| Show that there should exist within two hundred miles from mexico city un discovered until now and unexplored its massive walls now tottering as they protect the lonely shepherds who frequent the spot a castle whose grandeur cannot be excelled by any thing on america s soil would seem incredible but such is a fact situated on a cliff whose almost per cular walls descend eight hun dred to a thousand feet to the ravine below almost encircled by two ra vines along who e narrow beds flow crystal waters that ooze from many springs with no entrance except over a narrow neck fifteen feet wide on top of the cliff stands to day the cantle of the Monte it the legend cur rent among the natives in that vicin ity Is true A prospector recently heard from several natives whom he had met on a tour that somewhere hidden from mankind by of the mountains intervening between it and the rail way and by reason of the many deep ravines and dangerous balancas bar ancas which prevent other than shepherds from approaching there was a wonderful fortress commanding a view of the valley the natives intimated ed that the ex stance of this structure was known ilone to them and that no one other than those born near there had ever visited the spot although he offered several indians five days wages to conduct him there they refused intimating that they were afraid they might incur the dis pleasure plea suie of the people and thereby suffer one major domo of a large hacienda furnished one of his laborers to the viejo the rums in que ion Is an abandoned castle situated seven hours on horseback from mata moras about thre hundred feet dis tant from the cliff on which viejo stands and as it to guard the entrance are two peaks of red sand stone fully 5 feet high lowing between these Is a stream twenty feet wide and not deeper than two feet wh ch dashes along at a rate oer the gravel bed passing over this stream one begins to ascend a very steep hill that seems to have been formed since the arec tion of the castle when one has reached the summit he finds himself facing a wall 30 feet high and feet long this wall inci nes inward at an angle of about seventy degrees from the horizontal it is made of stone slabs 18 by 24 inches thick the nar low sides turned outward behind this first layer of stone slabs is a two foot filling of gravel and a kind of ce ment and then an inner wall of small er slabs the stones are carefully placed so that no cement has been necessary to hold them in place the walls fully ten acres of ground and within th s inclosure are the walls of nearly thirty different rooms the architect archi tec ture throughout is the same on the west side is a strongly forti fied wall in the shape of a crescent Is a tunnel about seven feet high from vault to floor the walls are veil built with the und of stone slabs and the floor looks as it it had been ce dented several fallen slabs from a coping overhead prevented entrance to this mysterious space six young men once attempted to explore this place three remained at the entrance while the other three cautiously felt their way lighted matches in hand they had gon six y feet when one of the explorers called out to the others to come and see the wonderful looking objects that stood near the walls the sound of this oung mans voice was so start ling that a sudden gust of wind as he expressed it extinguished the light all reached open air again and lived to tell the tale to their progeny interior cathedral of mexico some shepherds who had lost their sheep tell in lowered voices of a two headed man who used to 1 e seen emerging from this tunnel but they assert trat since the en tiance was filled by the falling stone he had not been seen but loud unearthly mur bave been beard coming from the bowels of the mountain stephen and catherwood write of more than forty four ancient ruins dis covered by lord Kins borough and themselves le Plon geon du and desire charnay have written in te resting volumes describing their dis co veries and experiences leopoldo batres and william niven have fur dished valuable data about mt al bans and other historical points all are silent about viejo COMING OF THE COYOTE cunn ng an mal bothers ranchers of western wash agton for several years coyotes in increase ing numbers have been bothering ranchers of western washington their appearance has caused much surprise because old timers declare that in the early days these pest lter I 1 chapel of the wel guadaloupe with the extremes fully eight hundred fet apart from the top of this one may 1001 down into a beautiful stream nearly a thousand feet below some of the wall has fallen about midway of the crescent and stone slabs that have been displaced here can ie seen hundreds of feet below across the only roadway that leads from the highlands to this mountain top Is a deep ditch on hose sides stand well preserved pillars upon which were swung drawbridges this s de of the wall is much thicker and stronger than the others while sev eral strongly itron gly built towers guard the entrance to the drawbridge in one end of a room near tha south side was a small tunnel as the guide called it an oval shaped opening just large enough for a human being to squeeze through the guide repeated a legend current among his people that the aztec medicine men corn belled untried warriors to go through this tunnel one hundred feet long to test their nerves near this small tunnel which looks more as if it was a vent or sluice for running ores or metals into a large cemented receptacle at its end I 1 there tate ous animals were entirely unknown in this part of the cascade mountains investigation recently made by a num ber of wealthy sheep ranchers dis closed that the coyotes have come in to the puget sound region through the migration of eastern washington sheep which are annually driven in flocks from the sage brush plains of central washington into the grazing lands along the summit of the cas cades the coyotes follow the flocks and easily wander down the mountain trails to the open grass country lying south of the puget sound basin it is found that in a similar manner the coyotes have gradually migrated from the rocky mountain states to the pa coast the puget sound coyote is smaller and more compact than those of the sagebrush country in stead of hunting sheep and other large game he has degenerated into pilfer ing hen roosts and sometimes robs pantries and outhouses around farms this has bred in him the cunning and duplicity of tte fox so fertile of ex Is he that one is scarcely ever seen b daylight and much less cap aured his weird bollings bow lings chiefly proclaim his presence |
