"_The floors are of cement_, as hard as the best seen in the remains of Roman baths and cisterns. The walls are about ten feet high,--_plastered_,--and on each side of the principal entrance ornamented with _medallions_, of which the borders only remain,--these perhaps contained the busts of the Royal family. The separating-wall had apertures of about a foot, probably intended for purposes of ventilation. _The builders were evidently ignorant of the principle of the_ ARCH, and the support (ceiling) was made by stones (blocks) lapping over as they rose, as at Ocosingo, and as among the Cyclopean remains in Greece and Italy." * * * * "From the centre door of this corridor a range of stone steps, thirty feet long, leads to a rectangular courtyard, eighty feet long by seventy broad. On each side of the steps are grim and gigantic figures _carved on stone_ in _basso relievo_, nine or ten feet high, and in a position slightly inclined backward, from the end of the steps to the floor of the corridor. They are adorned with head-dresses and necklaces, _but their attitude is that of pain and trouble_. The design and anatomical proportion of the figures are faulty, but there is a force of expression about them which shews _the skill and conceptive power of the artist_. On each side of the courtyard of the Palace (Temple) are divided apartments, probably for sleeping. (?) On the right, the piers have all fallen down. On the left they are still standing and ornamented with _stucco figures_. In the centre apartment, in one of the holes, are the remains of a _wooden pole_, about a foot long, which once stretched across, but the rest had decayed. It was the only piece of wood (worked) we found at Palenque, and we did not discover this until some time after we had made up our minds in regard to the wooden lintels over the doors. It was much worm-eaten, and probably in a few years not a vestige will be left. At the farther side of the courtyard was another flight of stone steps, corresponding with those in front, on each side of which are carved figures, and on the flat surface between are single _cartouches of hieroglyphics_." * * * * * * "In the further corridor the wall was in some places broken, and _had_ SEVERAL _separate coats of plaister and paint_. [Proofs of different periods] In _one place we counted six layers, each of which had the remains of colours_. This corridor opened to a second courtyard, eighty feet long, and but thirty across. The floor of the corridor was ten feet above that of the courtyard, and on the wall underneath were _square stones_ with _hieroglyphics sculptured_ upon them. On the piers were _stuccoed figures_, but in a ruined condition. On the other side of the courtyard were two ranges of corridors, which terminated the building in this direction. The first of them is divided into three apartments, with doors opening from the extremities upon the western corridor. All the piers are standing excepting that on the north-west