ng to the Sierra de Tarma. It consists of two gardens,
very prettily planted, and inclosed by high walls. Along the walls,
on the inner side, there are niches, about a thousand in number,
ranged in sixteen different classes, and they may be purchased by
those who wish to possess them. Many of them belong to families and
convents. The graves are watched and kept in order by criminals who
are condemned to this duty as a punishment. It is calculated that it
will be five years before this cemetery is filled. When room is
wanting, the niches which have been first occupied will be cleared,
and the bones deposited in a bone-house, of simple but appropriate
construction. At the entrance of the Panteon there is a neat little
chapel, where the funeral obsequies are performed. Burials are
permitted to take place only in the morning; and when a funeral
retinue arrives too late, the body remains uninterred until the
following morning. The rich are buried in coffins, the poor merely in
winding sheets, which are made after the pattern of the habits worn
by the barefooted friars of the order of San Francisco.

The grand square of Lima, the _Plaza Mayor_, though not in the centre
of the city, is nevertheless the central point of its life and
business. It is 426 feet distant from the Rimac, and presents a
regular quadrangle, each side of which is 510 feet long. From each of
the four corners two handsome straight streets run at right angles.
There is no pavement, but the ground is covered with fine sand. The
cathedral and the archbishop's palace occupy the eastern side of the
square. The latter adjoins the sanctuary, and has rather a fine
facade. The windows of the principal apartments open into a balcony,
commanding a view of the Plaza.

On the north side of the square stands the government palace,
formerly the residence of the all-powerful viceroys. Its exterior
aspect is mean. It is a square building, and the front next the Plaza
is disfigured by a long range of shabby little shops (called _La
rivera_), in which drugs are sold.[9] These shops are surmounted by a
balcony. A large double door opens from the Plaza into the great
court-yard of the palace. Along the western side of the building there
are also a number of little shops occupied by saddlers and dealers in
old iron. The street, running in this direction, is called the Old
Iron Street (Calle del Fierro Viego). The principal entrance to the
palace is on this side. On the south