Departing from Tampico, in March, 1844, he ascended that river in a canoe, paddled by an Indian, and before nightfall, on the second day of his primitive voyage, reached Topila creek, three miles from the mouth of which he landed at a _rancho_ or cattle farm, belonging to Señor Coss, of Tampico. Five miles from this spot, lying to the eastward of another _rancho_, he found several considerable mounds, one of which was more than twenty-five feet high and of a circular form. At its sides, a number of layers of small flat well hewn stones were still to be seen; while scattered about were many others of larger size and various shapes. All were perfectly plain or unadorned, and had apparently been used for the door posts and lintels of edifices. On the following day, the traveller visited the _rancho de las Piedras_, distant about two leagues and a half in a southerly direction from the bank of the Topila. Passing through a dense wilderness, he reached after much toil, an elevated table land or plateau, near a chain of hills running through this section of country and known as the Cerro de Topila. Here he found more scattered stones which had once formed parts of buildings; while, further on, he discovered several mounds, whose sides were constructed of loose layers of smooth and uniform blocks of concrete sandstone. Most of these layers, had, however, fallen from their places in the _tumuli_, and were heaped in masses near their base. About twenty of these mounds, lay contiguous to each other, varying in height from six to twenty-five feet, some being circular and others square. The principal elevation in this group of pyramids covers an area of about two acres, and at its base, Mr. Norman discovered a cylindrical stone slab seven inches thick, four feet nine inches in diameter, and pierced through the centre, lying upon the top of a circular wall whose top was level with the ground. On removing this stone he found a well filled up with broken stones and fragments of pottery. The upper portion of the slab bore evidence of having been originally sculptured, but the tracings of the chisel were so much worn by time and seasons that they could not be drawn with accuracy. On the top of the tumulus, in front of which this well was discovered, grew a wild fig tree, whose gigantic height of more than an hundred feet, indicates the great age of the work and the long period of its abandonment.