. Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan . overlap each other until the walls al-most meet above, and then the narrow ceilings are covered with a layer offlat stones. In every case the stones were laid in horizontal layers, theprinciple of constructing arches, as understood by us, being unknown to theaboriginal builders. This readily accounts for the extreme narrowness ofall their rooms, the widest not exceeding twenty feet, and the width morefrequently being only from six to ten feet. In a few cases the coveringstone is wanting, and the two sides meet so as to form a sha
. Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan . overlap each other until the walls al-most meet above, and then the narrow ceilings are covered with a layer offlat stones. In every case the stones were laid in horizontal layers, theprinciple of constructing arches, as understood by us, being unknown to theaboriginal builders. This readily accounts for the extreme narrowness ofall their rooms, the widest not exceeding twenty feet, and the width morefrequently being only from six to ten feet. In a few cases the coveringstone is wanting, and the two sides meet so as to form a sharp angle. AtPalenque the builders did not cut the edges of the stones, so as to form aneven surface, their practice differing in this respect from that adopted inYucatan, where in every instance the sides of the arch are made perfectlystraight, or have a slight curve, with the inner surfaces smooth. It may now be interesting to inquire if any similarity exists between theAmerican method and those observed among the nations of antiquity in 430 APPENDIX. No. Europe and Asia. A true arch is formed of a series of wedge-like stonesor of bricks, supporting each other, and all bound firmly together by thepressure of the centre one upon them, which latter is therefore distinguish-ed by the name of keystone. It would seem that the arch, as thus defined, and as used by the Romans,was not known to the Greeks in the early periods of their history, other-wise a language so copious as theirs, and of such ready application, wouldnot have wanted a name properly Greek by which to distinguish it. The APPENDIX. 431 use of both arches and vaults appears, however, to have existed in Greeceprevious to the Roman conquest, though not to have been in generalpractice. And the former made use of a contrivance, even before the Tro-jan war, by which they were enabled to gain all the advantages of ourarchway in making corridors or hollow galleries, and which, in appear-ance, resembled the pointed arch,
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