out our own country also reaping an
equivalent advantage.

The very name of Mexico has been for years the synonym of barbarism; but
the traveled and reading public have gradually come to realize that it
is a country embracing many large and populous cities, where the
amenities of modern civilization abound, where elegance and culture are
freely manifested, and where great wealth has been accumulated in the
pursuit of legitimate business by the leading citizens. The national
capital will ere-long contain a population of half a million, while the
many new and costly edifices now erecting in the immediate environs are
of a spacious and elegant character, adapted, of course, to the climate,
but yet combining many European and American elements of advanced
domestic architecture.

CHAPTER III.

The Route to Mexico.--Via the Mammoth Cave.--Across the Rio Grande.--A
Large River.--Piedras Negras.--Characteristic Scene.--A Barren
Prairie Land.--Castano, a Native Village.--Adobe Cabins.--Indian
Irrigation.--Sparsely Populated Country.--Interior Haciendas.--
Immigration.--City of Saltillo.--Battle of Buena Vista.--City of
Monterey.--The Cacti and Yucca-Palm.--Capture by General Taylor.--
Mexican Central Railroad.--Jack-Rabbits.--A Dreary Region.--The
Mesquite Bushes.--Lonely Graves.

Although it is of Mexico exclusively that we propose to treat in these
pages, still the reader may naturally feel some interest to know the
route by which the Rio Grande was reached, and thus follow our course
somewhat consecutively from Boston through the Middle and Southern
States to the borders of the sister republic. The road which was chosen
took us first westward, through the Hoosac Tunnel, to Niagara Falls,--a
view of which one cannot too often enjoy; thence southward via Detroit
to Cincinnati, Ohio. The next point of special interest was Louisville,
Ky. That great national marvel, the Mammoth Cave, was visited, which,
next to Niagara, the wonderland of the Yellowstone Park, and the grand
scenic beauty of the Yosemite Valley, is the greatest curiosity of this
country. The vast interior, with its domes, abysses, grottoes, rivers,
and cataracts profitably entertain the visitor for hours. It is said
that one might travel a hundred miles underground if all of the
turnings were followed to their terminations. Echo River alone may be
traversed for three quarters of a mile by boat in a straight course.
Much migh