RUINS OF QUEMADA. 



319 



mixed with it has been used. Rich grass was growing in the spa- 

 cious court where Aztec monarchs may once have feasted ; and our 

 cattle were so delighted with it that we left them to graze while we 

 walked about three hundred yards to the northward, over a very 

 wide parapet, and reached a perfect, square, flat-topped pyramid of 

 large unhewn stones. It was standing unattached to any other 

 buildings, at the foot of the eastern brow of the mountain which 

 rises abruptly behind it. On the eastern face is a platform of 

 twenty-eight feet in width, faced by a parapet wall of fifteen feet, 

 and from the base of this extends a second platform with a para- 

 pet like the former, and one hundred and eighteen feet wide. 

 These form the outer defensive boundary of the mountain, which 

 from its figure has materially favored its construction. There is 

 every reason to believe that this eastern face must have been of great 

 importance. A slightly raised and paved causeway descends across 

 the valley, in the direction of the rising sun, and being continued on 

 the opposite side of a stream which flows through it, can be traced 

 up the mountains at two miles distant, till it terminates at the base 

 of an immense stone edifice which probably may also have been a 

 pyramid. Although a stream (Rio del Partido) runs meandering 

 through the plain from the northward, about midway between the 

 two elevated buildings. I can scarcely imagine that the causeway 

 should have been formed for the purpose of bringing water to the 

 city, which is far more easy of access than in many other directions 

 much nearer to the river, but must have been construted for impor- 

 tant purposes between the two places in question ; and it is not im- 

 probable once formed the street between the frail huts of the poorer 

 inhabitants. The base of the large pyramid measured fifty feet, and 

 I ascertained by ascending with a line that its height was precisely 

 the same. Its flat top was covered with earth and a little vegeta- 

 tion : and our guide asserted, although he knew not where he ob- 

 tained the information, that it was once surmounted by a statue. 

 Off the south-east corner of this building, and about fifteen yards 

 distant, is to be seen the edge of a circle of stones about eight feet 

 in diameter, enclosing as far as we could judge by scraping away 

 the soil, a bowl-shaped pit, in which the action of fire was plainly 

 observable; and the earth from which we picked some pieces of pot- 

 tery, was evidently darkened by an admixture of soot and ashes. 

 At the distance of one hundred yards south-west of the large pyra- 

 mid is a small one, twelve feet square, and much injured. This is 

 situated on somewhat higher ground, in the steep part of the ascent 

 to the mountain's brow. On its eastern face, which is towards the 



