Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/381

 train at seven and a half, and at eight will find yourself rapidly whirling over the salt plains that once formed the bed of the great lake. Passing through several pueblos, we reach Amecameca, the largest town on the line, and the place at which the ascent of the volcano commences, in about two hours. The distance from the gate of San Lazaro is fifty-eight kilometres, and the fare, first-class, one dollar.

In the centre of the town is the Plaza, where a low circular wall of stone encloses a small plat planted with flowers, a round basin filled with water flowing from a fountain in the middle, and a few white stone pillars support a capital and form the entrance, above which, and shading the garden, droop dark green willows. The square surrounding this bit of verdure is large, bounded on its west side, next the railroad, by the Casa Municipal, and on the east by the cathedral, a large and well-preserved building. The streets of the town diverge from this centre, lined with low houses of stone and adobe,—mostly the latter,—roofed with rough shingles spiked on with long wooden pegs. Water from the mountains runs in little streams through the streets, and is diverted by small gutters to the houses for private use. Groups of pines rise above the houses, and all the trees are mainly of the northern zone. East of the town, and in fact all around, stretch immense fields of corn and barley, parted by hedges of maguey, and beyond them the foot-hills commence, with many a fertile tongue of land running up among them, green and golden with grain. Then they rise higher and higher, covered with black forests of pine, until the grand old mountains are fairly reached, which shake off their garments of trees, and tower above them all, brown and barren. Next comes the border of the snow-line, its white robe ragged and patched with brown on its skirts; but finally, triumphing over all below, it drapes the peaked summit in a glistening garment of spotless white.

Facing the east, Iztaccihuatl—la Mujer Blanca, "the White Woman"—lies above, and apparently nearer the town, than Popocatapetl. She covers a long portion of the ridge with her white shroud, and is really suggestive, by her shape, of a dead giantess, robed in white for her burial. Far and near, this