Page:The Rambler in Mexico.djvu/64

58 But, however great our annoyance, nothing was able to damp the spirit of enthusiasm with which we found ourselves inspired. Soon after leaving the village, the huge precipices which towered on both sides, closed in upon the stream, and threw the road into deep shadow; and we were not long in discovering, that beautiful as the scenery had been, we were to see it on a yet grander scale, and clothed with yet greater magnificence. The most sublime part of the defile of the Cañada is that which extends two or three leagues above Tlacolula. A mountain of very great elevation appears literally cloven in twain front the very summit to the foundation; displaying immense perpendicular sheets of white rock, the innumerable lamina of which are twisted and gnarled like the roots of a tree. A wilderness of the richest tropical vegetation clothes the partial slopes, and chokes up the depths of the defile. The gorge varies from five hundred to one hundred feet in breadth.

The continuation of the road where the great defile terminates, presents fine, but in general more open scenery. The mule path for several leagues follows a tortuous track, now on the sides of the steep acclivities, and then to and fro on the side of the river, which has now decreased greatly in size, till it leads you insensibly to the foot of the Monte Penulco.

The road at this season was rendered lively by the strings of mules, laden with the produce of the table land, which take advantage of the dry season to reach the coast by the Cañada, though I cannot say that they add to the safety of the narrow pathway, as it is not always easy to pass without running a certain degree of risk. In the wet season, of course the road in the defile is impracticable, and the cuchillo, or ridge of the mountain, is then followed. Early in the afternoon we now began to descry patches of pine forest, and the river forking, we followed the branch to the right, till we reached the foot of the broad and well-constructed road, which, leaving the defiles, leads the traveller up the precipitous sides of the mountain. A series of turns and zigzags, conducted upon