oldest cities on this continent, is on the Mexican National Railroad, about six hundred miles north-east from the capital. It stands at the head of a beautiful valley, on the Rio Catarina, one of the tributaries of the Rio Grande. It is entirely shut in by mountains whose strange shapes give to the scenery a peculiar character which cannot be lost when the tide of travel shall sweep away many other landmarks. These frowning summits are so high that the city nestling near at their base is still more than sixteen hundred feet above the sea. Streams of pure cold water flow through the streets from springs not far away. The city, embowered with orchards and gardens, has the same Moorish architecture seen elsewhere, while the fortress-like houses and the flat roofs mark it as one of the cities of olden times. A new cathedral, begun twenty years ago, is yet to be finished. The old one stands on the plaza, a pleasant spot beautified by the hapless Maximilian with winding walks, fountains and parterres of bright flowers.
Chihuahua is a city about twelve hundred miles north-west from the capital and two hundred miles from El Paso. The Mexican Central Railroad was opened through this place in March, 1884, making communication complete between this point and the City of Mexico.
Chihuahua had been subject to many inroads from the wild Indians of the North, and for years no enterprise was safe now, what with the new railroads, telegraphs, horse-cars, omnibuses, and the whir of American machinery in mills and factories, old times and new are in strange juxtaposition. The city stands in a beautiful valley opening toward the north between the spurs of the Sierra Madre. It is in the same latitude as is Southern Florida, but, being more than five thousand feet
