64 TROPICAL HIGHLANDS. 



an exaggerated notion of its unhealthy character. 

 But as means of communication improve, affording 

 facilities for pushing rapidly in to the elevated table- 

 lands of the interior, we venture to predict that we 

 shall hear less of the supposed peculiarly deadly na- 

 ture of the African climate. 



In other more favoured regions of the tropical world, 

 the mountain ranges of the interior throw out spurs 

 towards the coast, so that sometimes a very short 

 journey brings the traveller to high and healthy sta- 

 tions, where in the midst of a delicious climate, closely 

 resembling that of a perennial spring, he can look 

 down upon the fertile lowlands, clothed in all the 

 magnificence of tropical vegetation, and reside in 

 safety, as long as he pleases, above the reach of their 

 baneful vapours. Some of those charming spots may 

 be set down (so far as climate is concerned) as the 

 nearest approach that can be found upon earth to a 

 terrestrial Paradise where flowers perpetually bloom. 



The tropical regions of Central and South America 

 have been specially favoured by Nature in this respect, 

 and nowhere is this more the case than in the Repub- 

 lic of Mexico, which is at once one of the richest and 

 most beautiful countries in the world. The effects of 

 elevation in modifying climate are there exhibited 

 under such striking conditions that we could not do 

 better than give a short sketch of the climate of Mexico, 

 as a good illustration of tropical nature in general. 



Mexico is divided by the natives into three zones 

 the "Tierra Caliente " (or hot zone), the " Tierra 

 Templada" (temperate), and " Fria " (cold). The 

 Tierra Caliente comprises all the low-lying, hot, 

 damp regions on the seaboard, upon the east 



