The _Passeo Nuevo_ lies west of the city towards Chapultepec and Tacubaya. It is a broad avenue, laid out tastefully amid the beautiful meadows that surround the city, and is broken at intervals by fountains of stone, and shaded by rows of stately trees. When the weather is fine, which it usually is for six or eight months of the year, the disengaged people pour out to this gay resort, near sunset, on foot, in coach, or on horseback, to enjoy the refreshing breeze and to greet each other on this social exchange. The Passeo is broad enough to allow several coaches, to drive abreast if needful, but the course is usually occupied by only two lines of advancing and returning carriages or horsemen. This promenade parade circulates up and down the highway for an hour; but when the evening bells toll for _oracion_, every hat is raised for a moment and every horse's head immediately turned homewards. The _Passeo de la Viga_, is on the other side of the city, and is preferred by many persons to the _Passeo Nuevo_. It skirts one of the canals leading to the lake of Chalco, and affords the stranger an opportunity of observing the crowds of Indians who linger along the banks, or push off at evening in their boats, crowned with flowers and strumming their guitars if the day happens to be one of festivity. This _Passeo_ was constructed under the viceroyalty of Revilla-Gigedo, whose improvements of the city and neighborhood of Mexico have contributed so greatly to the elegance and beauty of the capital. [Illustration: THE ALAMEDA FOUNTAIN.] The _Alameda_ is a beautiful grove of lofty forest trees planted in a rich soil in the western section of the city and on the road to the [Illustration: PASSEO NUEVO.] [Illustration: PASEO DE LA VIGA.]