MEXICO 465 to worship their idols in temples, the ruins of which are still visible. Carmen island or Perla del Golfo, in the bay of Campeachy, is 16 m. long and about 2 m. wide, with a seaport of the same name. Other islands in the gulf of Mexico are the islas de los Sacrificios near Vera Cruz, and the islet on which was built the fort or castle of San Juan de Ulua just op- posite Vera Cruz, famous in Mexican history. Guadalupe, Cerros, San Benito, Lobos, and Santa Margarita islands are situated off the W. shore of Lower California; in the gulf of Cali- fornia are those of Angel de la Guarda (67 m. long), Tiburon, Carmen, and Cerralvo ; and the islets of Revillagigedo are about 250 m. to sea- ward. The harbors on the Caribbean sea, where the commerce is quite unimportant, are excellent; while those of the gulf of Mexico (Progreso, Campeachy, Tabasco, Coatzacoalcos, Vera Cruz, and Tuxpan) have only open road- steads, the shore being unapproachable by any kind of craft during the prevalence of north- ers ; and the ports of Tampico, on the Panuco, and Matarnoros, on the Rio Grande, are not always accessible even to vessels of small draught. By far the most commodious har- bors in the republic are those on the Pacific and the gulf of California, the principal be- ing Acapulco, Manzanillo, San Bias, Mazatlan, Guaymas, and La Paz. The face of the coun- try is extremely diversified. The littoral re- gions are in general low and sandy, especially on the Atlantic side, where they were probably submerged at no remote period as far as the foot of the mountains. In no part of the re- public within 80 m. of the sea does the land rise higher than 1,000 ft., except perhaps in Chiapas, where the chain of the Mexican Andes presents a mural barrier facing the ocean, toward which the descent is exceeding- ly rapid. But the traveller journeying inland from either side, N. of the Tehuantepec isth- mus, climbs by a succession of gigantic terraced mountains to a table land with a mean elevation of 8,000 ft., extending far beyond the north- ern limits of the republic. On the railway from Vera Cruz to the capital, every variety of climate is experienced within the space of a few'hours, and the natural productions pecu- liar to each are successively passed in review, from the sugar cane, indigo plant, and plantain of the tropics, to the pines, firs, and lichens of the north. The Cordillera of the Andes enters the Mexican territory from Guatemala, and to about lat. 17 30' extends almost midway be- tween the Atlantic and Pacific oceans ; from that point it curves nearly due K to lat. 21 15', and approaches the E. coast, attaining its maximum elevation somewhat S. of the par- allel of Mexico city, between Toluca on one side and Jalapa and Cordova on the other, where several peaks rise to 15,000 and 17,000 ft. above the sea. Still further N. the Sierra Madre runs N. by W. toward Guanajuato, near which city it widens considerably and separates into three distinct branches, the most easterly of which trends in a generally north- ern direction through Nuevo Leon to lat. 24 30', then bends N. W., and, traversing Coa- huila, gradually declines in elevation as it ap- proaches the Rio Grande. The central branch, or Cordillera de Anahuac, the highest of the three, runs K W. through Zacatecas, Durango, and Chihuahua, taking successively the names of Sierra de Acha, Sierra de los Mimbres, Sierra Verde, and Sierra de las Grullas ; about lat. 30 it is united by a system of spurs with two lateral chains, that of Texas to the east, and that of Sonora to the west. The western chain, or Cordillera proper, runs nearly parallel to the last through Michoacan, Jalisco, Zacatecas, Sinaloa, and Sonora, and is linked by spurs advancing westward to the maritime Alps of California. That portion of the Mexican Andes richest in silver is comprised between lat. 16 and 29, while the alluvial auriferous soil con- tinues a few degrees further northward. A striking similarity between the general struc- ture of the Mexican and that of the South American Andes is observable in the barrancas or vast fissures frequently intersecting the Cor- dilleras. The backs of the mountains form very elevated plateaus or basins, sufficiently uniform in height to be regarded as one continuous table land. The valley of Mexico is an elliptical plain with an area of about 940 sq. m., fringed on the east, south, and west by lofty peaks, some of which are active volcanoes. Indeed, the plain may be regarded as one vast volcanic hearth, roughened at intervals by isolated hills rising abruptly from the surrounding level. The most elevated summits are at the south- east, where Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl tower majestically over all the rest. So regular is the great plateau (formed exclusively by the broad, undulating, flattened crest of the Mexi- can Andes, and" not the swelling of a valley between two mountain ridges, such as the alpine valley of Bolivia or that of Thibet), and so gen- tle are the slopes where depressions occur, that the journey from Mexico to Santa F, New Mexico (about 1,200 m.), might be performed in a four-wheeled vehicle. From Mexico S. to Oajaca, in the centre of the plain of that name, with an elevation varying from 3,000 to 6,000 ft, the route is almost as level as from the capital northward. Traces of volcanic fire, so numerous near the W. coast of Guatemala and in San Salvador, disappear in the gneiss-granite mountains of Oajaca ; but they again become apparent, perhaps for the last time toward the north, in the central Cordillera de Anahuac. There a line of summits, comprising the vol- canoes of Tuxtla, Orizaba, Popocatepetl, Iztac- cihuatl, Toluca, Jorullo, and Colima, extends, between lat. 18 15' and 19 30', almost due E. and W. across the republic, and lies nearly perpendicular to the great axis of the chain of Guatemala and Anahuac. The following are the principal mountain peaks of Mexico, the first ten being volcanoes, with their heights according to the most recent measurements :
Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/483
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