Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/486

468 MEXICO prices. Gypsum and slate are very common ; and coal is said to exist at the head waters of the Rio Sabinas. Sulphur abounds in the craters and on the flanks of the volcanoes, as well as in many of the rivers of Jalisco ; the coasts of Yucatan afford quantities of amber; and salt is so plentiful in Yucatan, Puebla, Jalisco, and Tamaulipas as to be the object of an extensive export trade. Copperas abounds in Mexico; garnets, found in many parts of the republic, are much esteemed; and Lower California is justly celebrated for the large number and su- perior quality of its pearls. The fisheries of the avicula margaritifera or pearl oyster are carried on along the gulf coasts of the Calif or- nian peninsula, and have long been highly pro- ductive. In 1873 the value of the shells ob- tained by 636 divers was $112,030, and of the pearls $64,300. Mineral springs are numerous in every part of the table land and on the slopes of the Cordilleras ; the most famous are those of El Peflon and Nuestra Sefiora de Guadalupe, both in the vicinity of the city of Mexico, from the first of which are extracted large quantities of salt ; and the thermal springs of Aguas Calientes. In point of cli- mate, Mexico, in common with all the An- dine territories of Spanish America, is divided into three great terraces : the coast regions, or t terras calientes (hot lands); the mountain slopes, or tierras templadas (temperate lands) ; and the elevated plateaus, or tierras frias (cold lands). The first region comprises all the country lower than 3,000 ft. above the sea; the second extends from 3,000 to the mean elevation of the central table land, 6,000 ft. ; and the third embraces all above this last alti- tude. The climates are distinguished into hot and dry, and hot and moist; temperate and dry, and temperate and moist; and cold and dry, and cold and moist. Properly there are but two seasons in all Mexico : the dry, from October to May ; and the rainy, comprising the remaining months. The heaviest rains fall in August and September. The heat is gener- ally excessive on all the coasts, but especially so at Guaymas, Mazatlan, and Acapulco, on the Pacific, and Vera Cruz, Merida, Sisal, and Progreso, on the gulf. The mean annual tem- perature at Guaymas is 104 F. ; that in all the tierras calientes is from 75 to 85 ; in the tierras templadas, from 65 to 72 ; and in the so-called cold regions, from 55 to 60 in the dry season, and never rising higher than 80 in the wet. The healthiest localities are those enjoying a dry climate, whether hot, temperate, or cold; and the most unhealthy, those in whose climate humidity prevails. The extreme rarefaction of the atmosphere in the highlands renders acute lung diseases common, and particularly pneumonia; and disorders of the digestive organs are likewise frequent and fatal. Yellow fever and black vomit, the great scourges of the coast regions, usually set in at Vera Cruz about the end of May, and last till November. At Campeachy, Tampico, and Acapulco the season often passes without a single case, intervals of six or even eight years sometimes occurring between the visitations at the last named port. But no such respite is ever enjoyed at Vera Cruz, Merida, or any of the coast towns of Yucatan, at all of which the mortality is generally very great. The soil of Mexico is for the most part extremely fer- tile. The comparatively few exceptions are nearly all attributable to insufficient irrigation. Artificial irrigation is secured by means of canals and aguajes or dams. The value of the landed property of Mexico is set down as follows in an official report for the year 1873 : municipal, $147,819,162 20; rural, $174,641,- 176 31; total, $340,791,403 17. The minis- ter of finance remarks, however, that triple that amount ($1,022,374,209 54) would more nearly approximate the truth. The magnifi- cent arboreal vegetation embraces 114 dif- ferent species of building timber and cabinet woods, including oaks, pines, firs, cedars, ma- hogany, rosewood, &c. ; 12 species of dye woods; 8 of gum trees; the caucho or India rubber, copal, liquidambar, camphor, turpen- tine pine, mezquite (yielding a substance simi- lar to gum arabic), dragon tree, and the almd- cigo or callitris quadrivalvis, from which san- darach is extracted. Among the oil-bearing trees and plants, of which there are 17 varie- ties, are the olive, cocoa palm, almond, sesame, flax, the tree yielding the balsam of Peru, &c. The maguey plant furnishes the natives with wholesome beverages, and in some instances also food, while the fibre is an excellent sub- stitute for hemp. The fermented juice, called pulque, is the favorite beverage of the Indians, and is much liked by many of the whites ; and a sort of brandy, mezcal, also prepared from it, is highly intoxicating. The value of the trade in pulque for 1862 was reported at $1,- 487,523, and in mezcal at $2,576,646; but both have considerably increased with the fa- cilities for rapid transport afforded by the Mexico and Vera Cruz railway opened in 1873. A special train called the " pulque train " runs every day between the capital and Sultepec. There are 59 classified species of medicinal plants; and many more are mentioned by botanists as still unclassified by science. Jalap is exported to the extent of $50,000 per an- num ; the United States alone took $10,000 worth in 1873. The annual export of jalap at the beginning of the present century was 170,- 000,000 Ibs. Every variety of edible fruit known in Europe or America is found in Mexico, almost all growing spontaneously; and owing to the peculiar structure of the country, all of them, as well as every kind of European garden vegetable, may be obtained in the mar- kets of the capital throughout the year. Agri- culture is assiduously but laboriously carried on by the natives, who persist in using the imple- ments of their ancestors, to the almost abso- lute exclusion of efficient modern appliances. One of the chief cultivated products is. make,