178 The National Geographic Magazine 



The development of our telegraphs 

 has kept pace with the railroads, and 

 today there is not a place of any impor- 

 tance that is not connected telegraphic- 

 ally with the rest of the republic. 



Our telegraphic lines are divided into 

 four different branches — federal lines, 

 state lines, private company lines, and 

 railroad lines — and the federal lines last 

 November had an extension of 45,740 

 kilometers, or 28,421 English miles. 

 President Diaz in his last report men- 

 tions only the federal lines, but, accord- 

 ing to the statistical annuary , of the state 

 lines there were, on December i, 1898, 

 8 , 659.4 kilometers ; of lines belonging to 

 private companies, 3,690.240 kilome- 

 ters, and of railroad lines, 11,198.195 

 kilometers. Adding these lines to the 

 45,740 kilometers of federal wire and we 

 have a total of 69,287.881 kilometers, or 

 about 43,053 miles. 



The extension of telephone lines in 

 December, 1898, was 28,433 kilometers, 

 but in the last two years many more 

 lines have been constructed, and we can 

 estimate that there are now 30,000 kilo- 

 meters, equivalent to about 18,641 En- 

 glish miles. The number of messages 

 transmitted by federal telegraph only 

 during the year 1 892-' 93 were 1,083,359, 

 and during the last j^ear, 1 899-1 900, 

 this number had more than doubled. 



The federal offices in the capital and 

 other principal ones are open day and 

 night, and the night sendee has been 

 so well patronized by the public that it 

 covered its expenses almost immediately 

 after being established. 



Our telegraph lines are connected at 

 different points with those of the United 

 States and by two submarine cables — 

 one from Galveston to Tampico and the 

 other from Tampico to Vera Cruz. 

 Through the United States we are in 

 communication with any part of Europe, 

 while the United States, through our 

 telegraph lines from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific Ocean and a cable from Salina 

 Cruz to Libertad, communicates with 



the greater part of South America as 

 far as Brazil and Chile, and by land 

 with Guatemala and the other Central 

 American republics. We have one 

 telegraph cable at Alvarado Bar, and 

 three others between Tuxtepec and 

 Cosamaloapam, another between Cham- 

 poton and Campeche, and one between 

 San Juan Bautista and Nopalapam. 



Our government has established a 

 school of telegraphy where girls receive 

 gratuitous instruction. 



Our postal system is continually 

 studied and improved, and the results 

 obtained are of the most gratifying 

 order. The number of offices in 1900 

 was 1,972, including 96 on railroad 

 cars. 



The public works completed and those 

 in the course of construction are too 

 numerous to mention. Two, however, 

 the drainage canal of the valley and city 

 of Mexico and the great docks and 

 wharves in the port of Vera Cruz, de- 

 serve special consideration, because of 

 their colossal magnitude and importance. 



The city of Mexico is situated in an 

 extensive and beautiful level valley, 

 surrounded by lofty mountains. There 

 is no natural exit for the water that 

 pours from the mountains or for the 

 refuse of a large city. In consequence 

 the inhabitants were exposed to the 

 perils of floods which at different times 

 in the past became a reality. The Span- 

 ish Government early took the matter 

 in hand and approved the project of the 

 celebrated engineer, Enrico Martinez. 

 He constructed the gigantic cut now in 

 existence and known by the name of 

 ' ' Tajo de Nochistongo. ' ' But, although 

 that work had averted the danger from 

 the side of Cuautitlan, deviating the 

 course of the river of that name, it did 

 not solve the whole problem. The so- 

 lution as completed was first proposed 

 by another Spanish engineer, Simon 

 Mendez, whose plans, with some modi- 

 fications, constitute the work now fin- 

 ished. 



