146 



SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACAN. 



tal by the application of their gigantic force, to the trans* 

 port of those vast masses of sculptured and chiselled 

 rock, which we marvel to see lying in positions so far re- 

 moved from their natural site. 



The existence of these ancient paved causeways also, 

 not only from their solid construction over the flat and 

 low plains of the valley, but as they may be traced run- 

 ning for miles over the dry table land and the mountains, 

 appears to me to lend plausibility to the supposition ; as 

 one might inquire — to what end the labour of such 

 works, in a country where beasts of burden were un- 

 known ? 



But I leave this subject to wiser heads and bolder the- 

 orists. Had the mammoth of Chapingo been discov- 

 ered with a ring in his nose, or a bit in his mouth ; a 

 yoke on his head, or a crupper under his tail, the ques- 

 tion would have been set at rest. As it is, there is plenty 

 of room for conjecture and dispute.* 



On leaving Tczcuco, in the course of the morning, we 

 took the road conducting to the northeast. 



An advance of five leagues over dusty roads, and 

 through picturesque villages, whose cottages were almost 

 hidden from view by the close hedge of the organ cac- 

 tus, brought us to a slope of a hill commanding a view 

 of the valley of San Juan Teotihuacan. 



The two huge pyramidal masses rising in the centre 

 of the plain, anciently called Micoatl, or the Path of the 

 Dead, immediately arrest the attention. They lie two 

 miles east of the town, which, imbosomed in shady 

 groves, and irrigated throughout by plenteous streams of 

 clear water, seemed to us a very paradise, after our shel- 

 erless ride in the hot sun. 



My companions betaking themselves to a state of tor- 



* The remains of five distinct species of mastodon have been deter* 

 mined ; and of these, four have been found on the continent of Amer- 

 ica, spread over a surface, extending from the districts south of the St. 

 Lawrence, to Lake Titicaca, 



