JALA PA, 



215 



a flowing mantle, with its silver and purple folds and its 

 fringe of ice. 



There are again, for the reason stated, few positions 

 in which your eye will command, at the same time, the 

 rich and gorgeous vegetation of the lower slopes of the 

 Mexican Cordillera, and the sublimity of the superior 

 ranges. The vast sheets of the barren table land are in- 

 terposed, the tierras templadas separate the calientes 

 from the frias. Each has its peculiar characteristics, 

 but they can seldom, if ever, be comprised in one and 

 the same picture. 



You look in vain among all the exuberant forest growth 

 and the giant flora of Mexico, for the sweet cheering 

 freshness of Alpine vegetation; that luxuriance without 

 rankness, which clothes the lower valleys. 



From this you will see, that where the two chains 

 might be supposed to have points of resemblance, they 

 have little or none. 



Besides that, in the style of its vegetation, both in the 

 torrid and temperate regions, the plains and their pe- 

 culiar characteristics, the prodigious barrancas, the whole 

 series of volcanic phenomena, which prevade the country, 

 from the sands of the coast to the craters of the highest 

 volcanoes, as well as in colouring, the more prominent 

 features of Mexico are so marked and so utterly dif- 

 ferent, that they extinguish the idea of comparison. 



Suppose us now at Jalapa, a picturesque town situ- 

 ated high upon the broken sides of the huge mountain 

 rampart which serves as a base for the great chain of 

 the eastern branch of the Cordilleras. A lovelier sight, 

 and more beautiful scenery, you need not seek in the 

 torrid zone ! Below you, a steep descent leads rapidly 

 down the verdant and fresh slopes, towards the shore of 

 the gulf, which is just visible from the highest parts of 

 the town, at the distance of twenty leagues and upward. 

 Above you rises ridge above ridge, crowned by the 

 CofFre de Perote ; and yet farther to the southward, by 

 the magnificent snow-covered summit of Orizava,* in 



* Height of Orizava, 17,375 feet, 



