Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/239

Rh up the communication with terra firma. Of the correctness of the description which Humboldt gives of their beauties, it was impossible for us to judge, as, in January, we naturally looked in vain for the hedges of flowers, with which he states them to be adorned: to us they appeared mere kitchen-gardens, and it is, in fact, from thence that the Capital is principally supplied with vegetables. The hut of the Indian proprietor, far from adding to the attractions of the scene, is generally a miserable hovel, but too well suited, in point of appearance, to the squalid looks and tattered garments of its inhabitants.

The canal of Chalco presents a much more lively prospect. Both evening and morning it is covered with canoes, in which the natives convey the produce of their gardens, fruit, flowers, and vegetables, to the Mexican market. Chalco is a large town, situated upon a lake of the same name, about twenty miles to the South-east of the Capital; the canal which leads to it is very narrow. The canoes mostly used are of two kinds: one, a punt, which is pushed along by men, and contains sometimes the joint stock of two or three families; the other, a very light narrow canoe, about twelve feet in length, and just broad enough to contain one person sitting down, at each end, with their little provision for the market piled up between them. The canoes are chiefly worked by women, with single paddles, with which, however, they are made to skim over the water with great velocity. The