After a cup of chocolate at six o'clock the next morning, we went in pursuit of game, and roamed through the hills and mountains which are contiguous, meeting with very little success. At about twelve we partook of our breakfast, which was brought to us more than two leagues from the _hacienda_--after which we prosecuted our hunt. Our sole reward was a heavy shower of rain--and between four and five we returned to the _hacienda_, well wearied, having walked at least twelve miles over steep mountains. On the following day we set out with our mules, &c. to try our fortune higher up the mountains, and after a ride of between three and four hours, reached a herdsman's hut, where we were to lodge at night. We were unsuccessful in finding game in the evening, and after a laborious search for deer, sought our hut--a log building, about fifteen feet square, in which twelve of us, men, women and children, stowed ourselves. Annoyed by fleas, and almost frozen by the chill mountain air, within two leagues of the snow-crowned _Iztaccihuatl_, we passed a sleepless night. Early next morning, whilst others of the party engaged in hunting for deer, with two companions I ascended the highest peak of this range, (except those covered with snow,) with great labor and fatigue; but we were compensated amply by the grand view beneath and around us. The adjoining peak to the south of us was the _Iztaccihuatl_, about a league distant. We felt very sensibly the influence of its snow. Beyond this, the _Popocatepetl_ raised its lofty cone, while far in the southeast appeared _Orizaba_, around whose crest the clouds were just then gathering. The plains of _Puebla_ and _Mexico_ are on opposite sides of this seemingly interminable ridge on which we stood. From the latter, the clouds, which we had been long admiring far beneath us, hiding the world from our view, were gradually curling, and disclosed the distant capital with its adjoining lakes and isolated hills. The chilling wind drove us from our height, but in descending we often rested to enjoy a scene which the eyes never tire in beholding.