A certain main and important condition presented itself to the comprehension of Diaz early in his administration, and compliance with it has been one of the principal contributing causes to his success. This was the necessity for the bettering of the means of communication of the country. Roads, railways, and telegraph multiplied accordingly under the fostering work of the Diaz Governments, mainly by inducements held out to foreign capitalists; partly by the expenditure of national funds. When troops and messages can be moved and flashed about rapidlypronunciamientostend to diminish. The credit of the country abroad was firmly re-established in 1886 by a proper adjustment of the foreign debt with Mexico's European creditors; and as a result further loans were secured. The Mexican National Railway, traversing the country from the capital to the United States frontier, was opened in November, 1888, as well as a line southwards to Oaxaca, later; and thus the nineteenth century closed with an era of growing stability and prosperity at home and a creditable reputation abroad. The old elements of unscrupulous ambition had been outlived, and the best men the countryproduced were directing its governing and development. The fiscal policy of the administration had been wisely thought out and applied, and had proved a success, and difficulties due to the depreciation of the silver coinage had been weathered.
The twentieth century opened for Mexico with a continuance of the same governing elements, policy, and general development, Diaz being re-elected for the term beginning in December, 1900, and again for the term 1904-1910: this being his seventh tenure of office. Important public works have been carried to completion during these last periods, chief among them being the drainage of the Valley of Mexico—that historical scheme begun by the viceroys—and the harbour works of Vera Cruz; rendering shipping safe from the great "northers" which since the time of Cortes have harassed vessels lying in the bay. These works were performed by British firms; and yet another, under similar auspices, was the completion of the Tehuantepec Railway—a trans-Continental line from the Atlantic (Gulf) to the Pacific; all of which works are of really historical importance. The present time—1909—finds Mexico an established power on her continent, with considerable opportunities for good or evil in the influence of international matters in North and Central America, and with her own future well mapped out in so much as the ingenuity of her public men may devise.
What this future will really be must depend upon the temper of her people and the prudence of political changes. The staunch leader who, thanks to the species of limited Presidential Monarchy which circumstances have required and permitted, has successfully carried on the leadership must, in the natural course of events, yield this up. This will afford an opportunity for ambition and possible strife on the part of those elements which have been overawed in the past, and which it is too much to expect have been altogether eliminated. Then will be the real test of Mexican self-control and prudence, and it seems probable that these will be exercised.
Geographical conditions—Tehuantepec—Yucatan—Boundaries and area—Population—Vera Cruz—Elevations above sea-level—Latitude—General topography—The Great Plateau—The Sierra Madres—The Mexican Andes—General structure—The coasts—Highest peaks—Snow-cap and volcanoes—Geological formation—Geological scenery—Hydrographic systems—Rivers—Navigation—Water-power—Lakes—Climate and temperatures—The three climatic zones—Rainfall—Snowfall—Flora and fauna—Soil—Singular cactus forms—The desert flora—The tropical flora—Forest regions—Wild animals—Serpents, monkeys, and felidæ—Sporting conditions—Birds.
We have traced the evolution of the Mexican people through the phases of their chequered history: let us now examine more closely their habitat, the country and its physical structure, and natural clothing; its mountains and plains and accompanying vegetation, no less interesting and picturesque in their respective fields.
The geographical conditions of Mexico and its geology and accompanying topography are peculiar, and indeed in some respects unique. Mexico has been termed "the bridge of the world's commerce,"[24]and, in fact, its geographical position between the two great oceans of the world—the Atlantic and the Pacific, and between, or joining, two great continents, North and South America—would seem to warrant such a description, especially having regard to the coming development of that partof the world and the rise of the Pacific Ocean in commercial importance. It is indeed a favourite theory of some writers that the commercial and civilised centre of the world is destined to shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This theory, which must be characterised, however, as open to much conjecture, has been lightly discussed elsewhere in these pages. But be it as it may, the situation of the cornucopia-shaped land of Mexico is of great and growing importance. Among the geographical features of almost international importance is the remarkable isthmus of Tehuantepec—now traversed by a railway—which separates by only 120 miles the deep waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean systems. It is an isthmus of Panama of greater width, and certainly may form a "bridge of commerce."
24 Humboldt.
Mexico—apart from the Yucatan peninsula—consists of a great triangular-shaped area, forming the tapering end of the North American Continent. It is bounded on the north and north-east by the United States; on the east by the Atlantic waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Campeche, and Caribbean Sea; on the west and south by the Pacific Ocean; and on the south-east by Guatemala and British Honduras. Mexico is, therefore, a close neighbour of a part of the British Empire! The greatest length of the country is 2,000 miles nearly, its greatest width 760 miles, and its area 767,000 square miles. Thus it is nearly nine times the size of Great Britain, or as large as Great Britain, France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary all joined together; and this enormous area is inhabited at present by only fourteen or fifteen million people.
