124 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AMEEICA, "WEST INDIES. 



ginous waters, are crowned by the cliurcli of Guadalupe, formerly one of the 

 richest in the world, but now spoiled of its treasures by the National Government. 

 The Virgin of Guadalupe is the special patron of the Indians, while Our Lady 

 de los Eemedios was formerly regarded as the tutelar saint of the Spaniards. 

 Under the old régime an incessant struggle was carried on between the devotees 

 of the two sanctuaries ; but the war of independence secured the definite triumph 

 of Guadalupe, so that religion and patriotism are now merged in a single cult. 



On the west side of Lake Texcoco, east of the capital, a volcanic eminence 

 rises above the saline waste, which is made a receptacle for the refuse of the 



Fig. 49. — Tlalpam axd Lake Xochimilco. 

 Scale 1 : 190.000. 



3 ililes. 



n-iohbourin? towns. The Peiion de los Banos, as this eminence is called, is the 

 source of a copious ferruginous spring, and here geologists have found some 

 fossil human remains. 



The Yiga Canal, whose waters reach the capital at its south-east extremity, 

 is derived from Lake Xochimilco, or the " Flower-garden," one of the southern 

 basins of the Mexican valley. This canal traverses a low-lying district cultivated 

 by Indian maiket-gardeners, and their plots are commonly designated by the 

 same term, ehinampas, which was also applied to the floating islands of the Aztecs, 

 formerly moored in hundreds on the surface of Lake Texcoco. But Lake Chalco, 

 or the "Emerald," forming an eastern continuation of Xochimilco and encircling 

 a cone with a perfectly regular crater, bears in this respect a much more close 



