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easterly town of America. The landing-place of the Atlantic cable is at Heart's Content, on Trinity Bay. Labrador-one of the coldest and most sterile regions on the face of the globe-and the barren island of Anticosti, in the estuary of the St. Lawrence, are dependencies of Newfoundland. The principal exports from Newfoundland are cod-fish, cod and seal oils, seal-skins, and copper-ore.

LESSON LIX.

MEXICO.

1. Crossing the Rio Grande from the United States we enter the Republic of Mexico, a State which occupies the most southern portion of the continent of North America, and covers an area about eight times as large as that of Great Britain. It consists of twenty-seven States, one Federal District, which contains the city of Mexico, the capital, and one Territory, that of the peninsula of California. Its constitution is modelled on that of the United States. The country contains a mixed population of Indians, whites, half-breeds, and negroes, in all numbering about 9,000,000.

2. As we have noted in a former lesson, the Rocky Mountains divide into two branches in the territory of New Mexico, both of which run southward into the Republic of Mexico. The peculiar conformation of this State, its rapid rivers, its varying climate and productions, and the situation of its chief towns, all depend on these two mountain chains. They enter from the north at a distance of about 400 miles apart, and gradually approach each other till they join in the south. The centre of Mexico is thus a great wedge formed by two mountain chains supporting between them a vast mass of heights and plateaux and high valleys. Outside of the wedge are the coast regions consisting of the flat lands near the sea, and the mountain slopes and terraces further inland. 3. The shores of the Mexican Gulf is low, flat, and

sandy; here stretches a long beach of glowing sand, there a bay enclosed by coral reefs; or, again, the mouth of some sluggish stream choked with shoals and sandbanks. Nor is it very different on the Pacific sea-board. The shores here, also, as a rule, are low and sandy, but here and there spurs from the mountains extend towards the ocean, and thus vary the monotony of the flat sandy beach and the unvarying fringe of rich vegetation which backs it.

4. At about thirty miles from the sea, on the average, the country everywhere rises by successive terraced mountains to the central table-land which has a mean elevation of about 6,000 feet. The effect of the gradual rise is seen in the course of the railway journey from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico. In the space of a few. hours every variety of climate is experienced, and in rapid succession the railway train passes through sugarcane and indigo plantations, patches of plantains and bananas, and thence, almost insensibly, to the pines, firs, and lichens of the north.

5. "The interior of Mexico consists of a mass of volcanic rocks, thrust up to a great height above the sea level. The plateau of Mexico is 8,000 feet high, that of Puebla, 9,000 feet. This central mass consists of a greyish trachytic porphyry, in some places rich in veins of silver ore. The tops of the hills are often crowned with basaltic columns; and besides this, traces of more recent volcanic action abound, in the shape of extinct craters, in the high plateau and in the immense fields of lava, not yet old enough for their surface to have disintegrated into soil. Though sedimentary rocks, such as sandstone and limestone, occur in Mexico, they are not the predominant features of the country." Towards the south a line of gigantic volcanic peaks, embracing some of the highest mountains in North America, stretches across the country.*

6. Mexico lies partly in the tropics and partly in the

* Popocatepetl, nearly 18,000 feet, is the highest peak in North America.

sub-tropical zone, but its climate depends less on latitude than on elevation. It has three climates. There is, first, the coast region, the "hot lands," comprising all the country lower than 3,000 feet. The second, or "temperate lands," which extend from 3,000 to the mean elevation of the plateau (6,000 feet). The third region, or "cold lands," lies above this altitude, but is really only cold by comparison with the hot regions lower down, for its mean temperature is from 55° to 60° in the dry season, and as high as 75° to 80° in the wet season. In the winter the thermometer occasionally falls to the freezing point.

7. In the hot lands, comprising the low-lying districts chiefly bordering the sea coasts, under the influences of a warm and humid atmosphere, all the characteristic production of an American tropical climate find their natural home. The sugar-cane, the cacao, or chocolate tree, the banana, indigo plant, coffee, maize, and pineapples, flourish.

8. In the temperate lands, whenever rain falls an almost perpetual summer reigns, and all the grains, fruits, and vegetables, of central and southern Europe-including maize, oranges, lemons, grapes, and olives-are produced in exuberant abundance. The most characteristic tree of this region is the evergreen oak, which forms magnificent woods in all favourable situations.

9. In the cold lands the air is keen and dry, and Nature assumes a new aspect. The vegetation has lost all traces of a tropical character, and is no longer abundant or luxuriant. The pine takes

the place of the oak, and barley is the chief grain crop. Here also the agave, or American aloe, is cultivated for its fibre, and for its juice, which is fermented into pulque, a favourite drink of the Indians of the country. The cactus is the plant which is almost universally seen in Mexico, and, indeed, which gives the characteristic aspect to its scenery in all the regions. The fruit of the plant, the so-called prickly pear, is also eaten, and even made into preserves. The cochineal insect lives on a kind of cactus which is cultivated in plantations for its support. The insects are picked off

[graphic]

COLOSSAL HEAD CARVED IN STONE, IN AN AZTEC RUIN AT IZAMAL, IN YUCATAN.

with a blunt knife, and dried. They yield a rich crimson dye, and form an important article of export from Mexico.

10. Mexico is a storehouse of mineral treasures. Its silver mines were once the richest in the world, and still yield a large supply. Gold and quicksilver, copper and tin, are also abundant.

11. The city of Mexico is built in the centre of a tableland, midway between the two oceans, and 7,465 feet above the sea level. It is a handsome town lying in a zone of perennial spring, and surrounded by incomparable natural scenery. Its cathedral is the handsomest in the New World. Vera Cruz on the Atlantic sea-board, and Acapulco on the Pacific sea-board, are the chief seaports. Both towns are included among the hottest and most unhealthy places in the world.

There

12. Mexico is surpassingly rich in everything that goes to make a country wealthy. In resources it can compete with the best part of the United States. is nothing which the fertile soil cannot be made to yield; three and even four crops of maize can be raised annually in many districts, while in all parts of the country it thrives to such a wonderful extent that the yield is sometimes five-hundred-fold. The cocoa plant yields three yearly crops; and its coffee, cotton, sugar, and tobacco, are all of the finest quality. Its mines are among the richest in the world. Being on a vast table-land it enjoys the most perfect of climates, whilst its position-between two seas-ought to attract to itself the commerce of the world. But endless political disturbances, ignorance of the first elements of political economy, an absence of public spirit, venal officials, and ruffianly politicians, all war against the unhappy land, and it is the reverse of prosperous. It exports silver, gold, cochineal, dyewood, and mahogany, and imports manufactured goods-cotton and linen, hardware and machinery.

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