Although Mexico lies half within and half without the tropics, it is generally known as a tropical country; and, indeed, the main gateway to it, Vera Cruz, is a tropical seaport, which may well give rise to such a general impression upon the part of the European traveller. A different impression, however, is acquired upon entering the country from the United States to the north. No tropic forests and bright-plumaged birds are encountered there as at Vera Cruz; instead are vast stretches of desert lyingwithin the temperate zone, alternating with cultivated plains and interspersed with large towns. The traveller, roused by the shriek of the locomotive, looks forth into the clear dawn of the chill Mexican morning from the window of his sleeping-berth upon the Pullman car, as the train speeds over the plateau.
No fact is more strongly borne upon the traveller in Andine and Cordillera-formed countries than that latitude forms but an unreliable guide to climate and temperature. Nearness to the Equator, with its accompanying torridity, is often counterbalanced by high elevations above sea-level, with consequent rarefied air and low temperature—a combination which embodies considerable advantages, as well as some drawbacks. These conditions are very marked in Mexico. Entering the country from Vera Cruz, we rise rapidly from sea-level to 7,410 feet at the City of Mexico; entering from the United States, we rise imperceptibly from 4,000 feet to the same elevation. As to its geographical position, the country extends over 18° of latitude, from 32½° north to 14½° north, and it lies between the 86th and 118th meridian west of Greenwich.
Topographically the country offers a very varied surface, the main features of which are the Great Plateau, the extensive, lofty tableland known as themesa central; and the Pacific and Atlantic slopes, formed by the flanks of the Sierra Madres mountains towards these oceans respectively. At the base of these ranges are the lowlands of the coasts; whilst the eastern extremity of the country is formed by the singular plains of the peninsula of Yucatan.
A large part of the country's area is taken up by this great plateau of Anahuac, as it is sometimes termed. The tableland is bounded both on the east and the west by ranges of mountains, known as the Eastern Sierra Madre and the Western Sierra Madre respectively. These mountains close in towards the south, enclosing the tableland in a tapering form, and the Valley of Mexico which forms its extremity. On the north themesa centralisintersected by the Rio Grande, which forms the boundary of Mexico with the United States; and the plateau continues thence into the territory of that country. The length of this plateau, from north-west to south-east, or, roughly, upon its longitudinal axis, is approximately 800 miles, and its greatest width between the summits of the enclosing mountains about 500 miles. The tableland is, however, intersected by various lesser ranges of hills, and is not by any means a flat, unbroken expanse. Nevertheless, its formation is such that a vehicle might be driven from the City of Mexico for vast distances without having resort to roads. It may be looked upon physically as a great plane, inclined or tipped from south to north, or from the City of Mexico to the United States border. The general elevation above sea-level of the inclined plane at its southern end is 8,000 feet, and that at its northern 4,000 feet—a slope of 4,000 feet in a direction away from the Equator; and a fact which greatly influences its climate. The Mexican plateau is the result of after-formation from the mountain system of the country. The Sierra Madres are the Mexican Andes, part of the chain-formation of those vast Cordilleras which are most developed in South America, on the one hand, and are encountered in the Rocky Mountains of North America on the other. In South America the Andes consist of huge parallel chains with river and lake-basins of profound depth between them. In Mexico the same formation must have existed, but the basins have been filled up by material discharged from volcanoes and from the erosion of the mountains themselves, doubtless caused by the severe and sudden rain-storms and rapid changes of temperature characteristic of these regions. Thus the great plateau may be likened to a number of filled-up troughs, through whose general surface the tops of mountain ranges still protrude in "islands" or groups, whose crests form the intersecting hills of the plateau. Some of the plains of the plateau between these crests are hydrographic entities, with no outlet fortheir waters, as in the case of theBolsonof Mapimi—a vast rock-wilderness of 50,000 square miles in area, with great swamps and lake bottoms—and the Valley of Mexico. These great depressions, indeed, in a measure bear out the analogy or relationship with the South American Andes, as in the case of the hydrographic entity of Lake Titicaca in Peru and Bolivia, the great inland sea whose waters have no outlet save by evaporation. The enormous depth of alluvial soil found in thebolsonesor depressions of the Mexican plateau, formed from rock-decay, or of volcanic material accumulated by the great lakes of recent times which covered them in the central part of the greatmesa central, bear striking evidence to the filling-up process of the past. In the neighbourhood of the River Nazas wells have been sunk to great depths in this material without a single stone or rock of any description being encountered. Indeed, on some of the cotton lands of this region I have looked in vain to find even a pebble, so fine is the alluvial soil. The stratified rocks, which are scarce upon the southern part of the plateau, become much more prevalent in the north, and the vast sandy, arid plains, which cover enormous areas of land in Chihuahua and Coahuila extending thence past the valley of the Rio Grande into the great American deserts of Texas and New Mexico, are doubtless formed from the disintegration of the sandstone and chalk horizons of that region.
