428 Miscellaneous. | 
dering the Gulf of Mexico. They are about twenty-five miles in 
width, extending back to the Plan del Rio by a gradual ascent of 
thirty feet per mile, with but few elevations or depressions, except 
at the river Antigua, and other small streams which pass through 
them in a north-easterly direction. Beyond the Plan del Rio the 
ascent increases over a regular succession of hills and plains, until 
you reach the foct of the range of mountains in which the peaks of 
Orizaba, Perote and others are situated. This range forms the rim 
or eastern boundary of the plains of Anahuac, which are more com- — 
monly known as the tierra templada, and are about thirty-five miles 
in width. The sides and top of this mountain-range are called the 
tierra fria, immediately beyond which lie the great table-lands of 
Mexico. 
The table-lands extend, with little or no variation in their general 
level, to the Cordilleras bordering the Pacific Ocean, though they are 
divided into several plains by ranges of volcanos and porphyritic 
rocks. 
The tierra caliente is bordered on the Gulf of Mexico by low 
sand-hills, from four to six miles in width, not bare, as has been re- 
presented, but covered with a thick chapparel, or thicket of Cacti 
and thorn-bushes, to within reach of the water. Great numbers of 
freshwater and land shells are found on these hills and on the 
beach, thrown up from the Gulf, which may be referred to living 
species. 
After passing these hills a few miles, I noticed at one locality a 
layer of limestone. It is covered by a coarse conglomerate of vol- 
canic and porphyritic rocks, which extends over the whole upper part 
of the tierra caliente, rendering the surface rough and stony. At the 
Puenta Nacional it is exposed to the depth of 200 feet, interstra- 
tified irregularly with veins of fine sandstone. Deep gullies are worn 
through it to the rivers, by the drainage of the plains during the wet 
season. ‘The rivers are the only source of irrigation, receiving no 
supplies in their course from the mountains to the coast. 
The greater part of the plains is covered with a dense growth of 
vegetation, so thick that it would seem almost impossible for the soil 
to support more, and the trees and bushes are loaded with an innu- 
merable variety of parasitical plants and vines, interlacing and bind- 
ing them together in such a manner as to render them absolutely 
impenetrable. On other parts, particularly between the conglomerate 
and the coast, the chapparel is more open, dotted with clumps of low 
dwarfish trees and Cacti, and affords grazing to herds of half-wild 
cattle, in which the property of the inhabitants principally consists. 
To the south of Vera Cruz the cultivation of cotton has been intro- 
duced ; it is of white fine quality, but perhaps, from want of proper 
cultivation, the staple is very short, so that when worked it requires 
to be mixed with other varieties. 
The inhabitants live mostly on the small bottom lands of the rivers, 
their crops consisting of corn, chili, and frijoles. They are a puny 
and sickly people, being subject to intermittent and typhoid fevers 
during the months after the close of the wet season. Though the 
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