When the mud

feet in height and four feet long.
became sufficiently hardened, the case was moved
along and again filled, and so on until the whole edifice
was completed. This is a rapid mode of building; but
the Mexicans seem never to have applied it to any pur-
pose
but the erection of fences or division-walls. The
material of this building is the mud of the valley, mix-
ed with gravel. The mud is very adhesive, and when
dried in the sun, is very durable. The outer surface
of the wall appears to have been plastered roughly; but
the inside, as well as the surface of all the inner walls,
is hard finished. This is done with a composition of
adobe, and is still as smooth as when first made, and
has quite a polish. On one of the walls are rude
figures, drawn with red lines, but no inscriptions. From
the charred ends of the beams which remain in the
walls, it is evident that the building was destroyed by
fire. Some of the lintels which remain over the doors
are formed of several sticks of wood, stripped of their
bark, but showing no signs of a sharp instrument. The
beams which supported the floors, were from four to
five inches in diameter, placed about the same distance
apart, and inserted deeply in the walls.

sssssssss

Hieroglyphic.

Most of the apartments are connected by doors, besides which there are circular openings in the upper

VOL. II.-18

1

part of the chambers to admit light and air. The ground plan of the building shows that all the apartments were long and narrow without windows. The inner rooms, I think, were used as store-rooms for corn; in fact, it is a question whether the whole may not have been built for a similar purpose. There are four entrances, one in the centre of each side. The door on the western side is but two feet wide, and seven or eight high; the others three feet wide and five in height, tapering towards the top,-a peculiarity belonging to the ancient edifices of Central America and Yucatan. With the exception of these doors, there are no exterior openings, except on the western side, where they are of a circular form. Over the doorway corresponding to the third story, on the western front, is an opening, where there was a window, which I think was square. In a line with this are two circular openings.

The southern front has fallen in in several places, and is much injured by large fissures, yearly becoming larger, so that the whole of it must fall ere long. The other three fronts are quite perfect. The walls at the base, and particularly at the corners, have crumbled away to the extent of twelve or fifteen inches, and are only held together by their great thickness. The moisture here causes disintegration to take place more rapidly than in any other part of the building; and in a few years, when the walls have become more undermined, the whole structure must fall, and become a mere rounded heap, like many other shapeless mounds which are seen on the plain. A couple of days' labor spent in restoring the walls at the base with mud and gravel, would render this interesting monument as durable as