Leaving for a moment our examination of the great plateau, let us observe the coast. On both sides of the country—the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean—we observe that the littoral is composed of sandy lowlands. On the eastern or Gulf side these coastal plains vary in width from a few miles up to a hundred miles; for the Cordillera approaches near to the sea at Vera Cruz, and recedes far from it in Tamaulipas. Upon the Pacific side, however, the coastal plains are more restricted in width, as the Cordillera runs nearer the sea-coast, but leaving a wider strip at the north. Indeed, in the State of Guerrero the Sierras rise almost abruptly from salt water,and the waves bathe the roots of the trees which cover the mountain slopes. The country rises rapidly from both oceans—more rapidly from the Pacific side—and forms a succession of terraces upon the slopes of the Sierra Madres, traversed by profound transversal cañons and culminating in the crests of these mountains which enclose the great plateau on both sides.
The Sierra Madres, or Mexican Andes, have the general Andine direction of north-north-west. They are divided into two systems—the western and the eastern—whose respective crests in the north are from 400 to 500 miles apart, enclosing themesa central, and which approach towards the south. The Pacific range has some important ramifications from its main system, but the general Andine structure is maintained. The range is again encountered in the long peninsula of North-Western Mexico—known as Lower California—where it parallels the eastern side of this great tongue of land for more than 700 miles. Indeed, a study of Mexico's orography and the delineation upon the map shows the series of parallel features formed by alternate mountain-folds and intervening basins—the peninsula of Lower California; the Gulf of the same name; the Western Sierra Madre; the intersecting crests of the great plateau; the Eastern Sierra Madre, and the Gulf Coast. Thus these huge "earth-wrinkles" of the Andine system of South America show their characteristics in Mexico, modified, however, by cross-agencies of volcanic nature. The map of Mexico shows strikingly how the country is formed upon its rocky framework, the ribs of these vast folds.
The passes over these mountain ranges, giving access to the plateau-interior of Mexico from the oceans, vary from 8,500 feet to 10,000 feet, the range upon the Pacific side being generally the higher. But the highest peaks rise much above these altitudes, in some few cases reaching beyond the perpetual snow-line, although ever much lower than the Andes of South America. Three culminating peaks only pass thesnow-line in Mexico, although others of the crests and summits are frequently snow-covered. The first of these three peaks is Orizaba, or Citlaltepetl—the "Star Mountain" of the native—the beautiful and symmetrically formed cone whose gleaming snow-cap is seen by the approaching traveller far over the stormy waters of the Gulf as he approaches the shores of Vera Cruz. So Grijalva and Cortes saw it; so the voyager of to-day sees it, as its snowy point seems to hang in mid-sky, its base buried in clouds and its gleaming summit surrounded by the azure of the tropic firmament. The summit of Orizaba is 18,250 feet above the level of the sea—the highest point in Mexico. Next in point of altitude is the famous Popocatepetl—the "Smoking Mountain," so called by the natives for its eruptions in centuries past, for it is no longer active. Some of the adventurous Spaniards of the band of Cortes reached the rim of the crater on its summit, and, indeed, later the Spaniards extracted sulphur therefrom, and various ascents have been made recently. Its last eruption was in 1665. The summit of Popocatepetl is 17,250 feet above sea-level, and it is of characteristic conical form. The third perpetually snow-capped peak is Ixtaccihuatl—the "Sleeping Woman," so named by the natives from the fanciful suggestiveness of a reclining woman—and its summit is 16,960 feet above the sea. The Indian names of these striking monuments of nature serve to show the poetical nomenclature which the natives of the Americas ever gave to topographical features. Especially was this the case among the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru. The last-named mountain is not of the characteristic conical form which volcanoes generally have, its outline—beautiful as it is—forming a serrated edge, and it appeared singularly striking from Tacubaya, where I first beheld it. Nevertheless, all these three mountains—the highest points in the country—are of volcanic origin. The majestic and poetic peaks of the "Smoking Mountain" and the "Sleeping Woman" form part of the Sierra Nevada, or Cordillera of Anahuac, in company with Malinche,another of the highest culminating peaks, 14,630 feet above sea-level. This chain is a cross ridge of volcanic and more recent formation than that of the general system of the Mexican Cordilleras, and forms, as it were, a line of volcanic action at right angles to the general Andine trend, associated perhaps with Orizaba on the east and the volcano of Colima (12,990 feet elevation) on the west. This latter mountain is the only active crater in Mexico at the present time. The great Malinche, or Malintzin—possibly named after the fair interpreter of Cortes—is a mountain of striking form, with its brow often snow-covered, upon the borders of the plateau of Tlaxcala, whilst the singular Cofre de Perote, with its box or coffin-like summit (13,400 feet above sea-level), is a prominent landmark of the eastern slope of Mexico's road from Vera Cruz, overhanging the summit of the Sierra Madre at the limit of the lowlands. Other high peaks are the Nevedo de Toluca, often snow-crowned, 14,950 feet; and Tancitaro, 12,660 feet.
