306 



INTENDANCY OF MEXICO. 



Intendancy 

 ijf Mexico. 



\'aUcy of 

 ile.\ico. 



CEAP.xxiv. we shall select from his descriptions those parts which 

 may prove most interesting to the general reader. 



1. The Intendancy of Mexico is entirely within the 

 torrid zone. IVIore than two-thirds of it is mountainous, 

 and contains extensive plains elevated from 6661 to 7546 

 feet above the sea. Only one summit, the Ncvado de 

 Tolucca, 16,156 feet in height, enters the region of 

 perpetual snow. 



The valley of Mexico, or Tenochtitlan, which is of an 

 oval form, is situated in the centre of the cordillera of 

 Anahuac, and is 63 miles in length by 43 in breadth. 

 It is surrounded by a ridge of mountains, more elevated 

 on the southern side, where it is confined by the great 

 volcanoes of La Puebla, Popocatepetl, and Iztaccihuatl. 

 The capital stands in the immediate vicinity of one of 

 the great lakes which exist in this beautiful valley, 

 althougli formerly it was placed on an island in that 

 slieet of water, and communicated with the shore by 

 three great dikes. This city is represented by Hum- 

 boldt as one of the finest ever built by Europeans in 

 either hemisphere, and all travellers agree in admiring 

 its beauty. " From an eminence," says Captain Lyon 

 in his interesting Journal, " we came suddenly in sight 

 of the great valley of Mexico, with its beautiful city 

 appearing in the centre surrounded by diverging shady 

 pase'os, bright fields, and picturesque haciendas. The 

 great lake of Tezcuco lay immediately beyond it, shaded 

 by a low floating cloud of exhalations from its surface, 

 which liid from our view the bases of the volcanoes of 

 Popocatepetl and Iztacciliuatl ; while their snowy sum- 

 mits, brightly glowing beneath the direct rays of the 

 sun, which but partially illumined the plains, gave a 

 delightfully novel appearance to the whole scene before 

 me. I was, however, at this distance, disappointed as 

 to tlie size of Mexico ; but its lively wliiteness and 

 freedom from smoke, the magnitude of the churches, 

 and the extreme regularity of its structure, gave it an 

 appearance which can never be seen in a European city, 

 and declare it unique, perhaps unequalled in its kind." 



Its appear- 

 ance. 



