d
platform of the second terrace. It stands at the northwest corner, and
is represented in the plate opposite. It is called the Casa de las
Tortugas, or the House of the Turtles, which name was given to it by a
neighbouring cura, from a bead or row of turtles which goes round the
cornice, indicated in the engraving.

This building is 94 feet in front and 34 feet deep, and in size and
ornaments contrasts strikingly with the Casa del Gobernador. It wants
the rich and gorgeous decoration of the former, but is distinguished
for its justness and beauty of proportions, and its chasteness and
simplicity of ornament. Throughout there is nothing that borders on the
unintelligible or grotesque, nothing that can shock a fastidious
architectural taste; but, unhappily, it is fast going to decay. On our
first visit Mr. Catherwood and myself climbed to the roof, and selected
it as a good position from which to make a panoramic sketch of the
whole field of ruins. It was then trembling and tottering, and within
the year the whole of the centre part had fallen in. In front the
centre of the wall is gone, and in the rear the wooden lintel, pressed
down and broken in two, still supports the superincumbent mass, but it
gave us a nervous feeling to pass under it. The interior is filled up
with the ruins of the fallen roof.

This building, too, has the same peculiar feature, want of convenient
access. It has no communication, at least by steps or any visible
means, with the Casa del Gobernador, nor were there any steps leading
to the terrace below. It stands isolated and alone, seeming to mourn
over its own desolate and ruinous condition. With a few more returns of
the rainy season it will be a mass of ruins, and perhaps on the whole
continent of America there will be no such monument of the purity and
simplicity of aboriginal art.

Such is a brief description of the Casa del Gobernador, with its three
great terraces, and the buildings and structures upon the grand
platform of the second. From the place which we had fixed upon as our
residence, and the constant necessity of ascending and descending the
terraces, it was with these that we became the soonest familiar. The
reader will be able to form some idea of the subjects that engaged our
attention, and the strange spectacle that we had constantly before our
eyes.

CHAPTER IX.

Journey to Jalacho.--Execrable Roads.--Sight of Ruins at Sennisacal.--A