Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/387

Rh On reaching the Table-land beyond this ridge, the singular mountain called Los Organos de Actopan, is immediately in sight, and continues so for several leagues. It rises 2,426 feet above the level of the plain, and resembles the spires of a cathedral, or the twisted growth of a large species of cactus (whence the name is taken) in its appearance. This cactus runs up in columns to a great height, and is much used by the Indians for enclosures. On the road from Real del Monte to Mexico, there is one village, every house in which is so completely fenced in by it, that nothing else is visible. You pass through avenues of cactus, which constitute the streets, and as none of these habitations communicate with the road by a door in front, there is nothing except the barking of the dogs, and the occasional squalling of a child within, to indicate the abode of man.

The neighbourhood of Chīcŏ is not less remarkable than that of Ăctōpăn for the singular configuration of the surrounding rocks. I regret much not having obtained a drawing of this wild spot, or of a natural column, which rises suddenly out of the ground in the middle of the forest between Chico and Real del Monte, and towers up at once to the height of near 200 feet. The Barranca of Regla, too, with the beautiful waterfall a little above the Hacienda, and the row of basaltic columns which support the ledge of rock from which the stream descends, is a magnificent subject for the pencil, and one to which no drawing that I have yet seen does