Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/481

473, the engineers of the "Central" have availed themselves of a more magnificent piece of engineering than they themselves could have afforded to undertake,—a work dating from the beginning of the seventeenth century,—the great cut of Nochestongo, an immense gap, said to be three miles long, and in places two hundred feet deep. Utilizing the work of more than two centuries ago, the railroad thus secured an easy egress from the great mountain valley, and proceeds by easy grades to the country beyond.

The end of our ride on the railroad was at the small hamlet of Salto, for rails had not then—in the summer of 1881—been laid much farther on; and we left the train and took to horses, which had been telegraphed for and were awaiting us. These animals we mounted, after many adjustings of stirrups and saddles, and galloped off in the direction of Tula. We were a picturesque crowd, with our Mexican saddles and accoutrements, our revolvers and blankets; though the novelty of my position, on the back of a horse I had never met before, rather interfered with my enjoyment of the scene. In five minutes our whole party was enveloped in a cloud of dust, so that all one could do was to cling to the saddle and let the horse steer his own course. We soon reached the Tula River bridge, where three solid piers of stone were in readiness to receive an iron bridge that was being put together on the banks, and where six hundred men were at work in the little vale. They were under the intelligent direction of a contractor, Mr. Carrigan, who successfully managed this large body of Indians and half-breeds, and was pushing the work ahead rapidly. It was pay-day, and the men were formed in a long line, each awaiting his turn to receive his week's wages. A common laborer on the road receives about thirty-one cents per day; and this amount, large as it is, he successfully manages, when he gets it, to squander in riotous living.

On our return, the next day, two huge derricks, which we had not seen before, were in position, ready to swing the iron bridge into place; three days later, it was resting upon its bed of masonry, and in less than two weeks more the engine had