Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/76

54 Puebla is considered the second city of the republic. It is open, cleanly and pleasant: the streets are as well paved as those of the capital; and less crowded with beggars. House rents are one-third, nay, often one-half less than in the chief city. Churches and convents flourish here in great numbers; and the neighbourhood is also celebrated for its productions in glass and earthenware. On the eastern side is a beautiful Alameda, or public walk, planted with rows of fine trees, behind which flows a pretty river, suppling in its course water-power for several manufactories.

The town of Xalapa and its vicinity, constitute the garden of the country. It is most romantically situated, the houses being perched upon the crests of lofty hills, and the streets forming a kind of intervening valleys. So salubrious is the locality, that residents upon low lands adjoining the coast, resort to it as a refuge from the malaria fever, during the hot season. The lovely freshness and greenness prevailing here, is caused by the damp atmosphere driven inland from the sea to rest upon the town; and the dewy, rainbow-like mist, followed immediately by the most dazzling sunshine—reflecting itself a hundredfold from