100 MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES, 



Chihuahua, Durango. 



On the east slope of the Sierra INFarlre, the chief city in North Mexico is 

 Chihuahua, yvhrdh is A'ariuusly explained to mean the "City of Water" or the 

 " City of Pleasure." It stands at a meun altitude of 4,600 feet at the foot of the 

 lofty Cerro Grande, between two streams whose united waters form the Conchos 

 affluent of the Rio Bravo del Norte. An aqueduct derived from one of these 

 streams winds round the flanks of the mountain, separating the region of scrub 

 from the irrigated fields and gardens of the slopes. Chihuahua is a decayed place, 

 which in the last century, during the flourishing period of the surrounding mines, 

 is said to have had a population of 75,000, that is, about six times more than at 

 present. The cathedral, erected and long maintained at the cost of the miners, 

 is an imposing structure towering above all the surrounding buildings. Here 

 is also a mint, which has become the third most important in Mexico since the 

 work of exploring the metalliferous lodes has been resumed by American miners. 

 The ores which supply the Chihuahua mint come chiefly from the deposits of 

 Santa Enlalia, a village lying about 20 miles to the south-east in a narrow glen 

 flanked by inhabited caves. The argentiferous lodes of Santa Eulalia have 

 already furnished to the trade of the world a quantity of silver estimated at 

 £28,000,000. The ore is poor, but occurs in great abundance, so that when the 

 deposits are not worked by companies the so-called gamhu^iinos, or private miners, 

 find enough metal to earn a livelihood. The very slag, which has been used to 

 build hundreds of houses in Chihuahua, or to enclose fields and gardens, is said 

 still to contain a percentage of silver valued at not less than £80,000,000, so that 

 it has been proposed to submit it to a further process of reduction. 



Another decayed place is Cosihuiriach/\ which lies some 60 miles to the south- 

 west in a valley of the Sierra Madre, and which during the last century had a 

 population of over 80,000. Batopilas, which stands in the upper basin of the Rio 

 del Fuerte within the Chihuahua frontier, has yielded altogether £12,000,000 

 during the 250 years that have followed the discovery of its deposits. Scarcely 

 less productive than the Batopilas mines are those of Guadalupe y Cairo, in the 

 Sinaloa river basin at the south corner of the state. 



The eastern section of Chihuahua is an almost completely desert region, 

 whereas the western zone, comprising the slope of the Sierra Madre, is a land 

 of mines and forests, of grassy heights and arable tracts. Here is ample room 

 for a large pojiulation, and in the upland valleys stock-breeding and horticulture 

 might be successfully carried on. Nearly all the towns in the state, San 

 Pablo Meoqui, Santa Cruz de liosales, Santa Romlia, Hidalgo del Pr/rrr//, follow 

 in the direction from north to south parallel with the Sierra Madre, and lie 

 at the issue of the various fluvial valleys, whose streams form the Rio Conchos. 

 The railway from Denver City to Mexico traverses the state in the same direc- 

 tion, and penetrates into Mexican territory through the historic town of Paso 

 del Norte, which stands on the right bank of the Rio Bravo at the point where 

 this river becomes the common frontier between the two republics. Paso is 



