ttbe Cit^ of Aegfco. 107 



now practically finished. In an article which I published in the 

 Engineering Magazine in January, 1895, I dwelt especially on the work 

 done during four centuries to accomplish that great end. 1 



The prevailing wind in the Valley of Mexico is northwest and 

 north-northwest, which blew 250 times during the year 1883 ; while 

 the southern winds, which are very dry, are rare, as they only blew 5 1 

 times in that year ; but at the same time they have greater velocity 

 than the others, and the greatest relative velocity of the winds is 3.0. 

 The west and northwest winds are very damp. 



At the present stage of industrial development, speaking especially 

 of the Valley of Mexico, the question of a cheaper combustible is the 

 one of supreme importance. In the absence of water-power of im- 

 portance and permanence of volume, the only solution of the problem 

 so vital to the growth of manufactures there lies in procuring abundant 

 and cheap fuel. 



THE CITY OF MEXICO. 



The City of Mexico, located in the western end of the valley, on 

 the Anahuac plateau, at an altitude of 7350 feet above the sea level in 

 19 26' north latitude and 99 07' 53* .4 longitude west of Greenwich, 

 covering about twenty square miles, is one of the most ancient cities 

 of this continent, was the capital of the Aztec Empire, of the Spanish 

 Colony of New Spain and now of the Mexican Republic, and of the 

 Federal District of Mexico. 



Mexico dates either from the year 1325 or 1327, when the Aztecs, 

 after long wanderings over the plateau were directed by the oracle to 

 settle at this spot. For here had been witnessed the auspicious omen 

 of an eagle perched on a nopal (cactus) and devouring a snake. Hence 

 the original name of the city, Tenochtitlan (cactus on a stone), changed 

 afterwards to Mexico in honor of the war god Mexitli. The eagle 

 holding a snake in her beak and standing on a cactus upon a stone, is 

 the coat-of-arms of the Mexican Republic. With the progress of the 

 Aztec culture the place rapidly improved, and about 1450 the old mud 

 and rush houses were replaced by solid stone structures, erected partly 

 on piles amid the islets of Lake Texcoco, and grouped around the cen- 

 tral enclosure of the great teocalli. The city had reached its highest 

 splendor on the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519, when it comprised 

 from 50,000 to 60,000 houses, with perhaps 500,000 inhabitants, and 

 seemed to Cortes, according to Prescott's, " like a thing of fairy crea- 

 tion rather than the work of mortal hands." It was at that time 

 about T2 miles in circumference, everywhere intersected by canals, 

 and connected with the mainland by six long and solidly constructed 

 causeways, as is clearly shown by the plan given in the edition of 



1 That article is appended to this paper. 



