occasionally for the Jărāvĕ, the Pĕtĭnēră, or other dances of the country, with an exhibition of which they are not unfrequently gratified.
On the 26th of February I left Săn Aŭgŭstīn at a very early hour. The ascent commences almost immediately, and is rendered doubly toilsome by the Ărenāl, a bed of deep blue sand, that extends over a space of about two leagues, and exhausts both the horses and mules, by the treacherous nature of the footing which it affords them. The road passes by the Village of Ăjūscŏ, and the Venta del Guārdă, from whence it winds its way through a succession of rocks, and pine-woods, to the Cruz del Mărqūes, a point about 2,360 feet above the level of the Capital. Here the descent to Cuĕrnăvācă begins and continues uninterruptedly for nearly four leagues to the Pueblo of Jŭchĭlāc, where the first indications of an approach to the Tierra Caliente appear. These increase rapidly in the direction of Cuĕrnăvācă, until, in the plains immediately below the town, the climate and the productions of the Coast replace, at once, those of the Table-land.
The transition is the more sudden, because, on the Pacific side, the Valleys are sheltered from the North winds, which have so extraordinary an effect upon the vegetation upon the Eastern slope of the Cordillera. Thus Cuĕrnăvācă, although 1,093 feet higher than Jălāpă, possesses all the characteristics of the country about Plan del Rio, or Puente del