The Mexican mountains are mainly of underlying granite formation. The Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary Ages rocks are much in evidence throughout the country, whilst the highest ranges, as we have seen, are of volcanic origin. The singular plains of Yucatan are largely of calcareous formation, probably a Tertiary limestone. One of the most plentiful rocks over vast areas of Mexico, and that which forms the striking variation of scenery, is the mountain limestone, the excessively hard stratified crystalline rock of the Lower Cretaceous period. This rock formation extends right across Mexico—although isolated in places—from sea to sea, and its existence possibly goes to show that the Pacific and the Gulf were one, in earlier geological times. The predominating shades of these extensive strata are blue and grey; occasionally there are black bands alternating, and they lie upheaved at such angles as remind the traveller of the still more pronounced strata of the high summits of the Peruvian Andes.[25]The mountain limestoneis of very hard texture; white and crystalline, it wears away but slowly under the action of the elements, although on the steep mountain tracks over which we are journeying we shall observe it broken into cubes like sugar, beneath the incessant trampling of hoofs, or worn away to silver-sand and borne down by the streamlets into the river valleys.
25 See my book, "The Andes and the Amazon."
The rock-formations of the tablelands are those to which Mexico owes her fame as a silver-producing country, and it is in the high region, from 5,000 to 9,500 feet above sea-level, that her historical mines are encountered; and the zone of territory embraced by these well-known centres, from Pachuca to Guanajuato and onwards to Chihuahua, may be described without exaggeration as the richest argentiferous region on the surface of the globe. It is to the metamorphic formation that the abundance of mineral ores is due, and the igneous rocks which have given rise thereto—the granites, basalts, diorites, porphyries, and others. This metalliferous zone is more than 1,500 miles long, extending from the State of Chihuahua and Sonora in the north to Oaxaca and Chiapas in the south.
As we cross the coast-zone from Vera Cruz we are enabled to observe something of the orographical structure of the country and the agencies that have been at work. The coastal plains are sedimentaries of Tertiary formation. Themédanos, or sand-dunes, of the coast, blown into singular forms by the prevailingnortefrom the Gulf, give place, as we proceed inland, to the foothills of the Eastern Sierra. Here the Cretaceous formation is shown—the hard crystalline limestone—and this, from its durable nature, has furnished material for the new breakwater at Vera Cruz. Again, as we proceed, the lower rocks are sheeted with the lava of former eruptions of volcanoes, worn away at times by the ravines, and showing the points of Cretaceous rocks protruding; and volcanic dust from the same source drifts hither and thither, and at times has been compressed by the elements into a soft tufa. The great sheets of lava, as incertain places in the Valley of Mexico, are of remarkable appearance on the face of the country, the scorified aspect seemingly little changed since the moment when the fiery sheet must have poured devastatingly down the countryside.
The rock-formation of Mexican landscape gives rise to exceedingly picturesque and romantic scenery in places, and to diverse configurations of striking beauty, among which we shall often draw rein as we journey, or which will attract us continually to the observation-point of our Pullman car as the train winds along. Upon the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific slopes the territory is grand and broken in the extreme, and presents curious and beautiful examples of rock-scenery. The natural monoliths of thebarrancasof the State of Hidalgo are strange examples of scenic geology; monumental caprice of Nature in megalithic structure, as shown by the remarkable basalt columns of the profound Gorge of Itzala. Vari-coloured lichens cover these basalt pillars, affording singular contrast of light and shade. Through the gorge a torrential stream flows, and the floor of the valley is covered with fragments of obsidian, or volcanic glass, gleaming black and brilliant, which has been brought down by the waters from the Cerro de Navajas. This obsidian, or Itzli, was the material from which the Aztecs made their knives and weapons, and this was their prehistoric quarry. The red lava deserts of Sonora are weird and remarkable.
