184 



SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Markets. 



One of the most interesting sights to an in- 

 quisitive stranger in Mexico is a ramble early 

 in the morning to the canal which leads to the 

 lake of Chalco. There, hundreds of Indian 

 canoes, of different forms and sizes, freighted 

 with the greatest variety of the animal and 

 vegetable productions of the neighbourhood, 

 are constantly arriving ; they are frequently 

 navigated by native women, accompanied by 

 their families. The finest cultivated vege- 

 tables which are produced in European 

 gardens, with the numberless fruits of the 

 torrid zone, of many of which even the names 



