Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/310

294 Northern road of Tierra adentro crosses the canal of Nŏchistōngŏ. The distance from Mexico to Huĕhuĕtōcă is eleven leagues; the road passes through the little towns of Tăcŭbă, or Guădălūpĕ, (according to the gate by which you leave the Capital,) Tănĕpāntlă, and Gūāūtĭtlān; the last of which, from the number of wooden columns by which a succession of porticoes in the front of the houses is supported, has, at a distance, quite a Grecian look.

The morning after our arrival at Xālpă, we rode along the whole course of the desague to the Hacienda del Sălto, (a distance of nearly four leagues,) below which, at the bottom of a very abrupt natural terrace, the valley of Tula commences. The situation of this Hacienda is very wild and romantic; but, after surveying the gigantic works described in the preceding pages, one cannot repress a feeling of disappointment on seeing the comparative insignificance of the waterfall, (el Salto,) in which they terminate. The height is (as I have already stated) about twenty varas, or forty-three English feet; but the volume of water, which, during the rainy season, is considerable, was, when we saw it, reduced to a little tiny stream, that seemed to thread its way with difficulty through the masses of rock by which the passage was obstructed.

From Jalpa we returned to Mexico by an entirely new route, which led us through the Indian village