TOWNS CONTINUED. 



241 



for many miles in the heart of the mountain, and is filled with some 

 of the most curious and gigantic stalagmites and stalactites on our 

 continent. 



Yautepec is a village between the vallies of Cuautla and Cuer- 

 navaca ; and is celebrated for the excellence and quantity of its 

 tropical fruits. Zapotes, bananas, anonas, guayavas, pome- 

 granates, pine apples grow luxuriantly, with the least care or labor, 

 and at least thirty thousand dollars worth of sweet oranges are 

 annually sent from it to the market of Mexico. 



Cuautla de Amilpas, or Ciudad Morelos, is a town in the 

 valley of that name, and made the staunch and memorable resistance 

 to the Spaniards, under the heroic Morelos, during the revolutionary 

 war. It lies 24 leagues S. S. East from the Valley of Mexico, — 

 13 east from Cuernavaca, and is 4,019 feet above the level of 

 the sea. Its climate and productions resemble those of Cuerna- 

 vaca, but it has never recovered from the effects of the deadly 

 siege. 



Passing in a south-westerly direction from the Valleys of Cuautla, 

 Cuernavaca, Mexico and Toluca, we enter the rich metallic region 

 of Tasco which lies upon the declivities of the Sierra Madre, 

 sloping towards the Pacific. In this district we find the town of 

 Temascaltepec, which grew up in the midst of a mining country, 

 formerly rich in the production of silver, but now almost abandoned 

 for such purposes. The North Americans were induced to adven- 

 ture largely in the mines of this district immediately after the revo- 

 lution, but their capitals were entirely lost in works which were 

 found to have been abandoned by the Spaniards as valueless, long 

 before they were sold by speculators to companies from the United 

 States. The climate of Temascaltepec is mild and agreeable ; and, 

 when the mines were productive, it. must have been an agreeable 

 residence. The inhabitants, who have abandoned their former min- 

 eral speculations, now devote themselves to the manufacture of cot- 

 ton shawls and rebozos. 



El Valle; Real del Cristo; Sultepec; La Plata; Texu- 

 pillo ; Zacualpan; Huesultepec ; Almoloyan ; Malinal- 

 tenango and Tecamotepec are villages in the vicinity of 

 Temascaltepec. 



Tasco is a mining town and capital of the canton or district of 

 that name, 5,853 feet above the sea. The village itself is not im- 

 portant, but is nevertheless worthy of note as the oldest mining 

 region in the confederacy. Soon after the conquest it was wrought 



