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INTENDANCY OF GUANAXUATO. 367 
catepetl. A great portion, however, consists of an 
elevated plain, on which are cultivated wheat, maize, 
agave, and fruit-trees. 
The population is concentrated on this table-land, 
extending from the eastern slope of the Nevados, or 
Snowy Mountains, to the vicinity of Perote. It 
exhibits remarkable vestiges of ancient Mexican ci- 
vilisation. The great pyramid of Cholula has a 
much larger base than any edifice of the kind in 
the Old Continent, its horizontal breadth being not 
less than 1440 feet ; but its present height is only 
fifty-nine yards, while the platform on its summit 
has a surface of 45,210 feet. 
At the village of Atlixco is seen a cypress (Cu- 
pressus disticha) 76 feet in circumference, which 
is probably one of the oldest vegetable monuments 
on the globe.* There are very considerable salt- 
works in this intendancy, and a beautiful marble is 
quarried in the vicinity of Puebla. The principal 
towns are that just named, containing a population 
of 67,800, Cholula, Tlascala, and Atlixco. 
3. The intendancy of Guanaxuato, situated on 
the ridge of the cordillera of Anahuac, is the most 
populous in New Spain, and contains three cities, 
Guanaxuato, Celayo, and Salvatierra, four towns, 
37 villages, and 448 farms or haciendas. It is in 
* «“ On entering the gardens of Chapultepec (near Mexico), the 
first object that strikes the eye is the magnificent cypress (Sabino 
Ahuahuete, or Cupressus disticha), dalled the Cypress of Mon- 
tezuma. It had attained its full growth when that monarch was 
on the throne (1520), so that it must now be at least 400 years 
old, yet it still retains all the vigour of youthful vegetation. The 
trunk is 4] feet in circumference, yet the height is so majestic as tu 
make even this enormous mass appear slender.”_Ward’s Mexico 
in 1827, vol. ii. p. 230. The same author mentions another cypress, 
38 feet in girth, and of equal height to that of Montezuma. 
