MEUX 



Meux, Sn; lli:i)Wni:ni ( I. 



i sailor. Morn .Inls f>. |S."(>, 



soil of the l?nd rail of Iliiiham. 



Bed wo r t h 



Sir Hedworth Meux. 

 British sailor 



en 



tered the navy 

 in IsTO. As 

 captain of the 

 l'\\i rful, he 

 landed in S. 

 Africa in IS'.'M 

 with a naval 

 , and 



rendered vita! 

 M-i \ ice durinu 

 the S'-IL"- of l.adv-mith. I'Yom 

 liinl ti be commanded a cruiser 

 squadron, from 1908-10 the 

 ciiina station, and he was com- 

 mander-in-chief at Portsmouth. 

 1912-16. In 1'Jll, on succeeding 

 to the estates of Sir Henry Meux, 

 the brewer, he took that name. He 

 was made a K.C.B. in 1908 and a 

 ( :.( '. M. in 1913. From 1916-18 he 

 \\:>- M.P. for Portsmouth, and he 

 retired from the service in 1921. 



Mevagissey. Fishing town, 

 Cornwall, England. 12 m. E. of 

 Truro, it is a summer resort, and 

 has long been engaged in the pil- 

 chard fishery. There is a good 

 harbour, and a pier, constructed 

 in 1895. Pop. 1,800. 



Mexborough. Urban dist. and 

 market town of Yorkshire (W.R. ) 

 It stands on the Don, 5 m. from 

 Ruthcrham and 11 m. from Shef- 

 field, with stations on the G.C. and 



5379 



Mill. l:!\ Tho chief building in 

 the church <.f S. .liilin the Mapd-t. 

 partly Early KnglNh. There was 

 a castle here in the Middl- 

 The chief industries are ironworkn 

 and the m,iUir_' of pottery and 

 glusH, while mound are coal mines. 

 The council supplies electricity. 

 .Market day. Sat. I'op. 14.400. 



Mexborough, Kuu, OF. Irish 

 title borne since 170(5 by the family 

 of Savilr. The Savilcst are a very 

 old Yorkshire family, and one of 

 them. Sir John Savilr, was M.P. for 

 Union. 1717 .->4. In 1753 he was 

 made an Irish baron, and in 1760 

 earl of Mexborough. He was suc- 

 ceeded by his son John, and then 

 by his grandson, another John 

 (1783-1860). John, the 4th earl 

 (1810-99), was M.P. for Gatton 

 before 1832 and afterwards for 

 Pontefract. In 1916 John Henry 

 (b. 1868) became the 6th earl. The 

 family estates are in Yorkshire, 

 where are the seats, Methley Park, 

 Leeds, and Arden Hall, Helmsley. 

 The earl's eldest son is called 

 Viscount Pollington. 



Mexcala OR MESCALA. River of 

 Mexico. Rising in the state of 

 Tlaxcala and known as the Atoyac 

 in its upper course, it flows for 

 435 m. generally W. to the Pacific. 

 In its lower course it takes the 

 name of Rio de las Balsas and 

 separates the states of Michoacan 

 and Guerrero. The swift current 

 furnishes power for textile mills. 



MEXICO: !N ANCIENT & MODERN TIMES 



O. J. R. Howartli.M.A., Author. Commercial Geography of the World 



The reader should consult the articles on the cities, towns, and rivers ; 



rulers, statesmen, and men of letters of Mexico. See Archaeology ; 



Aztec ; Maya ; also North America 



Mexico is a republic of North 

 America, occupying the southern 

 extension of the continent toward 

 Central America. 

 It lies approxi- 

 mately between 

 14 and 29 N. 

 lat., and between 

 90 and 115 W. 

 long., and has an 

 area of 767,000 

 Mexico arm* S 4- "*. Guadalupe 

 and the Revilla 



Gigedo group, oceanic islands in 

 the Pacific, belong to Mexico, and 

 the possession of another island, 

 Clipperton or Pasion, has been dis- 

 puted with France. Mexico is 

 bounded N. by the United States, 

 the Rio Grande del Norte forming 

 the E. part of the N. frontier ; on 

 the S.E. it is bounded by British 

 Honduras and Guatemala. It has 

 a coast-line of over 1,500 m. on the 

 Atlantic (Gulf of Mexico), and of 

 over 2,000 m. on the Pacific side, 

 the length being enhanced on the 

 one side by the hammer-shaped 



peninsula of Yucatan in the S.E., 

 and on the other by the narrower, 

 longer peninsula of Lower Cali- 

 fornia in the N.W. 



