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Rh through Īstlăhūacă and Lerma; the rainy season being too far advanced to render it advisable to explore any new path across the mountains. By setting out very early in the morning we had succeeded, during the whole expedition, in avoiding the rains; although they rendered many parts of the road nearly impassable, particularly in the neighbourhood of Temascaltepec, where there is a great deal of red clay, upon which neither horse nor mule could preserve its footing. With the exception of a few falls, however, on our way to the least accessible of the mines, and the misfortunes of a Carga mule, that was nearly drowned in crossing a torrent, we met with no adventures; and the freshness of the country around us made ample amends for the additional difficulties with which our progress was attended, in consequence of the rains.

I never saw, in any part of the world, a greater variety of beautiful scenery than is to be met with between Tĕmăscāltĕpēc and Zitācŭarŏ, but particularly in the vicinity of the Valle de Temascaltepec, where the road winds repeatedly up and down a Cañada, of just sufficient depth to produce, in alternate layers, the vegetation of every different climate.

I likewise recollect with pleasure the Barranca of Hŏcŏnūscŏ, which, on one side, led us, by a slope of nearly a league, to the foot of a precipitous ridge of rocks, to climb which, with our tired animals, seemed almost impracticable. Upon the summit