open plain; but here they are so
overshadowed by the mason-work of nature that they sink into
insignificance in comparison. The bank, some two hundred feet high, of
solid rock, as it approaches the waterfall on either side, has the
appearance of being supported by natural buttresses of basaltic
columns--columns closely joined together and placed erect by the hand
of nature's master-builder. Still, all would have been stiff and formal
had the sides of the _barranca_ been lined only with perpendicular
columns; but broken and displaced pillars are piled in every
conceivable position against the front, while a vine with brilliant
leaves had run to every fissure and spread itself out to enjoy the
sunshine. The little stream that had burst its way through the upright
columns and over the broken fragments, fell into a perfect basin of
basalt, heightening immensely the attractions of the spot. I sat down
upon a fallen column, and for a long time continued to contemplate the
unexpected scene, of which, at that time, I had read nothing. There was
such a mingling of the rich vegetation of the hot country with the
rocky ornaments of this pretty waterfall that I could never grow weary
of admiring the combined grandeur and beauty of the place, from which
Peter Terreros derived his title of Count of Regla.

Peter Terreros, the first Count of Regla, became one of the rich men of
the last century in consequence of a lucky mining adventure. In olden
times the water in the Real del Monte mines had been lifted out of the
mouth of the Santa Brigeda and other shafts in bulls' hides carried up
on a windlass. When near the surface, this simple method of getting the
water out of a mine has great advantages on account of its cheapness,
and is now extensively employed in Mexican mines. But after a certain
depth had been reached, the head of water could no longer be kept down
by this process, and, in consequence, the Real del Monte was abandoned
about the beginning of the last century, and became a complete ruin;
for no wreck is more complete than that which water causes when it once
gets possession of a mine, and mingles into one mass floating timbers,
loosened earth, rubbish, and soft and fallen rock. By the mining laws
of Mexico, the title to a mine is lost by abandoning and ceasing to
work it. It becomes a waif open to the enterprise of any one who may
"re-denounce" it. The title to the soil in Mexico, as in California,
carries no title to th