Chap. XI. SANTA YSABEL. 367 
mountains, is spread before us. The contrast between 
their rugged alpine forms and the smooth plain before them 
is softened by the intervention of a beautiful curve at their 
base. No disturbing details of form, no trivial decoration 
is to be seen. The whole, as an artist would say, has 
been carried out by nature in the strict purity of the 
historic style. And truly the whole picture is historic ; 
the plain record of great natural events. 
The road through the savannah was as flat as a table. 
Don Guillermo, jokingly, tried how fast, in case of need, 
the horses could go, and put them to their full speed. 
Our carriage flew over the grassy plain with the rapidity 
of a railway train. The plain was soon behind us, and 
we found ourselves at the entrance of a mountain pass 
through which the road descends into the valley of Santa 
Ysabel, over porphyry, trachyte, diorite, and basalt rocks, 
with scattered fragments of blue and green chalcedony. 
Here, by the side of a small stream bordered by poplars 
and willows, the green wheat-fields showed the value of 
irrigation, while the catkins of the willows, and the swelling 
buds of the poplars told of the influence of a February 
sun. Later in the year, when these trees shade the stream 
whose transparent waters flow over many-coloured pebbles, 
—-when the cornfields wave and the meadows around the 
town are decked with flowersy — Santa Ysabel must indeed 
be a delightful spot. The valley is surrounded by high 
grotesquely formed mountains. The northern group of 
these was formerly the haunt of an Apache tribe. When 
these savages held their feasts at night the hollow sound 
of the Indian drums could be heard in the town, and hence 
these rocks are still called the Sierra del Tambor. The 
place was originally founded as a mission for the Tarumare 
