MEXICAN HISTORY AND ARCHEOLOGY. 9 



Yucatan, whirl the shifting bed of the sea in continual eddies at the mouths of the 

 few rivers that pour into it, and create the formidable bars and shoals which make 

 the eastern coast so dangerous an anchorage. But on the west, the shores of the 

 Pacific are favored with tranquil and commodious havens, while numerous indenta- 

 tions break the rugged outline of the coast with landlocked bays. 



The voyager may sail from the extreme eastern shores of our continent to the 

 very centre of the Mexican Gulf-coast, along a low sandy beach, visible only at a 

 short distance from the sea; but as he advances to that point, the snowy peak of 

 Orizaba, towering seventeen thousand feet above the ocean, looms up in the distance 

 like an outpost sentinel of Mexico, indicating his approach to the dividing ridge of 

 lofty mountains. The vast Cordillera which rises near the Frozen Sea, descends 

 southward in a series of mighty waves through the whole of this continent, until 

 it is lost in the ocean at Cape Horn ; while at the Isthmus which links the great 

 body of North to South America, it parts the two seas that strive to meet across 

 this narrowest portion of the Western World. Between the 16th and 33d degrees 

 of north latitude, this mountain range sends forth a multitude of spurs and 

 branches, and, within that confined space, piled on a massive base of sierras, 

 rising from the Atlantic till they reach the height of nearly eighteen thousand feet, 

 and thence plunging westward into the Pacific, is the territory of> Mexico, hung 

 upon these sloping cliffs, and resting among the sheltered recesses of their upland 

 valleys. 



Two important rivers may be said to form the natural northern boundary of this 

 region. The snow that melts on the Sierra Nevada, descends, one-half to feed the 

 fountains-of the Kio Grande, which winds through an immense extent of country 

 before it falls into the Gulf of Mexico — and one-half to swell the Colorado of Cali- 

 fornia, before it reaches the Pacific through the Sea of Cortez. The sources of these 

 two streams nearly meet at the same mountain, in the neighborhood of the fortieth 

 degree ; but the configuration of the earth essentially varies between the northern 

 and southern sides of these rivers. From their northern banks the land recedes in 

 comparative levels, interspersed with arid wastes and prairies, sloping gradually to 

 the Pacific and Atlantic; while from their southern banks the country almost 

 directly breaks into the steeps of the Sierra Nevada, whose multiplied veins enlace 

 the whole of Mexico with a massive network. Uncertain streams — none of which 

 are navigable, and all dependent on rain for their floods — pour down the pre- 

 cipitous defiles, on their way to the seas. As the centre of this territory is ap- 

 proached, the naked Cordilleras become loftier and loftier, as if to guard, with double 

 security, the heart of the nation ; while, in the midst of this sublime congregation 

 of mountains, rise still more majestic peaks crowned with eternal snow, presiding 

 over the beautiful valley of Anahuac, wherein the ancient Aztec capital nestled 

 on the border of its crystal lake. Flanked by two oceans, and rising from both to 

 the rich plateaus of the table-land, Mexico possesses, on both acclivities, all the 

 temperatures of the world, and ranges from the orange and plantain on the sea- 

 shore, to eternal ice on the precipices that overhang the higher valleys. Change 

 of climate is attained merely by ascending, and, in a region where the country rises 

 steeply, the broad-leaved aloe and feathery palm may be seen relieved against the 



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