The interior gave me the impression of being Moorish in its style, especially with respect to the open inner courts, the arrangement of the corridors and the lavish employment of stucco ornamentation, brilliantly coloured. A closer investigation into architectural details left the subject in doubt, but there still remained upon the mind the feeling that in some unintelligible manner, the construction had been directed either by foreigners or by Indians who were partly descended from men of foreign origin. The forms of ancient mosques and of the inner courts and quadrangles of Arabian or Moorish and Spanish public buildings were indistinctly recalled to the memory. It was however to be observed, upon an examination of the methods adopted at Palenque in supporting the weight of the roofs, that the arches (if it is permissible for that term to be applied to straight converging slopes covered with flat coping stones,) are absolutely exceptional and unlike any other arch that is known. I was reminded, to a certain extent, of the ruins of Alatri, near Mycenæ on the plains of Argos, and of an Etruscan tomb near Perugia, but the system employed by the American architects, in placing the cap or terminal cross stones was essentially different. In the exploration of the ruins our attention was chiefly directed to certain doubtful points, particularly with regard to the chambers which are beneath the corridors, and are entered from the level of the courts. There have been several conjectures respecting the purposes of these cells. I think that it is probable that they were used as dormitories. In some of the chambers there was a low, wide stone table, placed against the wall at the end. These benches were large flat smooth slabs of limestone supported on four stone legs. In height, shape and dimensions they were like the wooden bedsteads used by the Indians at the present time.