Mexico is divided hydrographically into three systems: the Atlantic, or Gulf of Mexico watershed; that of the Pacific; and the hydrographic entities of the great plateau. In the first of these is the vast region of the northern part of Mexico, which, with Texas and New Mexico, drains into the Rio Grande and thence into the Gulf; the long littoral of the Gulf Coast, whosedivortia aquarum, or water-parting, is formed by the Eastern Sierra Madre; and the peninsula of Yucatan. In the second is the vast stretch of the Pacific slope, whosedivortia aquarumis the Western Sierra Madre; the peninsula of Lower California, and the southern side ofthe region south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. In the third are the intra-montane portions of the great plateau, whose waters have no outlet or natural source of exhaustion except that by evaporation, such as the great plains known as the Bolson of Mapimi; and the Valley of Mexico. Topographically, however—apart from the three climatic zones of hot, temperate, and cold lands—the country is divided orographically into two portions by the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the former consisting of the characteristic mountain-chains and great plateau, and the latter of the immense plains of Yucatan, with a low elevation of not more than 300 feet above sea-level.
The formation of Mexico has not given rise to the existence of great or navigable rivers nor, indeed, of harbours. With few exceptions rivers are torrential in character, although some are of considerable length. The Rio Grande, which forms the northern boundary of the United States, and is therefore international in character, is 1,500 miles in length; rising in Colorado and passing through New Mexico in the United States, and thence entering between Texas and Chihuahua, it is joined by two large tributaries—the Pecos on the American and the Conchos river on the Mexican side. Thence it flows south-eastwardly to the Gulf of Mexico. The waters which enter Mexican territory are scarce, as they have been taken out for irrigation purposes in American territory. The Lerma, or Santiago, river is the next in point of length, and is a stream of considerable importance, dividing the main portion of Mexico topographically into two subdivisions. It flows for 540 miles from its source in the mountains near Toluca, passing through the beautiful Lake Chapala—the largest in Mexico—and forms the great cascade of Juanacatlan, the Niagara of Mexico; traverses the State of Jalisco, where it is joined by numerous affluents, and discharges into the Pacific Ocean near San Blas.
Southwardly from the above, beyond the intervening Cordillera, is the River Balsas, or Mescala, 430 miles inlength. This important stream has its rise in the watershed of the central plateau, or rather the extensive slopes of the Valley of Mexico, and running with a general westerly direction between the Sierras, empties into the Pacific at Zacatula. It is navigable for a short distance. The Yaqui, discharging into Pacific waters, is 390 miles long, flowing through the Sierras of Sonora to the Gulf of California. On the littoral of the Mexican Gulf is the Panuco, which rises to the north of the Valley of Mexico, flowing thence in a great curve; and being joined by various affluents from the eastern watershed of the Sierra Madres, it discharges at the port of Tampico. The Papaloapam, also draining part of the State of Vera Cruz, empties into the Gulf near the port of the same name. From the region of the peninsula of Yucatan flow two main streams—the Usamacinta and the Grijalva—which are partly navigable. All these rivers are further described in the chapter treating of the various States to which they correspond. Another characteristic stream of Mexico is the River Nazas, whose waters, nearly all absorbed by the irrigation canals of the Laguna region, where the famous cotton plantations are, fall in times of flood into the Lagoon of Parras, where they evaporate, the system forming a hydrographic entity, without outlet either to the Pacific or Atlantic watershed. Thus it is seen that most Mexican rivers simply rise in and descend on one or the other slopes of the country; and as the fall is rapid their courses are interrupted by numerous cascades. Except in few cases, these rivers are of no service for navigation, but the elements of water-power and irrigation facilities which they possess are more than compensating circumstances. In addition, their scenic value is very marked in many cases.
Lakes of Andine character, and others, exist throughout Mexico, the remnants of much larger lake systems, which occupied the filled-up "troughs" of the mountains, before described. Some of these sheets of water are exceedingly beautiful in their disposition and environment. Foremost among them is Chapala, in the State ofJalisco, near the handsome city of Guadalajara; and equally picturesque those smaller sheets of water in Michoacan—Lakes Cuitzeo and Patzcuaro. The remarkable groups of lakes in the Valley of Mexico, around which the Aztec civilisation flourished, comprise six salt-water and one (that of Chalco) fresh-water lake. The two maps given in these pages, of the disposition of these lakes at the time of the Conquest[26]and at the present day, respectively, show how remarkably their waters have shrunk during the intervening centuries. Indeed, this may have followed a certain drying-up process which seems to have been going on throughout the whole Andine region of the Americas, and which is evidenced by retiring snow-caps in Peru, and the receding of Lake Titicaca.
