236 MEXICO. 
lot to live for a season on the banks of the Chesapeake, he would manage 
to convert himself occasionally into a stalk of " wild celery," to decoy the 
canvas-backs within reach of his weapon. 
A ride of an hour over flats, partially covered with wretched looking 
salt-works, brought us to the grove of the Contactor, which had been dis- 
tinctly visible as soon as we left the garden suburb of Tezcoco. 
Our party led their horses toward some higher ground, north of the 
square, which is formed by a double Ime of magnificent cypresses, near 
five hundred in number, and inclosing about ten acres of ground — while 
I (although warned by Ignacio) kept on to the interior of the grove, in- 
tending to coast around the trees in expectation of finding abundance of 
game. After lingering for half an hour m the grove, and finding my 
labor useless, I thought it best to take a short cut across the square in 
order to reach my companions ; but, scarcely had my horse advanced a 
dozen paces over the apparently solid earth, when he suddenly halted 
and snorted, as if unwilling to proceed. I applied both whip and spur ; 
and, in the next moment, he was a bove his girths — sinking in a morass ! 
I sprang immediately on top of the saddle, and, seizing the lasso, leaped 
to the last spot where the animal had stood firmly. In the meantime my 
poor beast was sinking deeper and deeper — and when, by dint of the whip 
and encouragement, I brought his head around, he had already sunk to 
the saddle-cloth. Rolling himself slightly on his side, he made room to 
lift his legs, and thus, gradually floundered out of the deceptive marsh. 
When I rejoined my friends, they congratulated me on escaping as for- 
tunately as I had done. 
At the northwestern angle of this square I found a double row of 
cypresses, running westwardly toward a dyke. North of this again, I 
discovered a deep tank, of oblong shape, neatly walled with cut stone, 
and filled with water. Of the great antiquity of all these remains 
there can be no doubt, and it struck me that the interior of the cypress 
square was once a pond or mimic lake, filled no doubt from the neighbor- 
ing Tezcoco, and forming part of the gardens of the luxurious monarchs. 
Unless this were the case, it is difficult to account for the spongy and 
yielding mass in the centre of the grove, while the surrounding grounds 
are dry and cultivated. 
After lingering in the pleasant shade for an hour, and amusing our- 
selves with rifle-shooting at zopilotes perched on the highest branches of 
the cypresses, we started off (marshalled by tio on his bull Sancho,) 
toward the marshes that lay between the grove and town. Just as we 
were passing through a small Indian village near the salt-works, a thun- 
der storm came on, and we immediately took shelter in the house of one 
of Ignacio's numerous acquaintances. The worthy man was a candle- 
maker by trade, and had a manufactory in full blast in the adjoining 
