d figures on pilasters,
curious and elegant; trees growing close to it, and their branches
entering the doors; the style and effect of structure and ornament
unique, extraordinary, and mournfully beautiful." In a description of
the walls around an interior court of a building at Uxmal, we have this
tribute to the artistic skill of the decorators: "It would be
difficult, in arranging four sides facing a court-yard, to have more
variety, and, at the same time, more harmony of ornament."

In some of the ruins, and especially at Copan, there are clusters of
four-sided stone pillars or obelisks varying from twelve to over twenty
feet high. These are elaborately sculptured, and show human figures,
ornamental designs, and many inscriptions. One or two statues have been
discovered, and a statuette twelve inches high is described; "it is made
of baked clay, very hard, and the surface is smooth as if coated with
enamel." At Palenque are remains of a well-built aqueduct; and near the
ruins, especially in Yucatan, are frequently found the remains of many
finely constructed aguadas or artificial lakes. The bottoms of these
lakes were made of flat stones laid in cement, several layers deep. In
Yucatan traces of a very ancient paved road have been found. This road
ran north and south, and probably led to cities in the region now
covered by the great wilderness. It was raised above the graded level of
the ground, and made very smooth.

These antiquities show that this section of the continent was anciently
occupied by a people admirably skilled in the arts of masonry, building,
and architectural decoration. Some of their works can not be excelled by
the best of our constructors and decorators. They were highly skilled,
also, in the appliances of civilized life, and they had the art of
writing, a fact placed beyond dispute by their many inscriptions.

A more particular account of some of these ruins will be given in the
next chapter. Among the more important works relating to them are those
of Stephens and Catherwood, some of the volumes of Mr. Squier, Frederick
Waldeck's work, and a recent French volume by Desire Charnay, which is
accompanied by a folio volume of photographs. Palacios, who described
Copan in 1576, may properly be called the first explorer. A brief
account of Palenque was prepared by Captain Del Rio in 1787, and
published in 1822. Captain Dupaix's folios, in French, with the drawings
of Castenada, contain the first re