coeima, one of Mexico's active volcanoes 



On the sides of this great safety valve of the big earth furnace are numerous ice camps. 

 Hail forms and falls so continuously here that the peons gather up the ice-stones, wrap them 

 in straw, and carry them down to the towns on the plain for domestic purposes. 



reached the height where clouds and 

 mists settle in their passage from the 

 Mexican Gulf. 



He has entered the tierra tcmplada, or 

 temperate region, whose character resem- 

 bles that of the temperate zone of the 

 globe. The features of the scenery be- 

 come grand and even terrible. His road 

 sweeps along the base of mighty moun- 

 tains, once gleaming with volcanic fires, 

 and still resplendent in their mantles of 

 snow, which serve as beacons to the mari- 

 ner, for many a league at sea. All around 

 he beholds traces of their ancient com- 

 bustion, as his road passes along vast 

 tracts of lava, bristling in the innumer- 

 able fantastic forms into which the fiery 



torrent has been thrown by the obstacles 

 in its career. Perhaps at the same mo- 

 ment as he casts his eye down some steep 

 slope or almost unfathomable ravine on 

 the margin of the road he sees their depths 

 glowing with the rich blooms and enam- 

 eled vegetation of the tropics. Such are 

 the singular contrasts presented, at the 

 same time, to the senses in this pictur- 

 esque region ! 



Still pressing, upward, the traveler 

 mounts into other climates, favorable to 

 other kinds of cultivation. The yellow 

 maize, or Indian corn, as we usually call 

 it. has continued to follow him up from 

 the lowest level ; but he now first sees 

 fields of wheat and the other European 



