Page:Our Neighbor-Mexico.djvu/364

352 Such might have been my feelings as I entered the coach at four this morning; for although I found another passenger there, I was as far apart from him as Nimrod's leaders found themselves from each other, all of a sudden, on the plains of Shinar. And at the end of a single posta, we separated in body, as we had already been in tongue, and I was actually left in the Selkirk condition. I made a pillow of the coach side till morning, not letting solitude destroy slumber. The road was easy, and the sleep not much broken. At sunrise we change horses at a little cluster of huts, dignified with the stately Spanish name of La Estansuela. It is remarkable, this swell of names over nothing. The land is full of it in many other ways.

Here we commenced climbing the slight ridge that limits on this side the beautiful valley of San Luis. All the ridges so far are slight, but all exist. The divides are of various breadths, from two to five miles, are barren, dry, stony, but with irrigation from the surrounding hills could be turned into blossoming gardens. The cactus grows wild over them, and the maguey, showing the capacity of the soil, and its readiness to yield to suitable culture.

The sun breaks in upon us with a fierce glare, like a lion on his prey. He says, evidently, "You want a companion; I'll be a good deal more of one than you desire."There is anger in his eye, like the blistering risings of the heated term in the North. He is as good as his word. A hotter day I have not seen in Mexico or elsewhere.

The mountains range on either side of the road from three to five leagues distant, and never approach it much nearer. You are sure they will shut you in ahead, they look so near; but a sharper or a nearer view shows a gap perpetually opening, and through that gap you are constantly passing. It is indeed no gap, but the mere line of the uneven parallel. How far it may continue I have yet to learn. It has been with me so far ever since leaving Mexico, and especially uniform this side of Queretaro. In fact, it seems a trait of the land, the side journey of a hundred and fifty miles to Leon being a perpetual path between lofty ranges of hills, from ten