Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/209

Rh in clouds, which, both in appearance and effect, strikingly resembled a November Scotch mist. Our cloaks proved insufficient to keep out the chilling cold; and as to the moisture, we soon found that our only chance was to push rapidly on, wherever the road would admit of it, by which means we contrived to reach our quarters for the night without being entirely wet through. The change in the scenery about us, was, in every respect, equal to that which had taken place in the atmosphere. At a very early period of the day we lost sight of the gardens of Jălāpă; and although hedges planted with Chĭrĭmōyăs extended about a league beyond the town, they soon gave place to plants of a hardier growth. These again gradually yielded to the Mexican Oak, and latterly even that to the Fir, which reigned for the last few miles in solitary pre-eminence. The light bamboo cottages of the Indians, which, notwithstanding my objections to them as places of accommodation on the road, were pretty and fantastic, were replaced by buildings of a more solid structure, and consequently better adapted to the climate, but without any pretensions to beauty. I thought them very like the houses in parts of Sweden, and particularly in Dalecarlia, which are composed of unhewn trunks of trees, rudely fastened together, and surrounded with inclosures, twelve feet high, to protect the cattle against the wolves. But still, in the midst of this ungenial scene, there are many features that remind the traveller of the singular