About six-sevenths of Mexico 

 consists of a high plateau, continu- 

 ing that of the S.W. United States, 

 and bordered 

 E., N., and S. 

 by mountains 

 which slope 

 steeply to low 

 coastal plains. 

 The plateau 

 ranges in 

 average ele- 

 vation from 4,000 ft. in the N. to 

 8,000 ft. in the S. ; the E. border- 

 ing mountains (Sierra Madre Orien- 

 tal) form a broken chain with 

 summits up to 10,000 ft. ; the W. 

 (Sierra Madre Occidental), less 

 broken, have a somewhat greater 

 general elevation ; and the S. 

 (Sierra del Sur) range from 7,000 

 up to more than 11,000 ft. 



From the S. part of the plateau 

 itself, a region strongly vol- 



Mexican flag 



MEXICO 



canic, containing craters ntill ac- 

 tive, and subject to earthquake*, 

 a number of peak* riae to much 

 greater height)*, e.g. Orizaba 

 (IH.240 ft.) uri.l Popocatepetl 

 ( 1 7,620 ft. ). Elsewhere the surface 

 of the plateau is much broken ; it 

 contains several inland drainage 

 basins (bolton), notably the Valley 

 of Mexico in the S., containing ex- 

 tensive lakes and marshes ; and the 

 rivers which escape from it to the 

 sea do so by way of falls and 

 ravines, so that access from the 

 coasts is difficult. The plateau falls 

 S.E. to the low Isthmus of Te- 

 huantepec (170 m. wide), and K. of 

 this the land includes, on the 8. 

 the Chiapas highlands (5,000 to 

 8,000 ft. ), and on the N. the low- 

 land of Tabasco and the Yucatan 

 peninsula. 



The largest river on the K. i" 

 the Grande del Norte (1,500 m.). 

 The rivers of the plateau are of 

 most service for power where they 

 fall over its edge, but their flow is 

 irregular according to season, and 

 important power establishments 

 have needed the construction of 

 great dams and reservoirs. The 

 streams of the coastal plains are 

 winding and slow ; some on the E., 

 like the Panuco, Papaloapan, Coat- 

 zacoalcos, and Grijalva, are used 

 for inland navigation, but their 

 mouths are hampered by bars, or 

 need constant dredging. 



The rocks of a greater part of 

 the plateau and the E. Sierra are 

 cretaceous , the W. heights and 

 the S. of the plateau consist mainly 

 of tertiary volcanic rocks. Yucatan 

 consists of sedimentaries of the 

 same period, and the plains have a 

 wide extent of more recent deposits. 



The climate is so markedly in- 

 fluenced by elevation that there is 

 a familiar threefold division of the 

 land (1) the tii-rra caliente, hot 

 land, from the coasts up to Jbout 

 3,000 ft., with a warm, dry winter 

 and hot, wet summer; ('2) the 

 tierra templada, temperate land, 

 from 3,000 to 6,500 ft., free of the 

 excessive summer moisture of the 

 lower levels and the cold winter 

 winds of the higher ; (3) the tierra 

 fria, cold land, above 2. Here 

 frost is rare except at very high 

 elevations, and the name of the 

 zone is only comparative. The 

 chief inland towns are shared be- 

 tween zones 2 and 3 ; the 

 capital, Mexico City, for example, 

 is in the highest, being situated 

 at an altitude of 7,500 ft. The 

 dry season, over most of the 

 country, lasts from Oct. to May ; 

 the wet from June to Sept. Both 

 coastal slopes, especially the 

 Pacific, receive heavy rainfall, but 

 in the N. and N.W. parts of the 

 plateau and in Lower California 



