342 



GEOGEAPHIOAL EXPECTATIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN 1866 



from the necessities of the so-called Imperial 

 Government, and in part from the tendencies 

 of the French officers to signalize their career 

 by a thorough investigation of the character 

 and capacities of the countries in "which they 

 are assigned to duty. The Geographical and 

 Statistical Society of Mexico became an efficient 

 scientific body, and the papers addressed to it 

 and read at its sessions, were interesting and 

 important. Among these we note: <k Photo- 

 graphs and descriptions of two Aztec figures, 

 sculptured upon a stone which formed a part 

 of the walls of the City of Orizaba ; " an elab- 

 orate work, in two volumes, entitled "A de- 

 scriptive and comparative representation of the 

 native languages of Mexico ; " statistics of the 

 geography, census, etc., of the department of 

 Vera Cruz ; a memoir, with views and plans, 

 illustrating the narrative of the scientific expe- 

 dition sent by the Government to study the 

 ruins of Metlatoyuca, recently discovered in the 

 district of Tulancingo; statistics of Choapan; 

 a topographical plan of the City of Parras ; a 

 notice in regard to the population of the depart- 

 ment of Jalisco ; geographical and physical de- 

 tails relative to the City of Guadalaxara ; a hy- 

 drographical chart of the river Atoyac, drawn by 

 a government commission ordered to investigate 

 the navigability of the stream ; a topographical 

 plan of the City of Monterey ; a memoir upon the 

 inundations and droughts of Metztitlan, with 

 statistical and geographical notes; statistical 

 notes on the District of Apam ; a table of 

 statistics concerning the department of Quere- 

 taro ; memoir upon the agricultural condition 

 of the district of Huatusco, in the department 

 of Vera Cruz ; meteorological observations 

 made at Monterey in 1865, with an indication 

 of the mean temperature of each month of the 

 year ; account of national and foreign colonies 

 established in Mexico ; notes upon the industry, 

 agriculture, and mines of New Leon, by Senor 

 J. M. Aguilar; description of the principal 

 streams of the island of Carmen ; the geo- 

 graphical and statistical state of the empire 

 after the new territorial division by Colonel 

 Soto ; report upon the culture of sugar-cane, 

 coffee, tobacco, cotton, and other products, 

 which constitute the principal wealth of Mex- 

 ico, prepared by a commission designated by 

 the Mexican Geographical Society. All these 

 papers are published by the Society in its 

 Bulletin. From that on the department of 

 Vera Cruz, we take the following statistics : 

 The department is divided into seven districts, 

 seventeen cantons, four principal cities, four- 

 teen towns, and one hundred and fifty-seven 

 villages. The population of the department 

 amounts to 338,148 inhabitants, who are dis- 

 tributed through the seven districts as follows : 

 Vera Cruz, 68,040; Jalapa, 61,244; Orizaba, 

 55,000 ; Tuxpan, 46,339 ; ^Tampico of Vera 

 Cruz, 39,407 ; Cordova, 35,458 ; Jalacingo, 

 32,660. The department is naturally divided 

 into the low or hot lands, and the temperate or 

 high lands. The population duelling in the 



former is 153,786 ; in the latter, 184,362. The 

 area of the department is 125,247 square kilo- 

 meters, and the density of the population 0.69 

 to the square kilometer. The population of the 

 City of Vera Cruz is 37,040; that of Jalapa, 

 37,200; that of Orizaba, 15,524; that of Cor- 

 dova, 4,396. ' The Abbe E. Domenech, already 

 distinguished by his explorations of the ancient 

 cities and ruins of Mexico, has been very active, 

 during the administration of Maximilian in 

 Mexico, in prosecuting further investigations 

 into the geography and antiquities of the 

 country. In connection with his narrative of 

 a journey undertaken for scientific purposes, 

 from Mexico to Durango, over the elevated 

 table lands of the country, the Abb6 gives some 

 important statistics in regard to the City of 

 Mexico, not hitherto accessible. The latitude 

 of the city is 19 25' 45" north; its longitude 

 101 25' 30" west, from Paris ; its altitude, the 

 mean of five observations by eminent physi- 

 cists, is 2,257 meters=7,602 feet. "Water boils 

 at 98 centigrade=208.4 Fahrenheit. The 

 dryness of the atmosphere -causes Deluc's hy- 

 grometer to descend to 15 ; that of Saussure 

 to 42. The prevalent winds are from the 

 northeast and north. He gives the elevation 

 of Queretaro as 1,846 meters=6,241 feet; that 

 of Guanajuato, 2,191 meters=7,383feet; Zaca- 

 tecas, 2,485 meters=8,374 feet; and Durango, 

 1,928 meters=6,497 feet. A census of Mexico, 

 taken in 1865, and published late in 1866, gives 

 the population of the country as 8,218,080, and 

 the number of square miles as 712,850. The 

 most populous of the fifty departments into 

 which the country is divided, are: Guanajuato, 

 601,850 inhabitants ; the valley of Mexico, 

 481,796 ; Puebla, 467,788 ; Aguascalientes, 

 433,151; Guerrero, 424,836; and Michoacan, 

 417,378 ; the smallest, Lower California, which, 

 with a territory as large as Wisconsin, has but 

 12,420 inhabitants, and Mapimi, with a terri- 

 tory of the same size as South Carolina, and 

 but 6,777 inhabitants. The population of the 

 valley of Mexico is far more dense than that of 

 any other department, its territory being only 

 about twice the size of Ehode Island, and its 

 population about 192 to the square mile. 



5. Central America. Professor Karl von 

 Seebach, who visited Central America in 1864- 

 '5, gives in the "Philosophical Transactions" of 

 Gottingen a very interesting account of the 

 Volcano of Izalco, one of the most remarkable 

 of the numerous volcanic mountains of that 

 land of earthquakes and lava floods. It is sit- 

 uated in the State of San Salvador, about ten 

 miles north of Sonsonate, in 13 48' north 

 latitude and 89 39' west longitude from 

 Greenwich. This volcano and that of Jorullo 

 in Mexico, are the only ones on the Western 

 Continent known to have been formed in 

 modern times. A brief, but generally accu- 

 rate account of its origin and action up to 

 1859 is given in the NEW AMEBICAK CYCLOPAE- 

 DIA, vol. ix., p. 671, though its height is there 

 stated inaccurately. Professor von Seebach 