26 Seepage 76.
The climate and temperature of Mexico follow certain marked zones, depending upon elevation, as already indicated in the opening chapter. Both on the Atlantic and Pacific slopes these zones are encountered—thetierra calienteup to 3,000 feet elevation above sea-level; thetierra templadato 5,000 or 6,000; and thetierra friaabove that altitude. On the tropical lowlands the heat of the torrid zone is experienced, but is not necessarily oppressive, although the European or American traveller who prefers a less enervating climate hastens to exchange that region for the more bracing air of the uplands. The night breezes, however, compensate largely for the heat of the sun, and render bearable, and indeed agreeable, the Vera Cruz littoral and the Yucatan peninsula, by the lowered temperature they afford. The rains also, which have their season from June to November, do much to refresh the atmosphere. Indeed, the year is divided mainly by the matter of rainfall into a wet and dry period, the summer and winter of other countries being unknown; or, rather, one might say, that the daytime is the summer and the night-time the winter, so marked are the diurnal changes of temperature.
In thetierra calientethe mean temperature varies from 77° to 80° F., but often rises to 100°, and in some of thehottest coast regions to 105° F. In thetierra templadathe mean is from 62° to 70° F., and this is the climatic region which the Mexicans love to term "perpetual spring." In point of fact, it is a zone not unworthy of the designation, being equable, healthy, and with a beautiful and variedflora. It is to be recollected that the greater part of the area of the country lies in this temperate zone, although there is included in it a part of the great plateau, with its great range of heat and cold from day to night. It is, however, with reference to the Atlantic and Pacific slopes that these changes are ascribed, and this fine and enjoyable climate is encountered from Ameca in Jalisco to Chilpancingo in Guerrero on the western side; and from Jalapa northwards upon the Gulf—vast belts of territory of which any country might well be proud. Upwards from this zone is that of thetierra fria, with a mean temperature of 59° or 60° F., which varies little throughout the year, although the maximum and minimum from day to night is very marked.
As regards the climate of Mexico generally, it might have been supposed that it would be oppressively hot, the country lying, as it does, towards the Equator. But this is far from being the case; and the New Yorker may well leave the stifling heat of his own city in summer for the tonic breezes of the Mexican uplands, just as he may winter there to avoid the bitter winter of New York. And, as to the European, we may recollect that the northernmost point of Mexico is two degrees nearer the Equator than the southernmost point of Europe, whilst the mean annual temperature of the City of Mexico—61° F.—bears excellent comparison with such places as Algiers, 63°; Barcelona, 61°; Naples, 61°; Rome, 60°; Bordeaux, 57° F. The diurnal change in the City of Mexico, however, is very marked, rising to 89° F. during the day and falling to 35° F. at night, when the foreigner gladly dons his overcoat and the native hiscapa, orserape. On the whole, it is natural to describe the climate of Mexico as pleasing and invigorating, whilst bearing in mind the variation above described, due to elevation,latitude, rainfall, and wind agencies. The effects of these changes are so marked upon the vegetation of the country that all the vegetable products from the Equator to the Polar Circle can be found among them.
The rainfall throughout the country is mainly confined to the rainy season, from May or June to October or November. During the middle of this season the rains are, at times, exceedingly heavy, the dry stream beds of the plateau filling up in a few hours with a torrential flood which sweeps everything before it. The desert plains in some places are traversed by deepbarrancas, or gullies, worn down perpendicularly through the soil; and woebetide the unlucky horseman who may be journeying along the bottom of one of these when the wave of water comes down from some sudden cloud-burst in the mountains, which happens not infrequently. Incautious Indians andpeones, also, who have taken up their lodging in some cave or dug-out of the banks of the torrential rivers of the plateau, or who have laid drunk upon the sun-baked river-bed, are often surprised by the waters, and their bodies are recovered miles away, stranded upon some sand-bar. This serves as giving an idea of the sudden and rapid flow of water from the mountains under the torrential rains; and a good example of a river subject to such a regimen is that of the Nazas. I have crossed the dry bed of this river at Torreon on various occasions on horseback, but on the return journey an hour afterwards the horse was swimming, or, when the current was too fierce, it was necessary to make a long detour to the bridge, for the torrent was raging 300 feet wide from bank to bank.
