414 EXPLORATIONS. + 
glimpses rather than any general view; two studies, among others, are here to 
be created or resumed—paleontology and the examination of voleanic phenomena, 
which, in Mexico, present themselves in colossal proportions. ‘ 
What has been done by mining associations is worthy of praise, but what is 
known as yet of the mineralogical wealth of Mexico is undoubtedly the smallest 
part of that which exists. The sites thus far turned to profit are those for the 
most part which hazard has presented. <A truly scientific exploration would 
disclose to this branch of industry a future of unexpected prosperity. 
A country of so bold and broken an outline, and submitted to the powerful 
and varied action of extremes of climate as well as to that of the forces proceed- 
ing from the interior of the earth, holds out large promise to the physics of the 
globe and to meteorology. 
Nor will botany be less fortunate. Those endlessly diversified formations, 
those elevations where all climates present themselves, enable Mexico and 
Central America to spread before the eyes of the traveller a magnificent and 
multiform flora, such as is offered by no other region of the globe. The science 
has here already made many acquisitions, but a full harvest is yet to be gath- 
ered, and our gardens, our parks, our forests, and our fields will be enriched 
with new plants for ornament and use. 
In these regions where nature scatters life under all forms, the animal king- 
dom is not less rich nor less curious than the vegetable. Agassiz thinks that 
he has found living in the Gulf of Mexico certain antediluvian polyps which 
occur imbedded in the soil of Florida, and the encrinites are extant only here: 
a mysterious link between the world of primeval times and our own. 
The almost new science of anthropology cannot fail to derive great light from 
the calm study of the races buried in the grottoes of Central America, or from 
those which still live on the plateau of Anahuac or in the neighboring regions. 
The mixed breeds, resulting from the intercourse of the indigenous and foreign 
races, will furnish suggestions for a study associated with questions of the highest 
import, at once pH¥siological, moral, and social. 
Mexico is still rich in promise for another science—comparative philology. 
Though hardly of a man’s age, this science has already detected the origin of 
races of men, reunited the broken ties of nations, and prepared the solution 
of the great problem of the variety or unity of our species; a question which 
seemed to possess no interest but for scientific curiosity, yet one which, for three 
years, North America has been seeking to decide in the furious conflicts of a 
more than civil war. The study of Mexican idioms was commenced, it is true, 
long since, but there is room for pursuing it on a wider scale. ‘The ruins of 
Palenque cover mysteries comparable, perhaps, to those which the expedition 
of Egypt found on the banks of the Nile, and which, thanks to that expedition, 
Champollion was finally enabled to penetrate. ‘ 
The Mexico of Montezuma has almost wholly disappeared; the expedition 
will afford the means of its rediscovery. Perhaps our explorers will bring to 
light some of those rare Mexican manuscripts or ywkatéques which have escaped 
recurring devastations. They will certainly collect those oral traditions of 
which modern criticism so well knows how to avail itself. 
In 1855, M. de Saussure discovered, within a few leagues of Perote, an entire 
city of which, before him, no one had any knowledge. An American traveller, 
passing directly from the sea to Mexico, by a route traced by himself, encoun- 
tered from eighteen to twenty considerable monuments, of which the memory 
was lost. The Mexican solitudes have similar surprises in reserve for our 
savants. It will be theirs to renovate this great and curious page of the world’s 
annals, which centuries have effaced, and our generation, so arid of the noble 
emotions of history, will see a wider horizon opened for its contemplation. 
When our soldiers quit this country, leaving glorious memories behind them, 
our savants will complete the conquest of it for science. There is no room to 
