OUR NEIGHBOR, MEXICO 



489 



be admitted as solved. All authorities, 

 however, unite in praise of the magni- 

 tude and the perfection of workmanship 

 shown at various ruins found through- 

 out the Mexican territory. The region 

 adjacent to some of these raises ques- 

 tion as to the source of sustenance for 

 multitudes which must have then existed, 

 and causes speculation upon ethnologic 

 if not physiographic changes which may 

 have occurred in the interval. 



Prominent among these ruins are 

 Uxmal and Chichen-Itza, in the State of 

 Yucatan ; Palenque, in the State of Chia- 

 pas ; Mitla,* in the State of Oaxaca, and 

 Xochicalco, in the State of Morelos. 



The pyramid of Cholula, in Puebla, 

 and those of the Sun and Moon, in the 

 State of Mexico, have also been liberally 

 described, but distributed over wide areas 

 are many other ruins which have had 

 but little or no investigation, and rock 

 sculptures, images, idols, and ancient pot- 

 tery, found in numerous localities, are 

 the only records of peoples whose history 

 is unknown and whose names even are 

 lost. 



TO MEXICO BY WATER AND RAIL, 



The facility with which Mexico can 

 be reached by all-rail routes encourages 

 a considerable majority of visitors from 

 the United States to use them, but the 

 regular lines of vessels plying between 

 the ports of our country and Europe and 

 Mexico are liberally patronized. 



The steamship route from New York 

 to Vera Cruz, after rounding the Flor- 

 ida keys, varies little from a straight 

 southwest line, as the calls at Havana, 

 Cuba, and Progreso, Yucatan, are not 

 divergences. (The longitudes of Havana 

 and Columbus, Ohio ; of Progreso and 

 Springfield, Illinois ; of Vera Cruz and 

 Dallas, Texas, or Emporia, Kansas ; of 

 Mexico City and Kearney, Nebraska, 

 correspond closely.) The State of Yuca- 



* The National Geographic Magazine for 

 December, 1910, contains a suite of excellent 

 illustrations of the Mitla ruins, the pyramid of 

 the Sun and Moon, at San Juan Teotihuacan, 

 and the Aztec Calendar Stone. 



tan, the thumb of Mexico, separating the 

 Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, 

 is chiefly a low, flat country, a calcareous 

 base covered with a limited earthy layer, 

 renowned for its production of sisal fiber 

 (nearly the entire output of the country 

 being grown in Yucatan) and for archeo- 

 logical ruins. 



The capital, Merida, a well-built city, 

 having paved streets, sewage, water sup- 

 ply, and electric lights, lies less than 

 30 miles inland from Progreso, with 

 which it connects by a railroad. Rem- 

 nants of an ancient stone-encased mound, 

 a cathedral about 400 years old, and 

 water caverns in the limestone, are feat- 

 ures of interest. Earth sufficient to sup- 

 port vegetation in the plaza and in patios 

 of dwellings had to be brought 20 miles, 

 as the lime rock is close to the surface. 



The present site of Vera Cruz is not 

 that originally selected by Cortes, and its 

 harbor improvements have materially ad- 

 vanced the port. Although buzzards are 

 still protected as allies of the board of 

 health, sanitation has done much to re- 

 duce the danger from "vomito." 



The City of Mexico, 264 miles (by 

 rail) west of Vera Cruz, and 7,400 feet 

 altitude, is reached by two rail routes, 

 climbing from the hot lands through 

 difficult mountain passes, one of which 

 follows closely the trail taken by Cortes 

 in 1 5 19, by Gen. Winfield Scott with 

 American troops in 1847, an d over 

 which, 15 years later, the invading 

 French troops passed. 



The topography in 75 miles jumps 

 from sea-level to the snow-capped sum- 

 mit of Orizaba, nearly 18,000 feet above 

 that datum, the climate varying from 

 perpetual summer of the torrid zone to 

 perennial snows on Orizaba, Popocate- 

 petl, its neighbor Ixtaccihuatl, and other 

 mountains (see also page 481). 



CENTERS OF POPULATION 



The settlement of Mexico is mainly in 

 the central region, where two-thirds of 

 the population inhabit one-quarter of the 

 total area of the Republic. The capital 

 is the most populous city, Puebla to the 

 east and Guadalajara to the west of 



