THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. 



97 



ashes, the flow of its lavas, and amid the sound of its own 

 fearful thunders, till it soared to where its summit now 

 glistens, in the cold region of ice and snow. There an 

 abrupt cone, bursting through the level plain, or from the 

 bosom of the waters ; disgorging its load of lava and cin* 

 der: and then another, and yet a third— a cluster of 

 smoking mountains! Here a shapeless mass of molten 

 rock and lava, bubbling above the surface, then cooling, 

 and as it cooled, so remaining for ages, a black and steril 

 monument, amid the landscape, of the forgotten reign of 

 fire : and there again, a sudden throe at the base of some 

 labouring mountain, opening a yawning abyss, from 

 which, amid fire and smoke, the seething lava would run 

 down like oil upon the plain, or to the far distant sea. 



This is no overwrought fancy ; there can be no doubt 

 but these things were, though perhaps no eye, but His 

 who " looketh on the earth, and it trembleth," and 

 " toucheth the hills, and they smoke," bore witness to 

 them ! 



The road which ascends the steep pile of hills and 

 mountains behind San Augustin, is that of the Cruz del 

 Marques, one of the six great routes which traverse the 

 cordillera, and form the connection between the city, 

 and the vast extent of country on every side, of which it 

 is the metropolis. The others are, the two routes to 

 Puebla, and Vera Cruz — the more ancient of which 

 passes over the elevated ridge, between the two great 

 volcanoes ; and the other, which is the new and ordinary 

 line, to the north of Iztaccihuatl. Fourthly, the route of 

 the interior, keeping the general level of the table land, 

 to Queretaro, Guanaxuato, and Durango. Fifthly, that 

 of Real del Monte, by which we approached ; and, sixth- 

 ly, that of Toluca to the west. 



In recollecting the localities worthy of attention, in the 

 more immediate vicinity of Mexico, which we repeatedly 

 visited, I feel quite at a loss which to bring into the 

 greater prominence. 



I cannot forget the great interest which hangs over the 



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