440 
ILLNESS AND 
The Legislative Hall is a plain adobe building, dis- 
tinguished from others only by a flag-staff. The As- 
sembly consists of but eight members ; and one would 
suppose that so small a body would be remarkable for 
the harmony of its proceedings. Yet I was told that 
a large portion of its last session was spent in disputes 
about the qualifications of three of its members, and 
that it had adjourned without transacting any public 
business. A newspaper called the Sonoriense, the only 
one in the State of Sonora, is issued here weekly, and 
is chiefly devoted to the publication of laws, the pro- 
ceedings of the State Legislature and general Congress 
of Mexico, and other matters of an official character. 
The town is regularly laid out in squares, a large 
church and accompanying plaza occupying the centre. 
The church is a plain, substantial edifice, with a tower 
and dome, corresponding in general appearance with 
others throughout the country. The houses are well 
built and in general spacious, better, in fact, than any 
we had seen, except a few at La Magdalena. Although 
but of one story, they are about eighteen feet in the 
clear. As brick is used for cornices and other exterior 
ornaments, and as many of the houses are plastered 
and colored, the town has a pleasant appearance. Its 
streets, too, unlike most Mexican towns, are quite clean. 
Hard by runs the Sonora Eiver, the bottom land of 
which, extending for more than a mile on either side, 
is exceedingly fertile. Its use, however, is almost 
wholly confined to the production of corn, wheat, 
beans', pumpkins, and chili. Vegetables, which one 
would expect to form a large part of the subsistence 
of the people, are scarcely cultivated here, and 
