156 
GUATEMALA. 
Solola; with about twelve hundred inhabitants, it has, 
besides its agricultural advantages, various minerals and 
especially fine clays. Hot-springs come to the surface on 
the lake shore. The road was being repaired, and we 
had to travel slowly, —glad, however, of the excuse for 
loitering, as the views of the lake and valley were not to 
be lightly passed by and forgotten. Then came a long, 
slow climb of fourteen hundred feet to San Andres 
Semetabaj,—a town of seventeen hundred inhabitants, 
which showed us as its only attraction a ruined church 
with a remarkably fine dome; even Sir Christopher Wren 
never designed a finer. On this long climb we lingered 
to photograph the last view of the Lago de Atitlan and its 
volcanoes. The sun was in our faces, and shone over the 
silvery waters with the effect of moonlight. The three 
black giants — once so terrible, now so solemnly grand — 
kept back the surging sea of cloud from the Pacific 
that seemed struggling to climb their sides and reach the 
lake. Not a boat, not a human being, was visible as we 
looked our last on the beautiful lago and turned to a road 
quite unlike any we had travelled before. 
And now every day brought a quite new experience, 
as not merely the flowers and vegetation, but the very 
physical aspect of the country changed; and, strangely 
enough, the night was the entracte . To-day we were 
crossing the immense wrinkles of the earth, while from 
Chichicastenango to Solola we had travelled with them. 
As we went up and down, the light faded ; and we still 
had three 66 wide rivers to cross,” as well as many leagues 
to ride. As we passed the camps of the mozos de cargo 
the bright light of their fires dazzled us and made the 
road some way beyond seem much darker. We came at 
