ce, in breaking through bushes in search of a bird, fell into
one, and narrowly escaped a serious injury; indeed, there were so many
of them, and in places where they were so little to be expected, that
they made rambling out of the cleared paths dangerous, and to the last
day of our visit we were constantly finding new ones.

That they were constructed for some specific purpose, had some definite
object, and that that object was uniform, there was no doubt, but what
it was, in our ignorance of the habits of the people, it was difficult
to say. Don Simon thought that the cement was not hard enough to hold
water, and hence that they were not intended as cisterns or reservoirs,
but for granaries or store-houses of maize, which, from our earliest
knowledge of the aborigines down to the present day, has been the staff
of life to the inhabitants. In this opinion, however, we did not
concur, and from what we saw afterward, believe that they were intended
as cisterns, and had furnished, in part at least, a supply of water to
the people of the ruined city.

We returned to our apartments to dine, and in the afternoon accompanied
Don Simon to see the harvest of the maize crop. The great field in
front of the Casa del Gobernador was planted with corn, and on the way
we learned a fact which may be interesting to agriculturists in the
neighbourhood of those numerous cities throughout our country which,
being of premature growth, are destined to become ruins. The debris of
ruined cities fertilize and enrich land. Don Simon told us that the
ground about Uxmal was excellent for milpas or corn-fields. He had
never had a better crop of maize than that of the last year; indeed, it
was so good that he had planted a part of the same land a second time,
which is a thing unprecedented under their system of agriculture; and
Don Simon had another practical view of the value of these ruins, which
would have done for the meridian of our own city. Pointing to the great
buildings, he said that if he had Uxmal on the banks of the
Mississippi, it would be an immense fortune, for there was stone enough
to pave every street in New-Orleans, without sending to the North for
it, as it was necessary to do; but, not to be outdone in sensible views
of things, we suggested that if he had it on the banks of the
Mississippi, easy of access, preserved from the rank vegetation which
is now hurrying it to destruction, it would stand like Herculaneum and
Pompeii,