. 



