MEXICO AND ITS ANTIQUITIES. 



619 



and Monterey ; one traversing the States of Jalisco and Sinaloa, and 

 subsiding in Northern Sonora ; and a central ridge extending through 

 the States of Durango and Chihuahua, and forming the water-shed of 

 the northern table-land. This range decreases in elevation going north- 

 ward. Four peaks Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl, Orizaba, and the Ne- 

 vada de Toluca rise above 15,000 feet, and three others the Cofre 

 de Perote, Ajusco, and the volcano of Colima above 11,000 feet. 



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Fig. 1. Indian Hut in the Tierra Caliente. 



The country is divided into three zones : the tierra caliente, or hot 

 land, bordering the coast of either sea for from forty to seventy miles 

 inland ; the tierra templada, or temperate land ; and the tierra fria, or 

 cold land. About one half the surface of the country lies in the latter 

 zone, while the remainder of the republic is almost equally divided be- 

 tween the temperate and hot regions. The country consists for the 

 most part of a plateau, having an average height of about 6,000 feet 

 above the level of the sea, which extends from the frontier of the 

 United States to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and is about 350 miles 

 wide in the latitude of the capital. But few of the rivers are navi- 

 gable, and the longest of them, the Rio de Santiago, is only 542 miles 

 long. The numerous lakes on the plateau are mostly shallow lagoons, 

 the mere remains of large basins of water that formerly existed, and 

 without outlet, and therefore filled with salt water. After the lagoon 

 of Terminos, on the coast of the Gulf of Campeachy, which is really 

 an arm of the sea, the largest lakes are the Lake of Chapala, in the 

 State of Jalisco, and Lakes Patzcuaro and Cuitzco. The country en- 

 joys a variety of climates, of which those of the temperate and cold 

 regions are tolerably uniform. The rainy season generally occurs in 



