MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS.

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supplies a much needed want; nor will the writer undertake to supply it any farther than what may be obtained from the following rapid sketches.

Mexico, as a whole, is a country of mountains and valleys,* with the exception of the strip lying on its eastern border along the Gulf of Mexico. On the western or Pacific coast it is mountainous from the very sea-coast inward. On the side bordering on the Gulf it is low and flat for some distance inland to where the mountains commence. Almost the whole country lies within the tropic, with the exception of some of the northern along the frontier of the United States.

In the lowlands along the sea-coast on the Gulf of Mexico the lands are low and flat, and the climate hot and unhealthy. It is hot in the valleys, and cool all the year round on the mountains and table lands. This condition of things prevails until the mountains are reached, when the climate at once becomes mild and salubrious, growing cooler, however, as the elevation increases, so that in the interior the seeming paradox prevails that whilst in the valleys the productions of a tropical soil, such as sugar, coffee, and tropical fruits, may be cultivated in the greatest abundance, a few miles of ascent into the higher mountain regions all the cereal grains, fruits, and vegetables may also be most extensively produced by the cultivation of the soil; whilst within the mountains themselves there are still inexhaustible quantities of those metals and minerals so keenly desired and highly prized by the whole race of civilized man, and of which such enormous amounts, particularly of the precious metals, have already been extracted, which, had they been obtained from agricultural or manufacturing enterprises, would have made Mexico one of the richest on earth.†

It may be stated as a demonstrated problem, that countries producing only precious metals are destined to be always poor, as there is no immediate use for them where they are obtained from the earth, beyond the expense of getting them out and refining them for exportation.

On the contrary, where a country is alike well adapted to agricultural and manufacturing enterprises as for the procurement of precious metals, a permanent and enterprising population will immediately establish itself, unless some great and repressive cause exists, as was unfortunately the case in Mexico until within the last decade. It is yet too early to describe the physical effects produced in Mexico by the improved condition of things, by the adoption of a * See illustration, Vera Cruz, page 471.

† See illustration of hauling mining machinery, page 635.

system of universal toleration in religious matters, the encouragement of education, as well as the system of railroad building, and other improvements. Great results may, however, be predicted with an unfailing certainty; they will be as certain as that light flows from the sun.

But leaving generalities, and coming down to more practical considerations, we will now proceed with somewhat of a detailed description of the country as it actually presents itself on approaching it from the Atlantic sea-board, as well as along the way by which the city of Mexico, the capital of the country, is reached.*

As already said, the coast bordering on the Gulf of Mexico is usually low and flat, rising gradually towards the mountains. In this lower or flat country the sugar-cane seems to find its native home, and flourishes to such an extent that we of the United States, except those persons who have been in Mexico, have no idea of Many of the tropical fruits, such as oranges, lemons, etc., are produced there in the greatest abundance. The cotton-stalk grows into a tree; chocolate and coffee are produced to a great extent; and indigo and vanilla are indigenous. So far as the manufacture of sugar is concerned, the question of the planter is not, "when will cane be ripe?" as there is always a sufficient quantity ripe enough for the mill, but whether the dry season has sufficiently advanced, it being impossible to haul it there, as the roads are impassable during the wet or rainy season. This may be said to be the character of most of the coast lands through the whole of the States bordering on the Gulf.

The first and only city of any importance on the Gulf coast is Vera Cruz, the capital of the State of the same name, in which there are many and large sugar estates, yielding immense products to their owners; there are also many others in the Gulf States.

The city of Vera Cruz is one of the oldest on this continent, which, together with the castle of St. Juan de Ulloa,† has been so often described as to make any attempt at the description of it here almost useless; nevertheless, the writer will give merely a brief sketch of it. Vera Cruz lies immediately on the coast and on the plain, the city itself being surrounded by sand-hills, which materially aided the forces of the United States in the bombardment and capture of the city.

The greater portions of the buildings in the city are built in the Saracenic or Moorish style of architecture, so long prevalent in Spain after the final Spanish conquest of the Moors. These houses, seldom

* See illustration, city of Mexico, page 503.

See illustration, page 471.

BUILDINGS AND CULTIVATION.

641

exceeding two stories in height, have flat roofs, and present a somewhat ungainly appearance from the street, whilst the interior is reached by a drive-way for carriages. There is almost universally a court, round which the building is erected, very often presenting quite a finished and comfortable appearance. The houses occupied by the poorer classes may be designated as hovels rather than houses. Almost all of the buildings of every description are covered with stucco, which naturally becomes white by exposure to the sun and weather, and gives the whole quite a picturesque appearance from a distance.

At the city of Vera Cruz commences the railroad system of Mexico, by which most of the travel between the capital and the Gulf coast is carried on. As a matter of course, all the carrying trade between the two cities is carried by the same means, whereby the ancient means of travel by the lumbering stage-coach for travellers as well as the mule conducts for freight is entirely superseded.

Not a very great distance from Vera Cruz, going westward, the ascent of the mountain regions commences, when the traveller soon finds himself at a considerable elevation above the plain skirting the Gulf of Mexico. Here he begins to see a development of tropical nature which is entirely new to him. Some of the mountain gorges are densely covered with trees and shrubbery of, to him, an unknown kind. Many of the mountains are bare of timber, whilst, instead of the unsightly rail fences so common in the United States, the whole of the land he here sees under cultivation is enclosed by plants of the cactus family, each presenting an impenetrable barrier of thick outspread, dagger-like leaves, armed with the most formidable spines, whilst the cultivation itself is conducted by rude and uneducated Indians, or mestizos or half-breeds, with most ancient and unsightly implements, ploughs made of the forks of trees, one part of which is hewn into the shape of a wedge and the other into a kind of handle, the whole innocent of the least iron; drawn by an ox team, with two persons conducting the operation of ploughing, one to hold the plough and the other to drive or rather lead the

The use of horses or mules for the purpose of agriculture is never dreamed of, they being regarded as too valuable animals for such purposes, although there are thousands of them on neighboring estinceas, or horse and mule breeding farms, which could be purchased at from ten to twenty dollars per head.

The Indian habitations seen from the roadside are mere huts, erected upon four posts, covered with a thatch roof of palm leaves, rather than houses, serving only to cover the inhabitants from rain. Where more substantial materials were made use of, they would con