COPAN QUARRIES 
SP EVENS — 
<The day after our survey was finished, as a relief 
we set out for a walk to the old stone quaretes of Copan, > 
Very soon we abandoned we path along the iver, and turned 
off to the left. The ground was broken, the forest thick, 
and a11 the way we had an Indian before us with his machete, 
cutting down branches and sapplings. The ee lies about 
two miles north from the river, and runs east and west. At 
the foot of it we crossed a wildstream, The side of the mount- 
gain was overgrown with bushes and trees, The top was bare, 
and commanded a magnificent view of a dense forest, broken 
only by the winding of the Copan River, and the clesrings for 
ne haciendas of Don Gregorio and Don Miguel, The city was 
buried in forest and entirely hidden from sight, Imagination 
peopled the quarry with workwen, and laid bare the city to 
their view, Here, as the sculptor worked, he uurned to the 
theatre of his glory, ss the Greek did to the’ Acropolis of 
Athens, and dreamed of immortal fome. “ittle did he imagine 
that the time would come when his works would perish, his race 
be extinct, his oity a desolation and abode for reptiles, for 
strangers to gaze at and wonder by what race it had once been 
inhabited. | | : 
< The stone is of a soft grit. The range extended a long 
distance, seemingly unconscious that stone enough h had been 
taken from its sides to build a city. Tow the huge nagses were 
tronsported over the irregular and broken surface we had! 
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