TAMPICO ALTA. 



39 



The ordinary road from Tampico to the capital is a 

 very circuitous one, passing by the towns of San Luis 

 Potisij Zacatecas, and Guanaxuato ; and we had decided 

 to leave it far to the right or northwest : pursuing as 

 an alternative the more direct, more difficult, but far 

 more picturesque mule track of the Canada. 



I may here, without offending you, bring to your recol- 

 lection thus much of the physical geography of the re- 

 markable country which was now the scene of our ram- 

 bles ; namely, that its peculiar geological structure admits 

 of its surface being divided into three distinct parts — the 

 tierras calientes, tierras templadas, and tierras frias. 

 The first, the hot districts, lying on the Pacific and Atlan- 

 tic border, and in greater or less contiguity to the sea, 

 are fertile in sugar, indigo, bananas, and cotton ; and ex- 

 hibit all the phenomena of the tropics. The second, the 

 temperate lands, forming a zone of mountains and broad 

 plains of four or five thousand feet elevation, are blessed 

 with a climate of rare beauty, and favourable to many of 

 the productions of our milder latitudes, while the third, the 

 cold regions, occupying the central table land of the high 

 Cordillera, are exposed to greater vicissitudes of heat and 

 cold, and overlooked by the highest summits of the 

 Mexican chain, rising into the region of eternal snow. 

 Our progress from Tampico to the capital, which lies at 

 an elevation of upward of seven thousand feet above the 

 gulf, would accordingly give us a glance at each in turn. 



As our line of route has not been often described, I 

 will give you as much detail as I am able. The in- 

 correctness of the best maps, and the difficulty of getting 

 two people of the country to agree in assigning the same 

 relative position to any given town or remarkable object 

 beyond the bare line of the route, must necessarily throw 

 a degree of indistinctness over my narration. 



Imagine us, then, mounted and setting forward from 

 our homely quarters at Tampico Alta, like gentle knights, 

 » attended by our string of sumpter mules and serving men. 

 I flatter myself that to a peaceful looker-on w r e afforded 

 a gallant spectacle, and that our motley contrasted well 



