Termination of the Aqueduct in the City of Mexico.

and three hundred wide, and it discharges the waters of the valley into the river Panuco, three hundred feet below the level of the Lake Zumpango. This canal and the beautiful aqueducts with which the city of Mexico is supplied with water, the people owe to the energy of the Spanish government, and they are almost the only works of this kind in the country. Earthquakes are frequent in Mexico, but they seldom do any mischief, a remark which will also apply to the many volcanoes in the country. On the south-east side of the plain of Tenochtitlan, those of Popoatepetl, seventeen thousand seven hundred and sixteen feet, Iztaccihuatl fifteen thousand seven hundred feet, Orizaba seventeen thousand three hundred and eighty feet, and the Cofre de Perote thirteen thousand four hundred and sixteen feet above the level of the sea, meet the eye, while other mountains and volcanoes, whose smoking craters might be a cause of continual apprehension, bound the horizon on other sides. The purity of the atmosphere has an astonishing tendency to diminish apparent distances, and nowhere does this produce a more remarkable effect than in the city of Mexico. Most of the mountains surrounding the valley are at least fifteen miles distant, yet on looking down any of the streets of the city, it appears to be terminated by a mass of rocks, which are seen so distinctly, that on a clear day, all the undulations of the surface may be traced, and the trees and patches of different vegetation readily distinguished. To the south-east the view is bounded by the lofty Popocatepetl, higher than any mountain in North America except Mount St. Elias; Iztaccihuatl, which is much

nearer, is two thousand feet lower, but the two stand forth proudly pre-eminent from any view in the valley, and strangers delighted to record the pleasure with which they watch the effect of the last rays of light playing upon the summits in the evening when all around is sinking into obscurity.

The want of water occasions serious disadvantages to Mexico, the rivers, compared with the extent of country, being few and unimportant. The lakes, however, are extensive, and the Spaniards, finding that the only manure which the land required was water, raised many hydraulic constructions, at great cost, for purposes of irrigation, which the Mexicans have suffered to fall into ruin, and which will probably be allowed to remain so. The country produces every thing that will flourish in the torrid and temperate zones of good quality, yet so indolent are the natives, and so regardless of all attempts at systematic agriculture, that a single season of drought produces a famine. The rural popп lation then go into the deserts in search of wild plants, and generally with success. The great variety of the productions is occasioned by the extent of the country through twenty-one degrees of latitude and the rapidity of the slope on either side. On the east side espe cially the climates are distinctly marked by the vegetation. "On the ascent from Vera Cruz," says Humboldt, "climates succeed each other

GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE.

19

in layers, and the traveller passes in review in the course of two days, the whole scale of vegetation from the parisitic plants of the tropics to the pines of the arctic regions."

S respects climate, Mexico is divided into the tierras calientes, or hot regions, the tierras templadas or temperate regions and the tierras frias or cold regions. The first include the low grounds on the east and west coast, comprising on the eastern slope the greater part of the states of Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Tabasco, and the peninsula of Yucatan. These tierras on the west are less extensive. The mean temperature is about 77° of Fahrenheit, and the growth of the soil consists principally of sugar, cotton, indigo, and bananas. The winter on the east coast lasts from October to April, during which time north or north-west winds blow with great violence for several days together. The shores at this time are free from pestilence, but with the summer the unhealthy season begins, and foreigners landing on the coast have little hope of escaping the yellow fever. At the height of two thousand five hundred feet above the sea, however, this scourge is almost wholly unknown.

The tierras templadas extend from two thousand five hundred to five thousand feet of elevation, and furnish us with the Mexican oak, and most of the fruits and grains of Europe. The cities situated in these regions, of which Jalapa is one, are famous for their salubrity and the inexhaustible supply of fruits. Great beauty and strength of vegetation result from the frequent fogs and humidity of the atrosphere, which, however, are objectionable in other points of view.

The tierras frias include all the vast plains elevated five thousand feet or more above the level of the sea. Here the mean temperature is about 64° Fahrenheit, but when the height of more than eight thousand feet is attained the climate is exceedingly disagreeable. Near Mexico, the limit of perpetual snow is twelve thousand to fifteen thousand feet high. In the tierras frias, the vegetation is not so vigorous as in the lower countries, but the climate is on the whole more favourable to human life. But the indolence of the natives prevents all exertions to raise more food than is necessary for the wants of a single season, and no one thinks, in times of plenty, of laying by a store for future contingencies, and hence when droughts or severe frosts occur, famine and its concomitant privations prove quite as destructive to life as the enemies of the coast.

The geological features displayed by the Cordilleras are mostly remarkable for the non-appearance of granite, which is covered by

porphyry, greenstone, amygdaloid, basalt, obsidian, and other rocks of igneous origin. Granite appears, however, in the chain bordering on the Pacific, and the port of Acapulco is said to he a natural excavation in that species of rock. The great central Plateau of Anahuac is a mass of porphyry characterized by the constant appearance of hornblende, and the entire absence of quartz, and it contains large and valuable deposits of gold and silver. These metals, however, occur in various rocks. Thus silver is found in syenite, in the mines of Comanja, in those of Guanaxuato the richest in Mexico, it is found in a primitive clay state, passing into talc-slate, while those of Real del Cardonal, Xalaca, and Lomo del Toro are situated in a bed of transition limestone. Humboldt says that there were in his time three thousand mines of silver and gold in the country, and before the war of independence, they produced about twentyone millions of dollars in silver, and two millions in gold. Toward the close of the revolution, many of them were deserted; and they do not yield more than half of the sums named. Mining companies were formed in England for the purpose of working these natural sources of wealth properly; but the difficulties to be encountered were underrated, and the weakness of the government, the insecurity of property, bad roads, and imperfect mining processes have prevented their receiving any thing like a fair return for their enormous outlays. The Mexicans themselves understand scarcely any thing of the theory of mining, and their ignorance is only equalled by their obstinacy in adhering to inefficient and long exploded practices. The quantity of silver annually obtained from the mines exceeds that furnished by all the mines of Europe; but the gold is only in proportion to the silver as one to twenty-six. A table from 1834 to 1839 exhibits the coinage at the mints of Mexico as ranging from twelve to eleven millions of dollars, but it can hardly be depended upon. The distinguished traveller, M. Chevalier, presents a fair picture of the state of mining in the following extract, penned in 1835. "How can the mines be worked with any feeling of security when it requires a little army to escort the smallest portion of the precious metals to its place of destination. Between the mine of Real del Monte and the village of Tezcuco is a mountain pass, where a grand battle was fought between the miners and the banditti of the country. The former were defeated, overpowered by numbers; but not without having sold their lives as dearly as possible. The mine is now guarded by artillery and grape-shot, and the Englishmen employed there are regularly drilled in the use of the musket.”

The principal mines are in the States of Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, Chihuahua, Lurango, Guadalaxara, and Mexico.