‘SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION TO MEXICO. 413 
banks of the Nile an association which asserts its place among modern societies, 
and plays an important part, through production and commerce, in the general 
intergsts of the world, it is in great part because the hand of France was 
stretched forth to rescue this people from their state of torpor. 
Prepossessed by these memories, your Majesty has determined that what 
was done on the banks of the Nile by him who was to become Napoleon I, 
should be accomplished in Mexico under the auspices of Napoleon III. The 
results obtained sixty years ago are the guarantee of the results in reserve for 
the new expedition. Mexico, it is true, does not offer the historic interest pre- 
sented by that land of Egypt, where Herodotus placed the origin of the religion, 
the arts, and of a portion of the inhabitants of Greece. Nevertheless Mexico, 
too, has many secrets to disclose to us: a peculiar civilization which science 
should revive, races whose origin eludes us, unknown languages, mysterious 
inscriptions, and imposing monuments. But if the expedition be contemplated 
in relation to the natural and physical sciences, what comparison can be made 
between the two countries? On the one hand, a long valley of scarcely 260 
leagues, with a width at certain points of but a few hundred toises, where the 
sky, the earth, and the waters are of an admirable but wearisome uniformity ; 
on the other, a vast region bathed by two oceans, traversed by large rivers 
and lofty mountains—which, situated near the equator, possesses every climate, 
because it has all altitudes; where the redundant vegetation of the tropics 
shelters innumerable tribes of animated creatures ; where, in fine, the internal 
wealth corresponds to that of the surface, for the millions which, during three 
centuries, Mexico has poured into the lap of Europe are but the first fruits of 
the treasures which it yet has in store. 
The Mexico of Montezuma comprised but about six degrees of latitude, from 
the 15th to the 21st. Outside of its frontiers there remained, to the south, 
Yucatan and the entire isthmus; to the north, all Sonora and the great valley 
of the Rio del Norte. But the history of these regions, the races which people 
them, is too closely associated with the history and the rads of Mexico to be 
neglected by a scientific expedition. The field of exploration, then, extends 
from the sources of the Rio del Norte and the river Colorado to the Gulf of 
Darien, over about 32° of latitude. 
It is true that a great number of documents relative to this wide tract have 
been already collected by the scientific men of the country—by some of the 
functionaries sent thither by France, and by travellers, who have followed in 
the traces of the most illustrious of their number, William von Humboldt. But 
information thus gained at points widely separated requires to be compared, 
digested, and submitted to scientific verification. In view of the details and 
rigor of method which science now exacts, Mexico offers, in regard to many 
sciences, a field of culture almost untouched. We have, for example, numerous 
charts of this region, but the best of them leave much to be desired. In the 
provinces to the south and west of Mexico the course of the largest rivers is 
traced in a very uncertain manner, and it is not necessary to diverge far from 
the frequented routes to make the most unexpected discoveries. At a short 
distance from Perote, on the highway between Vera Cruz and Mexico, the 
maps indicated, four or five years since, a lagoon, where M. de Saussure encoun- 
tered hills. ‘To the north the region of the Sierra Madre and the Sierra Verde, 
to the south Guatemala, Honduras, and Darien, include vast tracts as little 
known as the centre of Africa. 
These researches, useful alike to commerce and to science, will promote, per- 
haps, the solution of the problem propounded twenty years ago by Prince Louis 
Napoleon for piercing the American isthmus with an interoceanic canal. The 
Emperor might in this, as in so many other instances, witness the realization of 
the hardy and prolific visions of the exile. 
In regard to the geologic constitution of this part of the New World we have 
