all traffic between New Mexico and the State of Chilhuahua; yet the stone progresses only at this slow rate, the same person not being allowed to throw it over his head more than once. The muleteers were accustomed to say that when it should have travelled further down the country, some ages hence, its transit would be more rapid; but centuries upon centuries must pass away before the strange wayfarer could arrive at its journey's end. "Throughout the country," says Mr. Kendall, "the inhabitants have many strange customs, superstitions, and observances, borrowed from the Indians, and all taking their rise from some circumstances of trifling import; but this idea of starting a stone which few can lift, upon so long a journey, and by such ludicrous means, is the most singular of all."
A SHIP IN THE MOUNTAINS.
In the year 1826, Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, an eminent firm of jewellers in London, purchased the gold mines of Tipuani and the emerald mines of Illimani in Peru, determining to work them for their own profit by an agent to be established there. These mines were situated on the banks of the Lake Chiquito, which is two hundred and fifty miles long and one hundred and fifty miles broad, and the country around was wild and desolate, abounding in rugged and impenetrable mountains, and in sandy and sterile plains. To this region Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, dispatched a gentleman
