Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/401

Rh human figure, which to the novice look like Egyptian or Assyrian work. There are pyramids with rude passages leading through them and also chambers, perhaps basements of larger buildings with entrances of primitive construction. There are no arches anywhere. Floors, which in most cases are of a hard cement, resembling modern Portland cement, are still in a good state of preservation. Considering the fact that it is only recently that these ruins have been uncovered, it is not at all improbable that neighboring mountains may also have their ruins of temples and palaces.

There is nothing to eat or drink on Monte Alban; consequently those to whom twelve o'clock brings a restlessness which scenery and ruins can not relieve had better carry a lunch.

A trip to Mitla can be arranged any day. The six-horse coach with four horses abreast in front and two horses in the rear, is the usual means of transportation. Such a coach, which will carry four persons, can be hired for two days for $18 to $25 Mexican money.

About an hour's ride from Oaxaca is the little village of Tule. Even the ordinary tourist must stop here to see the big tree in the churchyard (Fig. 2), but the botanist should leave Oaxaca early by the little tram car and study the tree an hour before the rest of his party arrive. The tree is gigantic, measuring 154 feet in circumference six feet from the ground. This means more than 50 feet in diameter, thus