DESERT REGIONS OF NORTH AMERICA. 27 
OAXACA AND MITLA. 
The city of Oaxaca de Juarez lies on an elevated plain at an elevation 
of 5,067 feet, the adjacent areas being in the drainage which eventually 
reaches the Pacific by the Rio Tehuantepec and the Rio Verde. Although 
near some mountains of considerable altitude, the precipitation is com- 
paratively small, as may be seen from the following transcript furnished 
by the U. S. Weather Bureau, which shows the average precipitation at 
Oaxaca for a period of ten years: 


TECUVE Sgt as Seana ere Ooxoe lie | hisie cower wre ae 4.09 
PUL rte ot cs oo Ss G55 Aapustie Gols eee Anes 
“CS pecan Sara eg 0.59 Penremtpene, oa as 5-94 
BAIN ere sas siwhb< shafts 1.77 OLODGES van sittin hana wn 2.91 
Lh ES oe aS eee bs oe ee 3-94 NOV GmlDer awe. sieve 3 0. 39 
SECT CON Seine oe rear 8.62 December: joa. es 0.04 
Qa leey oat 335 oe 
As one proceeds to the ancient ruins of Mitla, 36 miles to the south- 
eastward, the aridity increases until in the vicinity of the hacienda of 
that name extreme desert conditions are found. The ancient structures 
here are indicative of a type of civilization characteristic of the desert, 
in which codperation or communism was carried to as great lengths as it 
must have been in the pueblos of the northern deserts in America. 
A short distance to the eastward from Oaxaca lies the village of El 
Tule, in which grow a large number of cypress trees (Taxodtum mucrona- 
tum), one of which stands in the churchyard, and by the claims of local 
patriotism is the greatest in the world, while fora long time it has been 
cited as the oldest living. Both of these claims are incapable of actual 
proof, although the tree has much to justify an interest in it. Six feet 
from the ground it measures 154 feet in circumference, but it may be 
really two or three individuals fused together, as it divides into that 
many main branches within so feet. This tree has been an object of 
observation for more than two centuries, and on gne side is a tablet, 
partly covered by the growth of the outer layers of the trunk, signed by 
the great naturalist, Baron von Humboldt, and probably placed there 
by his direction a century ago. 
From El Tule to Mitla the way passes between fields illustrating 
methods of agriculture in an arid tropical climate. Not the least inter- 
esting of these features are the crops of maize of species either primitive 
or directly derived from one of the elementary species of Zea. The 
highway, especially where it passes through small villages or near a haci- 
enda, is marked off from the fields and compounds by barriers of cacti 
grown in dense rows. Two or three species of Cereus and several prickly- 
pears are used for this purpose and also yield a valuable crop of fruit for 
the owners (plate 23). 
