es of a deep, broad gorge, surrounded by
rolling hills, the ravine, the mouth of which commences at Marfil, being
terraced on either side to make room for adobe dwellings. Here and there
a patch of green is to be seen, a graceful pepper tree, an orange, or
stately cypress relieving the cheerless, arid scene. The narrow,
irregular streets are roughly paved; but the clouds of dust which one
encounters in the dry season are almost suffocating. Now and then a few
potted flowers in front of a low cabin, a bird cage with its chirping
occupant, a noisy parrot on an exposed perch, a dozing cat before the
door, all afford glimpses of domesticity; but, on the whole, this mining
town, rich in native silver, gave us in its humbler portions the
impression of being mostly composed of people half clothed and seemingly
but half fed.

The city has an alameda and a plaza. The latter, in the centre of the
town, is decorated with bright-colored flowers, tall palm trees, and has
a music pagoda in its centre. This plaza has an elevation of over six
thousand eight hundred feet above the level of the sea. What a queer old
city it is, with its steep, narrow, twisted streets! It might be a bit
abstracted from Moorish Tangier, or from the narrow thoroughfares of
Granada, close by the banks of the turbulent Darro.

The occupation of three fourths of the people is naturally connected
with the mines, and it may be said to be an industrious community. The
pulque shops are many, far too many; but there was no intoxication
noticed on the streets. The open sewers render the death rate unusually
high in Guanajuato, where typhoid fever and pneumonia were particularly
prevalent during our visit. Indeed, the place is notoriously unhealthy.
There are many excellent oil paintings hung in the churches and chapels,
representing, of course, scriptural subjects, including one of the
much-abused St. Sebastian. There are two or three primary and advanced
schools supported by the municipality; but these, we were told, were
bitterly opposed by the priests. We speak often and earnestly concerning
the malign influence of the priesthood, because no one can travel in
Mexico without having the fact constantly forced upon him, at every
turn, that its members and their church are, and have been for nearly
four centuries, the visible curse of the country. The most interesting
of the many churches is the Compania, which has a choice group of bells
in its cupola, and an unusu