3 oo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for first-class modern merchant-vessels those of Anton Lizado on the 

 Gulf, and Acapulco on the Pacific. All the other so-called seaports 

 now used by commerce are open roadsteads, dangerous in rough 

 weather, and only approachable in lighters, or are located on rivers, 

 the entrances to which are closed to ocean traders by shallows or 

 sand-bars. The natural obstructions and difficulties in the way of in- 

 land traffic are scarcely less observable. Mexico is entirely wanting 

 in navigable rivers and lakes. Her fertile districts, capital cities, and 

 centers of population are separated from each other by long distances, 

 arid districts, immense chains of mountains, and vast barrancas 

 washed out by her rapidly descending water-courses. These difficul- 

 ties were partially overcome by the Spaniards, who constructed a noble 

 system of highways and bridges extending between the principal cities 

 of the viceroyalty, but from the nature of the soil they were immense- 

 ly expensive to construct and difficult to maintain. During the long 

 and ruinous wars for independence, and the civil wars which followed, 

 these highways went rapidly to destruction ; and, notwithstanding 

 recent repairs and reconstructions, the general condition of Mexican 

 highways is not encouraging to either commerce or travel. But all 

 these natural and accidental disadvantages combined may be regarded 

 as nothing in comparison with the crushing and suffocating influences 

 brought to bear on Mexican commerce, foreign and domestic, by the 

 exclusive policy imposed by the mother-country during the three cent- 

 uries of Mexico's colonial vassalage ; and, secondly, by the system of 

 internal and interstate duties and custom-houses, inherited from Old 

 Spain, which still practically vexes the internal commerce of the re- 

 public." 



Relation of the Sanitary Condition of Mexico to its Com- 

 mercial Development. The sanitary condition of every country 

 constitutes an important element in determining its commercial devel- 

 opment, and Mexico especially illustrates the truth of this proposition. 

 The coast-lands of the republic are hot and unhealthy. The more 

 elevated portions, where nine tenths of the people live, are claimed to 

 be unsurpassed in salubrity. Strangers from northern latitudes, and 

 accustomed to the ordinary levels of human residence, are liable, on 

 coming to the Mexican plateau, to a process of acclimation, which, 

 although often very trying, is rarely attended with any very serious 

 consequences. Horse-dealers from Texas state that they lose from 

 twelve to twenty per cent of the horses brought to the city of Mexico 

 for sale, solely from the climatic influences contingent on its great 

 altitude ; and the common house-cat, it is said, does not thrive, and is 

 scarce on the highlands of Mexico for like reasons. The sanitary con- 

 ditions of the two chief commercial centers of the republic, namely, 

 the city of Mexico and of Vera Cruz, are, however, so extraordinary 

 and so obstructive to national progress that any review of the country 

 would be imperfect that neglected to notice them. The evil in the 



