CHAPTER XV. 



THE PENINSULA OF YUCATAN. 

 MODERN GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS. 



Thus far our attention has been limited almost exclusivelj' to the climatic zones north 

 of the trade-wind belt. Only in one case have we made a slight excursion southward into 

 the torrid zone in southern Mexico. There we found that evidences of climatic changes 

 are as distinct and abundant as further north. Moreover, as will appear more fully below, 

 their periodicity seems to be the same as that of the temperate zone, the first half of the 

 fourteenth century having been a wet period not only in the basin of Mexico, but in Cali- 

 fornia and in western Asia, while the end of the fifteenth century was dry. This Mexican 

 region, however, is in many ways not truly typical of the torrid zone, since it lies on a high 

 plateau from 5,000 to 7,000 feet above the sea and is cut off from the neighboring oceans 

 by high mountains. 



A true test of the torrid zone would demand the examination of some lowland region, 

 and would be much more valuable if it included not only regions which, like the Mexican 

 plateau, receive rain in summer only, but also places receiving it at all seasons. Moreover, 

 such a place must contain ruins or other traces of human occupation in order to afford some 

 indication of the dates of any possible changes. A region of precisely this kind is found in 

 the low, triangular area which extends from latitude 14° to 22° in Central America. The 

 base of the triangle extends about 500 miles in a direction east by south from the Isthmus 

 of Tehuantepec along the Pacific Coast and across Guatemala to the center of Honduras, 

 while the apex Ues 500 miles north of the last point and is the northwestern promontory of 

 Yucatan. The triangle is shown in the accompanying map. It includes the Mexican states 

 of Tabasco and Chiapas, the entire peninsula of Yucatan, British Honduras, the two-thirds 

 of Guatemala lying north of the Motagua River, and a considerable part of western 

 Honduras. Here grew up the civilization of the Mayas, who possessed the highest culture 

 attained by any American race before the coming of Columbus. Here are found some of 

 the most remarkable ruins of any portion of the world. Part are located in the dry regions 

 of northern Yucatan and part in the dense tropical forests where no civihzed man now 

 dwells. Something is known of their history, both from a few old records and from the 

 ruins themselves. Hence here, more perhaps than anywhere else in America, we have 

 an opportunity to test our climatic theories by the twofold criterion of a new climatic zone 

 and a new type of civihzation. The results are at first sight contradictory to those attained 

 elsewhere, for the past appears to have been on the whole more arid instead of more moist 

 than the present. More carefully interpreted, however, they are seen not to be contra- 

 dictory and to afford not only a most interesting confirmation of the theory of changes of 

 climate, but a valuable light upon the mechanism of such changes. 



The best place in which to begin our main investigation into the Maya civilization 

 and its relation to climate is the peninsula of Yucatan. In view of the importance of the 

 subject, and inasmuch as Yucatan is a pecuUar region and is imperfectly known to the 

 majority of intelligent readers, I shall describe some of its more sahent geographic features, 

 and shall attempt to give an idea of their relation to the present habits and character of 

 its Mestizo and Maya population. This is necessary because the most surprising feature 

 of the country — that is, the great contrast between the past and the present — can only 

 be understood on the basis of a knowledge not only of the wonderful ruins, but of the 

 present state of civilization. 



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