536 



MEXICO. 



London, to offer 18,000,000 in bonds, instead 

 of 20,000,000. The offer was refused, and 

 Rivas was instructed to suspend negotiations 

 and return to Mexico. The Government de- 

 clares that it is anxious to settle, but considers 

 the demand of the bondholders exorbitant. 

 Even before negotiations were broken off, Mexi- 

 can securities had become very much depressed 

 in London. The Mexican Secretary of the 

 Treasury stated, on Nov. 24, 1883, that the 

 debt which has been the subject of negotiation 

 in London does not include the convention 

 debt, which consists of the recognized bonded 

 claims of British subjects. 



Nickel Coin. Under date of Nov. 29, 1883, it 

 was reported from the city of Mexico that con- 

 siderable confusion, had been caused in retail 

 commercial circles there by the large amount 

 of nickel coin in circulation. Congress was 

 discussing a law to regulate the nickel coinage 

 and determine the extent to which it shall be 

 made a legal tender. On November 28th a 

 protest against the abuses occasioned by the 

 nickel had appeared, and was signed by many 

 persons. The proposed law only authorizes 

 the coinage of 4,000,000 nickels among 10,000,- 

 000 people. The main objection seems to be, 

 that the introduction of the new currency has 

 been made awkwardly, and many say, un- 

 fairly. Instead of allowing the people to be- 

 come gradually accustomed to the new coins, 

 all at once the country has been flooded with 

 nickel. 



The Postal Service. The business of the Mexi- 

 can post-office has greatly increased since the 

 reduction of domestic postage from twenty cents 

 to ten cents. Number of post-offices, 836; 

 53 of which are chief offices, 267 express offices, 

 and 516 agencies. Number of letters dispatched 

 in 1881-'82: In the interior, 3,831,829, with- 

 out counting 79,627 registered ones; sent 

 abroad, 411,326, besides 3,596 registered ; post- 

 al-cards, 7,081; together, 4,335,459 letters; 

 newspapers, 2,943,880; samples, 8,053; total, 

 7,287,392 items of mail matter, against 6,462,- 

 307 in 1880-'81. Amount of postage collected, 

 $723,079, against $641,067 in 1880-'81. 



Telegraphs. There is great activity in tele- 

 graph-construction. Nearly 18,000 miles of 

 wire are in operation, and the telephone sys- 

 tem is extensive and increasing rapidly. Length 

 of wire of Government lines in July, 1883, 

 18,263 kilometres; of States, 1,484; private, 

 3,502; of railroads, 4,000; and cables, 875; 

 together, 28,124 kilometres, equal to 17,718 

 miles. In 1881 there were only 17,061 kilo- 

 metres ; the increase in two years has there- 

 fore been 11,063 kilometres. Number of of- 

 fices, 282; messages forwarded in 1880, 744,- 

 917 ; net earnings, $399,814. 



There are in Mexico twenty-three telephone 

 offices, with 1 600 instruments; the office in 

 the city of Mexico has 700 subscribers. 



Railroads. The Mexican railway system in 

 operation in the summer of 1883 was the fol- 

 lowing: 



AMERICAN LINES. MUeg. 



Mexico to Aguascalientes, with branches (Central) 845 



El Paso to Durango (Central) 482 



Tampico westward (Central) 62 



Guaymas to Nogales (.connected with Central) 265 



Mexico to Morelia (National) 227 



Laredo to Baltillo (National) 220 



Lines not yet connected (National) 178 



Altata to Culiacan (Sinaloa to Durango) 88 



Eagle Pass to Durango (Huntington ) 78 



Total 1,840 



ENGLISH LINE. 



Vera Cruz to Mexico (Mexican Railway) 853 



MEXICAN LINES. 



Mexico to Cuantla and branches (Morelos) 



Yucatan line 



Hidalgo line 



Several small lines 



Tehuantepec (bought back from Americans) 



Total. 



Grand total . 



... 188 



68 

 56 

 : . . 800 



28 



635 



... 2,828 



Both the Central and National obtained their 

 concessions in September, 1881, and began to 

 work in the month following. The portion in 

 operation of these two lines, taken together as 

 given above, represents a value of $60,000,000. 

 The railroad prize of the near future is said to 

 be the trunk line south of the city of Mexico. 

 The Boston syndicate, controlling the Mexican 

 Central, hope to push southward from Mexico. 

 The Mexican Southern, Grant and Gould's 

 consolidation, is designed for a trunk line 

 through the southern Mexican States. 



Antiquities. The pyramid of Cheops is said 

 to be dwarfed by the one discovered in the 

 midst of virgin forest in 1883, near Magdalena, 

 Mexico. It is said to have a base of 1,350 feet, 

 and to be 750 feet high. There is a winding 

 roadway from the bottom, leading by an easy 

 grade to the top, wide enough for carriages 

 to pass over, said to be twenty- three miles 

 long. The outer walls of the roadway are 

 laid in solid masonry, huge blocks of granite 

 in rubble- work, and the circles are as uniform 

 and the grade as regular as they could be made 

 by our best engineers. The wall is only occa- 

 sionally exposed, being covered over with de- 

 bris and earth, and in many places the sahuaro 

 and other plants have grown up, giving the 

 pyramid the appearance of a mountain. 



At a recent meeting of the California Acad- 

 emy of Sciences, at San Francisco, Eusebio 

 Molera read a paper on the Aztec calendar, or 

 Mexican calendar- stone, from which an in- 

 sight has been obtained of the extent of the 

 astronomical knowledge of the Aztecs. The 

 stone was unearthed in the city of Mexico on 

 Sept. 17, 1790, and was placed in the wall at 

 the base of one of the towers of the cathedral, 

 where it remains to this day. The stone is 

 eleven feet nine inches in diameter, and origi- 

 nally weighed twenty-four tons. The conjec- 

 tures of antiquaries in relation to this object 

 were re viewed by Mr. Molera. who thinks it was 

 designed for one of the sacrificial stones on 

 which captives were slain, their hearts being 

 offered to the sun. He believed it was con- 



