MODES OF TRAVELLING AND TRANSPORTATION LITERA. 341 



1,000 feet lower than the surrounding county, it nevertheless occu- 

 pies a considerable elevation above the sea. 



The soil in the Bolson is less sandy and of a better quality than 

 in the higher country. Besides wheat and corn, a quantity of cot- 

 ton is raised in the valley of the river, and wine has been success- 

 fully tried. The climate is represented to be so mild, that the root 

 of the cotton plant is seldom destroyed in winter, and thrives for 

 many years. 



We have dwelt upon the character and qualities of this extraor- 

 dinary depression among the mountain ridges of northern Mexico, 

 because we believe that when it is finally explored, the savages ex- 

 terminated, and the country opened to the advance of civilization, 

 El Bolson de Mapimi may become one of the most important and 

 perhaps fruitful basins among the temperate lands of Mexico. 



CONCLUSION. 



We have completed the proposed task of sketching the history 

 and geography of Mexico, accompanied by notices of its social and 

 political condition, and of the remains of antiquity sprinkled over 

 its territory. We acknowledge the imperfection of the work, and 

 its unsatisfactoriness even to ourselves. But we have diligently 

 searched the best authorities that could be obtained at home and 

 abroad, and, while we have omitted nothing that might be relied on 

 for the purpose of displaying the physical and intellectual character 

 of the country and people, we have endeavored to indicate clearly 

 those historical antecedents and geographical peculiarities upon 

 which the future progress or decline of the nation is to be founded. 



Perhaps no countries are more difficult for full and minute de- 

 scription, in their present social state, than Mexico and the South 

 American nations. Mexico, as we have seen, is a mountain coun- 

 try, with very few navigable streams opening the interior to travel- 

 lers, and with badly constructed roads, which were scarcely adequate 

 for the most needful transportation required for the subsistence of 

 the people. As soon as the way-farer left the coasts of the Gulf or 

 of the Pacific he penetrated the glens of lofty mountains, or slowly 

 toiled along the inclined plains of their precipitous sides. Wide 

 levels opened in the interior, at considerable distances, but these 

 were separated by ridges of the Cordillera which were, in fact, ram- 

 parts capable of defending a warlike people almost without the aid 

 of military improvement. Until within a few years, the back of a 

 horse or of a mule; an old fashioned Litera swung between two beasts 

 2r 



