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PASSEO NUEVO AND DE LA VIGA ALAMED. 



weather is fine, which it usually is for six or eight months of the 

 year, the disengaged people pour out to this gay resort, near 

 sunset, on foot, in coach, or on horseback, to enjoy the refreshing 

 breeze and to greet each other on this social exchange. The Passeo 

 is broad enough to allow several coaches, to drive abreast if need- 

 ful, but the course is usually occupied by only two lines of ad- 

 vancing and returning carriages or horsemen. This promenade 

 parade circulates up and down the highway for an hour ; but when 

 the evening bells toll for oracion, every hat is raised for a moment 

 and every horse's head immediately turned homewards. 



The Passeo de la Viga, is on the other side of the city, and is 

 preferred by many persons to the Passeo Nuevo* It skirts one of 

 the canals leading to the lake of Chalco, and affords the stranger an 

 opportunity of observing the crowds of Indians who linger along the 

 banks, or push off at evening in their boats, crowned with flowers 

 and strumming their guitars if the day happens to be one of festivity. 



This Passeo was constructed under the viceroyalty of Re villa- Gi- 

 gedo, whose improvements of the city and neighborhood of Mexico 

 have contributed so greatly to the elegance and beauty of the 

 capital. 



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THE ALAMEDA FOUNTAIN. 



The Alameda is a beautiful grove of lofty forest trees planted in 

 a rich soil in the western section of the city and on the road to the 



