18 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



way, at the diftancc of fifty leagues (^/wj. Its top is 

 always covered with fnow, and its border adorned with 

 large cedar, pine, and other trees of valuable wood, 

 which make the profpe^t of it every way beautiful. It 

 is diftant from the capital upwards of ninety miles to 

 the eaftward. 



The Popocatepec and Iztaccihuatl^ which lay near each 

 other, but thirty-three miles diftant from Mexico to- 

 wards the fouth-eaft, are alfo of a furprifmg height. 

 Popocatepec, for which they have fubftituted the name 

 Volcan, has a mouth or vent more than half a mile wide, 

 from which, in the time of the Mexican kings, it fre- 

 quently emitted flames ; and in the laft century many 

 times threw out great quantities of afhes upon the places 

 adjacent ; but in this century, hardly any fmoke has 

 been obferved. Iztaccihuatly known by the Spaniards 

 under the name of Sierra Nevada, threw out alfo at 

 fometimes fmoke and afhes. Both mountains have their 

 tops always covered with fnow in fo great quantities, as 

 to fupply with what precipitates on the neighbouring 

 rocks, the cities of Mexico, Gelopoli, Cholula, and 

 other adjoining places, to the diftance of forty miles 

 from thefe mountains, where an incredible quantity is 

 yearly confumed in cooling and congealing liquors C^J* 



The mountains of Coliman and Tochtlan, confi- 

 derably diftant from the capital, and ftill more fo from 



each 



(m) Pojauhtecatl Is higher than Taide or the Peak of Tcneri£fe, according to 

 P. Tallandier the Jcfuit, who made obfervations on them both : vide Lettres 

 Edifiantes, &c. Thomas Gage fays of the Popocatepec, it is as high as the high- 

 eft Alps : he might have added, fomething higher, if he had calculated the 

 elevated ftation on which this celebrated mountain rifes. 



(n) The impoft or duty upon ice or congealed fnow confumed in the capital, 

 amounted in 1746, to 15,522 Mexican crowns; fome years after, it rofe to- 

 ao,ooo, and at prefent we may believe it is a great deal more. 



