GEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONS OF MEXxIco. 345 
The name of New Spain was at first given in 
1518 to the province of Yucatan, where the com- 
panions of Grijalva were astonished at the civilisa- 
tion of the inhabitants. Cortez employed it to de- 
note the whole empire of Montezuma, though it was 
subsequently used in various senses. Humboldt 
designates by it the vast country which has for its 
northern and southern limits the parallels of 38° 
and 16°. The length of this region from S.S.E. 
to N.N.W. is nearly 1678 miles ; its greatest breadth 
994 miles. The isthmus of Tehuantepec, to the 
south-east of the port of Vera Cruz, is the narrowest 
part; the distance from the Atlantic Ocean to the 
South Sea being there only 155 miles. The question 
of opening a communication by a canal between the 
two oceans at this point, the isthmus of Panama, 
or several others which he mentions, is fully dis- 
cussed by the author. He discredits the idea that 
the level of the South Sea is higher than that of 
the Gulf of Mexico, and imagines that were a rup- 
ture of the intervening barrier effected, the current 
would establish itself in the direction opposite to 
that usually apprehended. 
When a general view is taken of the whole sur- 
face of Mexico, it is seen that one-half is situated 
within the tropic, while the rest belongs to the tem- 
perate zone. This latter portion contains 775,019 
square miles. The physical climate of a country 
does not altogether depend upon its distance from the 
pole, but also upon its elevation, its proximity to the 
ocean, and other circumstances ; so that of the 645,850 
square miles in the torrid zone, more than three- 
fifths have a cold, or at least temperate atmosphere. 
The whole interior of Mexico, in fact, constitutes 
