Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/259

CH. XVI.] Indian villages; having the remainder of their heights adorned, to their very summits, with trees of an exuberant growth. The height of the plain of Old as well as New Guatemala is about 1,800 feet above the level of the sea: the tops of the mountains, taken from the same level, are about a league or 15,000 feet high. They therefore rise, from their base, to the height of about 13,200 feet, which, although it is 2,547 feet lower than the inferior limit of perpetual snow, is (I shall presently show) from 1000 to 3000 feet higher from the level of their base than any other mountains in North or South America.

The loftiest mountain, and nearest to the city of Mexico, is that of Ajusco, towards the south; its main height is 12,052 feet; but, standing on the verge of that table land, which is itself elevated 7,470 feet, its actual height from its base to its summit is only 4,582 feet. Ajusco, seen at the distance of ten leagues from the city of Mexico, is a noble sight; how then must