Rivers and Lakes of Mexico.
I. On the Eastern Coasts.
1st. The Rio Grande del Norte, or Rio Bravo, which is the largest of all Mexican streams, and rises, in about 40 12º north latitude, and 100° west longitude, from Paris, in the lofty sierras which are a continuation of the gigantic chain that forms the spine of our continent. It pursues a southeasterly direction towards the Gulf of Mexico, and traverses a distance of nearly eighteen hundred miles.
2d. The Rio del Tigre, rises in the state of Coahuila, and passes, in a southward and easterly direction, through the states of New Leon and Tamaulipas, and finally, after traversing about three hundred miles, debouches in the Gulf of Mexico.
3d. The Rio de Borbon, or Rio Blanco. The sources of this stream are in New Leon, whence it runs towards the east, and, crossing the state of Tamaulipas, falls in the Laguna Madre.
4th. The Rio de Santander, rises in the state of Zacatecas, crosses the state of San Luis Potosi, passes by Tamaulipas, winds to the north, and falls, near the bar of Santander, into the Gulf.
5th. The Rio de Tampico, is formed by the union of the rivers Panuco and Tula. The upper source of the Panuco is in the neighborhood of the city of San Luis Potosi, the capital of the state of that name. Near half a league north north-east of this city, in the valley de la Pila, rises a spring which is protected by a basin of fine masonry, and conveyed by an aqueduct to town. Several other streams, coming from the south-west, unite with this source and form the Panuco. West of the first of these streams, swells up the mountainous ridge which divides the waters of Mexico between the Pacific and the Atlantic. The Panuco courses eastwardly,—and, passing rapidly through the Laguna Chairél, unites with the Tula. This latter stream mingles the waters of the rivulets Tepexi, Tequisquiac, and Tlantla, in the northern part of the state of Mexico; and receiving, by the canal of Huehuetoca, the water of the Rio Quautitlan, it winds onward through the valley of Tula, and near the limits of the states of Queretaro and Vera Cruz, until it joins the Panuco. These united rivers receive in the state of Tamaulipas, the name of the Rio de Tampico, which debouches, finally, in the Gulf of Mexico.
6th. The Rio Blanco rises in the state of Vera Cruz, near Aculzingo, at the foot of Citlaltepetl, or the mountain of Orizaba.
