this elevated table-land, 7692 feet above the ocean. The
morning star-light is very beautiful. It is so much clearer, and the
stars are therefore so much brighter here than in the dense atmosphere
where we inhabit, that the traveler, half chilled and sleeping, rouses
himself to contemplate the brilliant sights above him. The brightest
stars that he has watched from childhood up, are brighter now than
ever. New stars have filled the voids in his celestial chart, and
satellites are dancing round well-known planets. The North Star is
still visible, now 19 deg. above the horizon. The Dipper has dipped far
down to the northward. The Southern Cross--that mysterious combination
of five stars, that emblem of the faith of Southern America, which only
reaches full meridian at midnight prayers--is here 25 deg. above the
horizon, shining brilliantly. And then there are so many unknown
southern stars, and so many unfamiliar constellations, that the short
hours of night are well spent upon the driver's box.

We have been gradually descending into what appears to have once been
the bottom of a salt lake. The ground is partially incrusted with a
compound salt called _tequisquita_, is composed of equal proportions of
muriate of soda, carbonate of soda, and insoluble metal (common earth):
this compound is used by the Mexican bakers and soap-boilers as a
substitute for salt and soda. A stinted grass is here and there
scattered in patches over the _bad land_, as these barren plains are
called; but the dry earth, which is rarely moistened for six months
together, is covered with drifting sand, which is driven about by the
hot winds of this desert.

How great was the change from what we had passed! The celestial chart,
that we had been admiring with so much rapture, had gradually rolled
itself up, and as the sun came out, we had a view of the dreariness
around us. It was truly a _bad land_--a land of evil--even a land
for wolves to prowl in, and where vultures watch for the carcasses of
dying mules, and where robbers ply their calling with little fear of
detection. Here, in the midst of all this dreariness, we saw a pretty
lake, and beautiful scenery around it, that looked for a little while
like an enchanted scene, and then vanished into air. We passed the
hostelry of Tepeyagualco, where water is drawn from a fabulous depth,
and soon came to that most celebrated spring of fresh water, situated
upon the boundary-line of the two departments