Page:The Rambler in Mexico.djvu/55

 Rh Up to the close of this day, when, after passing over another tract of country covered with palm forest, we halted at a large and rich hacienda, about four leagues from the foot of the branch of the Sierra Madra in whose recesses we were to seek the bed of the Rio de la Canada, as our future guide—we had seemingly surmounted no very considerable elevation, but had continually ascended and descended the abrupt hills which appear to be heaped in picturesque confusion over a large tract of country between the coast and the foot of the main ranges. Occasionally, higher summits of evident volcanic origin are seen to rise from their bosom, but these are mostly isolated; and though we had certainly been gradually rising ever since we left Tampico, it was not till we had advanced full fifty leagues from the coast that we gained the foot of the foremost spur of the Cordillera. Of course the whole of the country passed through belongs to the tierras calientes.

The hacienda where we lodged on the evening of the fourth day's march from Tampico Alta, was situated on a plain very near the foot of the mountain. It has principally notched itself upon my memory, from the magnificent, free-standing banian trees in its vicinity, several of which measured upward of thirty feet in circumference. Here we were, as usual, well treated, paying moderately for whatever necessaries we were furnished with.

Deep clouds resting on all the ridges in advance boded no good for the continuation of our journey the following morning. Indeed, it began to drizzle before our train could be set in motion; nevertheless, we flattered ourselves that we might at least reach Chicontepec, the City on Seven Hills, which lay on the mountains rising before us at four leagues' distance.

After two hours' ride, our mule path sank from the open hilly country into a deep glen strewed with rounded blocks of stone, which indicated that in the rainy season it formed the bed of one of those torrents which, fed by the waters filtering through the porous structure of the mountains and table land above them, spring into