SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO, 



65 



and Westmoreland, covered with tropical ve- 

 getation and magnificent trees, produced such 

 an enchanting effect, that no words can convey 

 an adequate idea of it. About seven or eight 

 leagues from Xalapa we entered the region of 

 Pines, and travelled through a volcanic crater; 

 the whole country for leagues was an entire 

 mass of cinder, scoria, lava, and pumice, piled 

 up in every form that can be conceived, and 

 still remaining in the same state, as when first 

 left by the dreadful explosion of some un- 

 known volcano: in some places, huge pinnacles 

 threatening to fall and crush the passing 

 traveller ; in others, the liquid lava seems to 

 have burst like an immense bubble, leaving 

 arches of solid crust, from sixty to eighty feet 

 high, and three or four thick, all hollow 

 underneath, and spread at the bottom with 

 loose cinders. This valley is bounded on the 

 left by a ridge or wall of immense height, as 

 if the great flood of melted matter had been 



VOL, I. f 