The average rainfall varies greatly for different parts of the country. For example, in the City of Mexico a year's mean fall may be 25 inches, whilst in Monterrey, some 500 miles to the north, it would reach 130 inches. In the dry season, however, no rain falls in any of the three zones of hot, temperate, or cold lands. Snowfall is very rare as far south as the City of Mexico, but is not unknown. In the cities of the great plateau, to the north,it is almost equally rare, occurring perhaps once or twice in a lifetime. When such does take place it affords an unwonted spectacle for thepeones, and causes them to wrap themselves in theirserapesand muffle up their mouths as if they were in the polar regions, rather than experiencing a momentary fall of temperature! A scene of this nature occurred during my stay in Lerdo, one of the towns of this region, and is well depicted in the accompanying view. The low rainfall of the extreme north of Mexico, of two to three inches, on the border of Arizona, and the excessive fall, reaching 156 inches, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, with the high rate for Monterrey and the moderate fall for the capital, show how remarkable are the hygrometric conditions due to topography. The maximum rainfall is only exceeded in very few regions of the globe.
If the geology and topography of Mexico are marked and peculiar, the organic world also presents its own remarkable conditions; for, as to itsfloraandfauna, Mexico is a land of transition, between North America on the one hand and Central and South America on the other, and contains the species of both regions, in the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
As may well be imagined from such peculiar conditions, Mexico is a country whosefloraandfaunaare diverse and extensive. Indeed, as regards the former, every vegetable product found from the Equator to the Polar Circle exist in the country. The soil, in the tropical regions, as a result of high temperature and excessive moisture, is deep and fertile, both from the rock-decay consequent upon such conditions, and the deposit of organic matter from the profuse vegetation. In the region of the high plateau the product of rock-disintegration added to that caused by volcanic matter, and the sediment of dried-up lagoons of very recent time, have produced a great depth of soil in places, as before described, covering vast expanses, and this soil is found to be of exceeding fertility under irrigation. The conditions regarding irrigation are very marked in the region of the Nazas. On the one hand weencounter dry, bare, and uncultivated wastes; on the other verdant fields of cotton. Why is this? Both the lands are of a similar character of soil, but one is above the line of the irrigation canal, and the other below.
No description of Mexico can be complete which does not sound the praises of her variedflora. The most striking characteristic of the flowers of this land, as has often been remarked, is the richness and brilliance of their colour. The floating gardens, and the canoe-loads of flowers and altar adornments of such which the Aztecs used and trafficked in, bore witness to aboriginal appreciation of these. To-day the flower-market of the capital is one of its attractions, whilst in the valley of Mexico not a day in the year lacks roses, lilies, camellias, strawberries,et hoc genus omne.
A varied and indeed, at times, eccentric field of study is laid open for the botanist in Mexico, for not only is there a remarkable variety of species, but their distribution is often singular. Thus the pine-tree is often found at low elevations upon the tropic slopes, much below its properhabitatupon the mountain ranges; whilst palms flourish in certain places as high as 8,000 feet above sea-level; and the extraordinary cactus forms, which in Mexico are found in their greatest development, grow both on the high mountain slopes and the tropic lowland plains. Especially will the traveller in Mexico be struck by the imposingorganocactus. This extraordinary growth, in form like a series of organ pipes, from which it takes its name, or like a huge branching candelabra, arising from a single stem, is a marked feature of the landscape. A few strokes of a machete, severing the stem of one of these great succulent plants, will bring down the whole structure, weighing many tons. The cactus, especially upon the high, arid deserts of the plateau, is a striking example of a plant contending with the conditions of its environment in the struggle for life. Cacti are veritable cisterns of water, stored up against long periods of absolute drought, so that they may be able to perform their function of flowering. Theorganoand other cacti consistof great masses of juicy green cells; and to protect the scarce commodity of water which they have collected for their own use from predatory desert beasts and birds, Nature has armed them at every point with an appalling armour of thorns, or spikes, sharp as steel, and due to these matters of offence and defence the cactus is enabled to flourish in sterile places where absolutely no other vegetation could exist. Nowhere are these conditions so marked as upon the upper reaches of the high plateau of Mexico, and the variety of the cacti is most interesting. Among the cactus species are some which are of value—great value—to the human inhabitants. Chief of these is themaguey(Agave americana), which is indeed one of the staple resources of the country, with a varied use, as described in the pages dealing with agriculture. Thenopat, or prickly-pear, is a useful plant, yielding a succulent fruit—thetunas—and is also the habitat of the cochineal.
