CITY OF MEXICO. 



311 



of an oval form, is situated in the centre of the Cor- 

 dillera of Anahuac, and is 63 miles in length by 43 

 in breadth. It is surrounded by a ridge of moun- 

 tains, more elevated on the southern side, where it 

 is confined by the great volcanoes of La Puebla, 

 Popocatepetl, and Iztaccihuatl. The capital stands 

 in the immediate vicinity of one of the great lakes 

 which exist in this beautiful valley, although for- 

 merly it was placed on an island in that sheet of 

 water, and communicated with the shore by three 

 great dikes. This city is represented by Humboldt 

 as one of the finest ever built by Europeans in either 

 hemisphere, and all travellers agree in admiring its 

 beauty. " From an eminence, " says Captain Lyon 

 in his interesting Journal, " we came suddenly in 

 sight of the great valley of Mexico, with its beauti- 

 ful city appearing in the centre, surrounded by di- 

 verging shady paseos, bright fields, and picturesque 

 haciendas. The great lake of Tezcuco lay imme- 

 diately beyond it, shaded by a low floating cloud of 

 exhalations from its surface, which hid from our 

 view the bases of the volcanoes of Popocatepetl and 

 Iztaccihuatl ; while their snowy summits, brightly 

 glowing beneath the direct rays of the sun, which 

 but partially illumined the plains, gave a delightfully 

 novel appearance to the' whole scene before me. 

 I was, however, at this distance, disappointed as to 

 the size of Mexico ; but its lively whiteness and 

 freedom from smoke, the magnitude of the churches, 

 and the extreme regularity of its structure, gave it 

 an appearance which can never be seen in a Euro- 

 pean city, and declare it unique, perhaps unequalled 

 in its kind." 



The ground it occupies is everywhere perfectly 

 level, the streets are regular and broad, the architec- 

 ture generally of a very pure style, and many of the 

 buildings are remarkably beautiful. Two kinds of 

 hewn stone, a porous amygdaloid and a glassy fel- 

 spar porphyry, are used. The houses are not loaded 



