unfortunate Montezuma, on the site of which has arisen the modern
Mexico. Though its glory has long passed away, the enormous ruins which
still remain attest its past grandeur. Vast pyramids, on a scale and of
a massiveness which vie with those of Egypt, still rear their lofty
heads in great numbers throughout the country; while the ruins of other
buildings prove that the architecture of Mexico in many points resembled
that on the banks of the Nile. Some of these pyramids might rather be
called towers. They consist of a series of truncated pyramids placed
one above another, each successive one being smaller than the one on
which it immediately rests--thus standing in reality upon a platform or
terrace. The great pyramidal tower of Cholula is of this character,
resembling somewhat the temple of Belus, according to the description
given of it by Herodotus. It reaches a height of 177 feet, and the
length of each side of its base is 1440 feet. In its neighbourhood are
two other pyramids--teocalles, as they are called--of smaller
dimensions. These temples, or teocalles, were very numerous, and in
each of the principal cities there were several hundreds of them. The
top, on which was a broad area, was reached by a flight of steps. On
this area were one or two towers forty or fifty feet high, in which
stood the images of the presiding deities. In front of the towers was
the stone of sacrifice, and two lofty altars, on which fires were kept
burning, inextinguishable as those in the temple of Vesta. In the great
temple of Mexico there were said to be six hundred of these altars, the
fires from which illuminated the streets through the darkest night.

Deeply interesting as is the subject of the architecture and the
remarkable state of civilisation of the Aztecs, we must not dwell longer
upon it, except to mention the cyclopean roads and bridges, constructed
of huge blocks of stone, and carried on a continuous level, across
valleys, which still remain. There are also, in various parts of the
country, excavations, rock-hewn halls, and caverns, generally
dome-shaped, the centre apartment lighted through an aperture in the
vault. They somewhat resemble the cyclopean fabric near Argos, called
the Treasury of Atreus. Not only the buildings, but the hieroglyphics,
of the Aztecs, so closely resemble those of the Egyptians, that there
appears every reason to suppose they were derived from the same source.

Among the natur