11. The Church of San Fernando contains the ashes of the unfortunate Generals Mejia and Miramon.
12. The Paseo de la Reforma (sometimes called El Paseo de Bucareli), or "Empress Drive," leads from the Alameda to Chapultepec. Statues of Charles IV of Spain, Christopher Columbus, and President Juarez, have been erected on the Paseo. The fashionable hour for driving is from 5 to 6 p. m.
13. The Canal, adjoining the Paseo de la Viga, presents a busy scene in the early morning. The Indians bring their fruits and vegetables to market, and the canal is crowded with their rafts and canoes. The tourist should hire a canoe and visit either Lake Texcoco, about three miles distant, or the "vegetable" gardens, a mile and a half from the terminus of the "Viga" horse-car track. A party of three or four persons may employ an Indian to paddle them to the gardens for the sum of one dollar. There is no tariff of charges, and a bargain must be made. Sailing through the narrow canals cut in the marshy soil, where fruits, vegetables, and flowers grow abundantly, the traveler may form some idea of the ancient aspect of the Venice of the New World. The chinampas, or so-called floating islands, which have always excited the wonder of foreigners, are never seen at the present day. They were formed of small masses of earth, covered with herbs, and held together by roots, and are detached from the shore of the lagoon by the waves during stormy weather. These gardens are known to have been in use as far back as the end of the fourteenth century. They were afterward artificially constructed by making rafts of reeds, rushes, roots, and brush-wood, and covering these with black mold naturally impregnated with muriate of soda, but gradually purified from the salt and rendered fertile by washing it with the water of the lake. Some of the chinampas are movable and driven about by the winds, but others are anchored or at-
