Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-11-13
THE SUN MoRaHIPERs.
A stone Roadway IiuIIt twelve Hundred |
 Fe { Ub d MOuni


 Fe UD d MOuni.
 ~''You have asked me to give an ac- sount of the interesting mountain my friend, Jesse D. Grant, and myself saw during our trip through Mexico ell route to this city" writes Charles J. Wimple in the San Francisco Call Well, that mountain is at once one of tho most gigantic exhibitions of mans haudiworR and some thing almost beyond credence were we not already familiar with the works of the Aztecs.
 Just imagine valley forty by thirty miles in area, and from it's center rising a mound over twelve hundred feet in height, then you can realize the first effect created upon our minds when we came before the hill am to describe My foreman was with us, and had partly prepared us for the surprise, but we had treated his story with incredulous re. marks, and had by no means suspected he had but given a modest description oi the mound.
 "We gazed to tho top and allowed oui eyes to follow the windings of road down to the base. We went around the base and coniectured it was about one and half miles in circumference. Then
 
 way was built of solid rock cl oar to the pinnacle, and was from thiI to forty feet in width. A wall of suIid rock formed foundation, and an inside wall at the same time. The outer edge of the road was unguarded. These stones weigh all the way up to a ton each, and are not cemented. The road way is as level as floor, and is GOV cred with broken pieces of earthenware water vessels
 Half way up the mountain is an altar cut in solid rock; in the niche is powder which must weigh at least six tons. The bowlder is of different stone from that used in the walls. The rocks in the walls are dressed by skilled workmen, but are not polished. We saw no inscriptions, but we had no time to spare in making a searching investigation. We did look for arrow. heads of other warlike implements, to satisfy ourselves that the mound had not been used for defensive of offensive purposes. Nor was there any evidence to prove that the roadway had been built for the purpose of witnessing bull. fights and other sport in the valley. I could only conclude that the Aztec sun-worshipers expended years of labor on the hill in order that thoy might have an appropriate place to celebrate their imposing festivals, inasmuch az the roadway was strewn with broken earthenware, and those scions of a by. | gone and notable race were known to carry at sunrise large quantities oi water in earthenwaro jars to an emi. hence, and there pour out the liqu anL smash the vessels.
 "When we descended we brourll. with us a number of small sea shells which had petrifiod. and if you look at these on my table you will sec how they have been perforated by the In. dians. We again took a long look at | the mountain and saw it was oblong in shape, and that the upward road com | menced on the eastern sido. I have travelled on both S.des of the mountains from British Colum bia to Central Amer | ica, and on either sido of the Siorra | Madres, whore the cliff dwellers have | left such remarkable mementos of their | skill and customs, but I have never witnessed any thing so wonderful anl | magnificent as the mound which hava | been telling you about. Tho valley i , | about six hundred feet above the sea levol, and is about seventy miles from the coast. It is situated in Sonora be- tween the cities of Altar and Mazda lena, and near the Magdalena river. l We call the curiosity Palisade Mount ain, and it is we'll named"