452 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



San Juanito o 

 LasTresMarias^ o SanB i a 

 200 30 "Miramarfe 



STATUTE MILES 



Drawn by James M. Darley 



THE WEST COAST OF MEXICO 



"The nine States of Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Guerrero, Colima, Michoacan, Oaxaca, 

 and Chiapas rim the Pacific coast-line, while Durango corners over the Sierra Madres, so that 

 it may be considered a west-coast State" (see text, page 453). 



which was concealed by the Spanish 

 friars just before they were wiped out by 

 a reversion of their converts to ancient 

 form. 



A century or so later a searcher in 

 the monastic archives in Madrid found 

 the story. By this time the very exist- 

 ence of the old mine had been forgotten. 

 "One can see the opening of the tunnel 

 from the door of the church," the priestly 

 writing ran. 



Scores of prospectors took sights from 

 the doorway without success. Then a bit 

 of plaster fell away from an old wall and 

 revealed a forgotten door, bricked up and 

 covered over. 



The one old-timer who remembered 

 the legend brought out his glasses and 

 searched the hills. Sure enough, far up 

 on the side of a canyon he saw something 



which seemed worth investigating, 

 was the gateway to the lost mine. 



It 



THE WEST COAST HAS BEEN SOMEWHAT 

 IMMUNE TO POLITICAL FEVERS 



The west coast of Mexico is approxi- 

 mately two thousand miles long, from 

 Tiajuana, on the United States border, 

 to the river Suchiate, below the Isthmus 

 of Tehuantepec, which marks the border 

 of Guatemala. 



For a great part of this length it is cut 

 off from the central portion of Mexico 

 by the Sierra Madres. There are plenty 

 of passes, of course, but the barrier 

 exists. 



As one consequence of this partial iso- 

 lation, the west coast relationship to the 

 United States is somewhat closer than is 

 that of the remainder of Mexico. Amer- 



