PALENQUE. 5 



walls running with water, and the roofs dripping water in all directions, and when at 

 last the weather cleared and we could carry out the pulpy paper-moulds into the sun- 

 shine it was found that most of the work would have to be done over aeain. 



During the time labourers were so scarce Mr. Price and I were chiefly occupied in 

 clearing off the incrustation of carbonate of lime which covered and sometimes almost 

 obliterated the stucco ornamentation on the piers and walls of the temple. This was 

 work which we found could not be entrusted to other hands, as it needed not only the 

 greatest care but some knowledge of the design of the ornament which was being 

 uncovered. We had not come especially prepared for this work, but luckily we found 

 that some large screwdrivers, with the addition of some wooden mallets and bradawls 

 and some smaller screwdrivers from our gun- and instrument-cases, answered very well 

 as tools for our purpose. In some places the incrustation had formed a coat of lime as 

 much as six inches thick, but when as thick as this it was generally soft and could be 

 separated from the face of the stucco without much difficulty, although the job was a 

 very tedious one. When, however, the coating was thinner it was almost always much 

 denser, and often only a few square inches of the moulding could be cleared in the 

 course of a day, and we found it absolutely necessary to use spectacles to protect our 

 eyes from the hard flint-like particles which flew off at a blow given to the chisel. 

 Here and there the attempt to clean the stucco ornament had to be given up altogether, 

 as the incrustation had formed a hard covering, whilst the stucco beneath had become 

 disintegrated and soapy and had no surface left. 



In some cases the stucco, although still hard, was broken in all directions and only 

 held in place by the deposit on its surface. When the incrustation could be removed 

 in large pieces and the surface of the stucco was sound, we sometimes found the colours 

 with which it had been painted still retaining something of their former brilliancy. 



In order to secure good photographs I found it necessary to bring the stucco orna- 

 mentation to an even tone by washing it over with a distemper of wood-ashes and flake 

 white, which did no harm to the moulding and was all washed off again by the first 

 shower of rain. 



The terraces in front of the buildings were so narrow that no photographs of the 

 ornaments on the piers could be taken without building out scaffolds on which to place 

 the camera, and this entailed a large amount of extra work. 



I had hoped to take large-sized photographs of all the ornamented piers, but unfor- 

 tunately, through some error on the part of the shipping agent in New York, the case 

 containing the 12x10 inch camera was not forwarded with the other boxes; and 

 although the mistake was found out and the case at once sent after me, I had left 

 Laguna before it arrived, and the delay in forwarding it up the country was so great 

 that I was obliged to do all the work on the piers with a smaller camera and a 

 8^x6J inch plate. 



Although some of this detail work of photography could be got on with, the general 

 work both of photography and survey could not be commenced until fire had been run 



