Page:The Rambler in Mexico.djvu/103

Rh ashes, the flow of its lavas, and amid the sound of its own fearful thunders, till it soared to where its summit now glistens, in the cold region of ice and snow. There an abrupt cone, bursting through the level plain, or from the bosom of the waters; disgorging its load of lava and cinder: and then another, and yet a third—a cluster of smoking mountains! Here a shapeless mass of molten rock and lava, bubbling above the surface, then cooling, and as it cooled, so remaining for ages, a black and steril monument, amid the landscape, of the forgotten reign of fire: and there again, a sudden throe at the base of some labouring mountain, opening a yawning abyss, from which, amid fire and smoke, the seething lava would ran down like oil upon the plain, or to the far distant sea.

This is no overwrought fancy; there can be no doubt but these things were, though perhaps no eye, but His who "looketh on the earth, and it trembleth," and "toucheth the hills, and they smoke," bore witness to them!

The road which ascends the steep pile of hills and mountains behind San Augustin, is that of the Cruz del Marques, one of the six great routes which traverse the Cordillera, and form the connection between the city, and the vast extent of country on every side, of which it is the metropolis. The others are, the two routes to Puebla, and Vera Cruz—the more ancient of which passes over the elevated ridge, between the two great volcanoes; and the other, which is the new and ordinary line, to the north of Iztaccihuatl. Fourthly, the route of the interior, keeping the general level of the table land, to Queretaro, Guanaxuato, and Durango. Fifthly, that of Real del Monte, by which we approached; and, sixthly, that of Toluca to the west.

In recollecting the localities worthy of attention, in the more immediate vicinity of Mexico, which we repeatedly visited, I feel quite at a loss which to bring into the greater prominence.

I cannot forget the great interest which hangs over the