and nourished with streams and fountains, and appear to have rivalled those of Asiatic monarchs in splendour. The ruins of the city of Tezcuco, which with its suburbs was even larger than Mexico, and according to Torquemada, contained one hundred and forty thousand houses, still be- token an ancient place of great importance and magnificence. Without the walls, tumuli, the sepulchres of the former in- habitants, may yet be observed, and also the remains of a fine Aqueduct in a sufficient state of preservation for pre- sent use. Two miles from Tezcuco, the village of Huexoila, situ- ated on the site of the ancient city of that name, which was considered as one of the suburbs of Tezcuco, exhibits signs of ancient civilization, in the foundations of large edifices, in massive Aqueducts, one of which, covered with rose- colored cement, still exists in a perfect state, and in an ex- tensive wall of great height and thickness. A covered way flanked by parallel walls proceeds from the ancient city, to the bed of a stream now dry, over which there is a remark- able bridge, with a pointed arch 40 feet high, and supported on one side by a pyramidal mass of masonry. Tlascala was furnished with abundance of baths and fountains, and Zempoala, like the city of Tezcuco, had every house supplied with water by a pipe. Iztaclapa, which contained about ten thousand houses, 40 had its Aqueduct that conveyed water from the neighboring mountains, and led it through a great number of well culti- vated gardens. Among the ruins of the city of Zacatecas, are found the remains of an Aqueduct ; and at Palenque is found an Aqueduct of stone, constructed with the greatest solidity. Among the hieroglyphical ornaments of the pyramid of Xochicalco are heads of crocodiles spouting water, and much proof may be found that the ancient Americans were acquainted with that property of liquids by which they find their level ; and applied it not merely to fountains and jets d'eau, but to convey water through pipes to their dwellings. Aqueducts of South America. The ancient inhabitants of Peru, Chili, and other parts of South America were undoubtedly a refined, civilized and agricultural people ; they constructed extensive cities, roads, Aqueducts, &c. Though they constructed many and exten- sive Aqueducts for the supply of towns and cities with water, yet the object of the greater part of the public works of this kind was for the encouragement of agriculture. " The Peruvians and some of the neighboring nations carried the cultivation of the soil to a higher stage of per- fection than any of the American nations. In consequence of the narrow extent of land intervening between the moun- tains and the sea, the rivers in this region are usually of 41 small size, and the soil, being arid and sandy, needs the aid of artificial irrigation. To such an extent did they carry their ingenious efforts, that the sides of the steepest moun- tains were converted into productive fields, by being encir- cled with terraces, supported by stone walls, and watered by canals." " Upon the sides of some of the mountains," observes Mr. Temple, " were the remains of walls built in regular stages round them, from their base to their summits, forming terra- ces on which, or between which, the Indians, in days of yore, cultivated their crops." " Frezier says the Indians were very industrious in con- veying the waters of the rivers through their fields and to their dwellings, and that there were still to be seen in many places Aqueducts formed of earth and stone, and carried along the sides of hills with great labor and ingenuity." " I have had various opportunities," says a recent traveller, " of closely examining one of these canals, which is formed at the source of the river Sana, on the right bank, and ex- tends along a distance of fifteen leagues, without reckoning sinuosities, and which consequently supplied a vast popula- tion ; particularly one city, whose ruins still remain in the vicinity of a farm now called Cojal." " These Aqueducts were often of great magnitude, exe- cuted with much skill, patience and ingenuity, and were boldly carried along the most precipitous mountains, fre- 11 42 quently to the distance of fifteen or twenty leagues. Many of them consisted of two conduits, a short distance apart ; the larger of these was for general use ; the other and smaller, to supply the inhabitants and water the fields, while the first was cleansing ; a circumstance in which they bear a striking resemblance to those of Mexico." Molina, in his " Natural and Civil History of Chili," ob- serves, that previous to the invasion of the Spaniards, the natives practised