ABSTRACTS. 
83 
some leveling done upon the irrigation canals by the writer an Indian 
assistant soon learned to read the rod and keep a peg-book, but insisted 
nevertheless that the water was running np hill, since the curvature 
of the earth made it so appear to him. His explanation was that the 
force of the spring kept pushing the water along. 
Heed of engineering skill of all kijids is very evident. In a distance 
of 14 kilometers the canal above referred to has a fall of only three- 
f'ourths of a meter, and the superintendent estimated that 60 per cent 
of the water was lost — probably too low an estimate. Farming methods 
are very primitive, but the American plow is gradually replacing the 
old forked stick drawn by oxpn having the yoke lashed to their horns, 
and a steam plow has recently been imported. In mechanics, however, 
the lack of skill is more evident. Ponderous carts are still to he seen 
that have no particle of metal in their construction — not even a nail. 
The wagons, too, are heavy, and require from ten to fourteen little mules 
to draw them. A photograph was taken of one that had served to con- 
vey Maximilliam’s body from Queretaro to Mexico City, hut which was 
then loaded with soap, the old guardsman of the EmperoFs remains 
serving as chief of the wagon train. 
In masonry work lasting structures are still made after the plan of the 
old missions around San Antonio, the workmen making excellent mortar 
from the stones of adjacent mountains. Indeed they seem, in their own 
peculiar manner, to make the most of what nature has supplied them 
with, utilizing — for example — one species of the maguey for making 
alcohol, while from another they derive an excellent rope fibre. 
The mountains of Jimulco and Sierra de Lome are rich in minerals 
such as asbestos, silver, copper, ochre, salt, etc. In the mines all work 
is done by manual labor, and the ore is transported many leagues in 
wagons or on the backs of burros, which they facetiously style “The 
Mexican Express.” 
The coming of railroads and improved machinery is working a pacific 
revolution, not only in things material, hut even in the social customs 
of a conservative people. Capital is encouraged, and the laws, while 
arbitrary and vesting absolute authority in the government officials and 
wealthy land owners, are especially suited to the needs of an ignorant 
populace. Education is fostered, and in proportion as intelligence takes 
the place of ignorance and superstition will the character of the laws 
he modified. In some things this absolute power of the law is a decided 
advantage, as for instance in the substitution of the metric system for 
the clumsy systems of weights and measures formerly employed, and of 
which Texas has inherited the wretched system of land measurement 
we yet employ, but which Mexico has entirely abandoned. 
