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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



■- 3 >'- v. 



CARRIAGE IN THE) BATTLE OE FLOWERS, CITY OF MEXICO, MAY, IO,IO, DECORATED IN 

 RED, WHITE, AND GREEN, THE NATIONAL COLORS 



Prominent Mexicans vie with each other in the floral ornamentation of their automobiles 

 and carriages, and in the latter part of the day the congestion of vehicles demands slow 

 movement and gives opportunity for friends in passing to bombard one another with flowers. 



The mountainous ridge with limited 

 littorals, which as a narrow peninsula 

 extends southward about 750 miles from 

 the United States boundary and sepa- 

 rates the Gulf of California from the 

 Pacific Ocean, is not a State, but is recog- 

 nized as the territory of Baja California, 

 which in area (58,000 square miles) 

 closely approximates that of Florida. 

 The Gulf of California and the shifting 

 Colorado River practically isolate Baja 

 California from the balance of the Re- 

 public and prevent overland communica- 

 tion with it. Tepic, on the Pacific coast 

 (11,000 square miles), smaller than 

 Maryland, and Quintana Roo, adjoining 

 Yucatan, are other territories. 



The average density of population in 



the Republic approximates 20 per square 

 mile, the most thickly inhabited portions 

 (outside of the Federal district) being 

 the States of Tlaxcala and Mexico ; the 

 former (1,500 square miles) the smallest 

 of the Mexican subdivisions (less than 

 Delaware in size and of about the same 

 density of population), the latter (8,900 

 square miles) being nearly as large as 

 New Hampshire, but with more than 

 twice the number of inhabitants. 



The Federal district, modeled after the 

 District of Columbia, but of eight times 

 greater area, is surrounded by the State 

 of Mexico, the large population of the 

 capital (470,000) materially aiding in 

 bringing the average to more than 1,200 

 per square mile. 



