precision did a rude
people possess who could raise such walls, angles, monoliths, true and
plumb as the work of the mason of to-day?

It would be beyond the scope of this work to enter more fully into the
details of these ruins. They have been minutely examined and described
by famous archaeologists, who have devoted much time thereto, and the
student may be referred to their works. The foregoing is but a sketch,
barely touching upon the extensive and beautiful handwork in stone of
the ancient dwellers of this land. Indeed, the traveller may behold
them for himself, without great risk or difficulty. He will observe
them with admiration. Pyramids rising from the plains or forest-seas
which surround them; strange halls where unknown people dwelt; great
cities where busy races lived. The character of the various groups of
ruins throughout the land shows the effect that the geology of the
respective regions has had upon the stone-masonry of these prehistoric
builders. As has been shown, the beautiful trachyte of Mitla, which,
whilst it is tough and enduring, is soft, and lends itself readily to
the chisel. The result has been handed down in the beautiful and exact
sculpture of the blocks and _grecques_ of the facades of these palaces:
work which could not have been performed in a more refractory stone.
Not a great distance away are the Monte Alban ruins, as described,
which, although extensive and remarkable, show nothing of exact and
intricate work in stone-shaping. The hard or silicious rocks which form
the immediate region, and the quartzite and crystalline limestone, did
not lend themselves, either in the quarry or under the chisel, to such
work. In Chiapas, the unshaped and uncoursed masonry of Palenque is
formed of a hard, brittle limestone, scarcely capable of being worked
to faces. No invisible joints, such as are the beauty of some of the
ancient stone structures of the Americas--North and South--were
possible, and mortar and stucco were freely employed. Very different,
however, was the limestone used in Yucatan. It was easily quarried from
its bed, and was of such a texture as lent itself to the profuse and
beautiful sculpture of those Maya cities of long ago. Again, the great
pyramidal structures of Teotihuacan and surrounding ruins of the Toltec
civilisation, had little for their composition but lavas of basaltic
nature, which did not possess a character adaptable for exact
stone-shaping. Thus it is seen how l