, which was published in folio at Paris in 1835, and, except my
own hurried notice, is the only account that has ever been published of
the ruins at Uxmal. I had this work with me on our last visit. It will
be found that our plans and drawings differ materially from his, but
Mr. Waldeck was not an architectural draughtsman, and he complains that
his drawings were taken from him by the Mexican government. I differ
from him, too, in the statement of some facts, and almost entirely in
opinions and conclusions; but these things occur of course, and the
next person who visits these ruins will perhaps differ in many respects
from both of us. It is proper to say, moreover, that Mr. Waldeck had
much greater difficulties to encounter than we, for at the time of his
visit the ground had not been cleared for a milpa, and the whole field
was overgrown with trees; besides, he is justly entitled to the full
credit of being the first stranger who visited these ruins, and brought
them to the notice of the public.

To return. I have already mentioned the Casa del Gobernador and the
Casa de las Tortugas, or House of the Turtles, the latter of which
stands on the grand platform of the second terrace of the Casa del
Gobernador, at the northwest corner.

Descending from this building, and on a line with the doorway of the
Casa de las Monjas, going north, at the distance of two hundred and
forty feet are two ruined edifices facing each other, and seven feet
apart, as laid down on the general plan of the ruins. Each is one
hundred and twenty-eight feet long, and thirty feet deep, and, so far
as they can be made out, they appear to have been exactly alike in plan
and ornament. The sides facing each other were embellished with
sculpture, and there remain on both the fragments of entwined colossal
serpents, which ran the whole length of the walls.

In the centre of each facade, at points directly opposite each other,
are the fragments of a great stone ring. Each of these rings was four
feet in diameter, and secured in the wall by a stone tenon of
corresponding dimensions. They appear to have been broken wilfully; of
each, the part nearest the stem still projects from the wall, and the
outer surface is covered with sculptured characters. We made
excavations among the ruins along the base of the walls, in hope of
discovering the missing parts of these rings, but without success.

These structures have no doorways or openings of any kind, either