lO 



A GUIDE TO MEXICO. 



two republics. Here is a thriving and progressive town, born of railway activity, 

 with good hotels, large stores, and excellent buildings. Four lines — the Texas- 

 Pacific from the East; the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio from the 

 South-east ; the Southern Pacific from the West ; and the Atchison, Topeka, and 

 Santa Fe from the North — concentre here; all having fine stations, and valuable 

 property. The scenery about is not interesting, though peculiar and pleasing; 

 brown and detached ridges rising above plains dotted along the Rio Grande with 

 trees and vineyards. The great river, here of varying breadth, according to the 



season, is spanned by 

 substantial bridges, 

 which connect with a 

 Mexican town of an- 

 cient date, — Paso del 

 Norte, founded two 

 hundred years ago, 

 and containing 5,000 

 inhabitants. The build- 

 ings of the Mexican 

 Central are the finest 

 in this place ; but the 

 old church, the adobe 

 houses, the aceqiiias 

 (or irrigating canals), 

 and the vineyards will 

 attract attention. 

 Change is made at El 

 Paso ; and the cars con- 

 tinue on into Mexico, 

 over a road virtually an 

 extension of the same 

 system as the one just 

 described. 



THE KIO GRANDE, NEAK EL PASO. 



(0« the Texas-Pacific Ry.) 



Southward from El Paso, 225 miles, lies the city of Chihuahua (Chee-wah-wah), 

 reached over a route through desolate sand-hills at first, and latterly a vast grazing 

 ground. It is the capital of the State, and its only city of note, with about 18,000 

 inhabitants. Its houses are of a single story, as a rule, with thick walls, grated 

 windows, and open courts, with rooms from twelve to eighteen feet in height. 

 The city enjoys a delightful climate, rarely above 70° in the shade, the thick house- 

 walls admirably protecting from extremes of heat and cold. Epidemics and fevers 

 are unknown ; the pure air is conducive to health and longevity. To the recently 

 arrived Americans are due the many new industries of Chihuahua, which draws 

 its supplies from the distant cities of the United States. A horse-railway connects 

 the station with the town, a mile distant. Objects of interest: the great and 

 handsome church, an old convent, the monument to Hidalgo, chapel of Guadalupe, 

 the aqueduct (three and one-half milas long), the upper and lowtr faseos, the cen- 

 tral plaza with its fine fountain, the market, public swimming-bath, reduction-works 

 (near the city), the Santa Rosalia mines (six miles distant) which have yielded 

 fabulously in the past, and the beautiful hacienda of Don Enrique Miiller (two 

 miles away). Hotels : United States, and American, three dollars per day. 



