in their respective States; but the meeting will probably long be kept up for the purposes of pleasure, although no longer essential to the supply of absolute wants.
Dec. 31.—La Venta, fourteen leagues.
We left Săn Jūān a little before seven, and at eleven reached Jălŏs, where we breakfasted. The distance is called five leagues, but is in reality seven. At Jălŏs we passed two hours, the greater part of which was occupied in negotiating the purchase of two horses, for one of which I gave forty-three dollars, and for the other twenty-six dollars, and a carga-mule, that could go no farther. We made an unfortunate exchange of mules at Zacatecas, where we got rid of several miserable animals with sore backs, and received in return some fine-looking creatures, so little fit for work that they every one dropped off before we reached Guadalajara. There is a disease peculiar to Mexico, called the Asoleado, to which both horses and mules are subject when exposed, while too fat, to the violent action of the sun. It is in fact a coup de soleil, but in lieu of the head, it affects with them the action of the heart. The blood circulates with tremendous rapidity; and even before the disease arrives at its climax, the pulsation is so violent that it may be felt, shaking the whole frame of the animal at each throb. In this state bleeding almost to exhaustion is the only efficient remedy. Palliatives are much used by the Mexicans, but the horse usually remains subject to
