196 SIX MONTHS IK MEXICO. 



thronged. A little more than a league from 

 Xalapa, the road to Tilotepec turns off to 

 the right, and a few hundred yards bring 

 you to the edge of the hill on which you 

 have been travelling. On a sudden the whole 

 valley of Tilotepec, with the village and 

 church, breaks on the astonished eye of the 

 traveller: those who have seen some of the 

 finest situations in Switzerland may form an 

 idea of this romantic vale, surrounded and 

 shut in by towering cliffs and pinnacled 

 volcanic mountains of the most romantic 

 forms, and covered with the richest tropical 

 vegetation. The town, with its crowded 

 streets, perfectly distinct, lay almost beneath 

 our feet; but, at an amazing depth, in the 

 front of the elegant little church, rises a 

 sugar-loaf mountain, with steps cut in the 

 solid rock, crowned by a temple, built in 

 good taste, — a Spanish erection soon after 

 the Conquest ; and directly behind the town, 



