CUERNAVACA. 



191 



hundred feet lower. Great as this degree of elevation 

 may appear, the peculiar conformation of the surface — 

 its exposure to the south, while it is protected to the north 

 and east by the great wall of the Sierra Madre — the 

 extraordinary heat generated by the reflection of the 

 sun's rays from those vast naked plains, all conspire to 

 give them a climate more approaching to the tierras ca- 

 lientes than that of the tierras templadas. Wherever 

 mould of any description is found in a position which 

 admits of either natural or artificial irrigation, there the 

 fruits of the tropics are produced in the greatest perfec- 

 tion, and with a strength of vegetation which none can 

 imagine but those who have observed it. The barrancas 

 of these plains fbrm the hothouses of the capital above, 

 and from them the market is daily supplied with abun- 

 dance of the richest fruits. These are chiefly reared by 

 the Indian population, whose little bamboo enclosures, 

 overshadowed by the broad leaves of the banana and 

 papaya, form many a beautiful picture in the vicinity of 

 Cuernavaca. 



We quitted the town by a mule track, traversing a bar- 

 ranca to the east ; and shaped our course towards the 

 mountains bounding the plain in that direction. Our ar- 

 riero and his mules had, according to his orders, left the 

 town the preceding day. This was so far a disadvantage 

 to us, as we were without a proper guide, and we soon 

 experienced the inconveniences consequent upon this 

 circumstance. 



The plains of Cuernavaca are separated from those of 

 Yautepec, lying more to the southeast, by a range of 

 secondary mountains, clothed with wood, and exhibiting 

 in their grotesque and broken outline more of the charac- 

 teristics of the Dolomite ridges of the Tyrol, than any 

 other to which I can compare them : I believe that they 

 are principally composed of breccia. The view opens 

 full upon them immediately below Cuernavaca, while 

 above them tower the long elevated ridge of the sierra, 

 and at their termination the huge forms of the great vol- 

 canoes rise into the sky. 



But I want words to describe the sublimity and beauty 