The tropical region—thetierra caliente—is generally covered, as before described, with a profuse floral and arboreal vegetation, whilst the other climatic belts display their own peculiar plant and tree life. Throughout the country generally, a large number of species of timber and plants exist in an uncultivated state, of commercial value, and these are enumerated in the chapter corresponding to the natural products. Among the 115 or more species of timber and wood for constructional purposes are oak, pine, mahogany, cedar, and others, whilst the list of fibrous and medicinal plants, gum-bearing trees, as india-rubber,chicle, &c., tinctorial and resinous trees, edible plants and fruits, is of much interest and value. In the tropical lowlands the country is so thickly wooded as in places to be impassable, except by clearing trails and felling trees. There are virgin forests of great extent in these sparsely populated regions, both of the Pacific and Atlantic slopes. Upon the great plateau, however, and the mountain slopes immediately adjoining it conditions are very different. Great tracts of country are, as elsewhere described, absolutely bare of vegetation, both naturally and by reason of the inroads made upon theforests by civilised man. The great desert tracts never had tree or plant life in profusion, but the hilly regions bounding these, and the inward slopes of the Sierra Madres were formerly covered with thick forests, and in some regions are still so covered. But they have been denuded in certain regions of their timber, principally for fuel, as native coal has been unknown until recently, and is difficult of transport. This denudation has had an undoubted effect upon the rainfall, and has served to change the climatic conditions in these regions. In other upland regions, however, the splendid and extensive forests of oak and pine form marked features of the landscape, and are of much industrial value.
The diversity of climatic and botanical conditions of Mexico gives as a natural corollary a variety of animal life, and thefaunais an extensive one, including, with small exception, all the species of North America on the one hand, and of South America on the other. Those of the former, naturally, are found upon the great plateau; those of the latter in the tropical lowlands. Among the main exceptions are the llama and alpaca, the domestic wool-bearing animals of the camel family, and kindred varieties, which do not exist in Mexico, nor are found anywhere in the world outside the highlands of Peru and Bolivia. Indeed, native Mexico, before the introduction of the equine race from Europe, had no beast of burden whatever, such as the llama afforded to the South American aboriginal peoples.
Thefaunaof the country embraces fifty-two varieties of mammal quadrupeds, including three species of large felidæ—the jaguar, the puma, or cougar, and the ocelot, a carnivorous cat-like animal, whose name is derived from the native Mexican wordocelotl. There are five varieties of monkeys in the tropical forests, as well as a sloth. There are forty-three classes of reptiles, including alligators and turtles, and several kinds of venomous serpents, and the great boa-constrictor. Upon the plateau and mountain ranges wolves and wild-cats abound, and the coyote is the wild inhabitant of the desert plains most in evidence.There are several kinds of bears, and the wolf, skunk, bison, and tapir are found.
Mexico cannot be said to offer a field for hunters of big game, and the term "a sportsman's paradise" which is sometimes applied to it, is something of an exaggeration. Nevertheless, there is considerable sport to be had, and certain kinds of game abound. Among animals may be enumerated the peccaries, orjavilines, deer, rabbits, hares; of reptiles, alligators, turtles, and iguanas; whilst whales, seals, and sea-lions are encountered upon the Pacific coast. Alligators are numerous in the estuaries of the rivers of both the Gulf and the Pacific sides, as well as turtles and tortoises. Of birds for the sportsman may be mentioned the wild turkey—which, indeed, was introduced to Europe from Mexico—partridges, quail, and wild pigeons. The armadillo, beaver, martin, otter, and others are among the Mexicanfauna. Of noxious reptiles and insects the rattlesnake is much in evidence, as well as the tarantula, centipede,alacran, or scorpion, and varieties of ants. Of birds of beautiful plumage the Mexican tropics abound with life, and they are famed for their fine feathers, and as songsters. They are an example of Nature's compensating circumstances; for in the hot lowlands they are more distinguished for their bright plumage than their voice; whilst in the uplands they are of much more modest dress, but higher singing capacities. More than 350 species of birds have been enumerated throughout the country, and among these are fifty varieties of humming-birds, which range throughout the whole colour-scale, from blue and green to scarlet. Thezenzontle, or mocking-bird, is a well-known bird in Mexico.
Such are, in brief, the natural conditions of geological structure, climatic conditions, and the organic world consequent thereon, of this varied and interesting land; and having thus observed them we must turn our attention to the human family whosehabitatthey form—the men and women of Mexico of to-day.