the elevated mass divides into three branches, the central of which bends to the N.N.W. till it enters the United States, and merges into the Rocky Mountains, about lat. 44°. In the S. it is known as the Sierra Madre, and farther N. as the Sierra de los Mimbres. The eastern branch or Cordillera of Cohabuela and Pete runs through the state of San Luis Potosi, and gradually sinks in elevation till it disappears in the plain watered by the Rio Grande del Norte. The western branch or Cordillera de Sonora, extends along the Gulf of California from Lake Chapala to the Rio Colorado. In the state of Sonora it forms the Pimeria Alta, which are celebrated for their gold mines. The only low grounds of any extent in the country occur along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, especially in the states of Tamaulipas and Yucatan, which are generally but little raised above the sea-level.

River System. With exception of the Rio Grande del Norte, which separates the country from the United States, and the Rio Colorado, which forms the boundary between Sonora and Old California, the rivers of Mexico are generally mere torrents, which, rushing from the elevated table-land, reach the sea after a short course.

The chief of these are the Sonora, Yagui, Mayo, Fueste, and Culiacan, flowing westward into the Gulf of Mexico; the Rio Grande de Santiago (from Lake Chapala), Rio Bolsas, and Tehuantepec, discharging their waters into the Pacific EZEN; and the Tabasco, with its affluent the Usamasinta, the Panuco with its tributary the Tampico, and the Santander falling into the Gulf of Mexico. For the towns of the Rio Grande del Norte, see under" United States."

Lakes. The lakes on the Mexican table-land are very numerous, and many of them of volcanic origin. The largest are Chapala, with an arca of about 1300 square miles, between Xalisco and Michoacan; Parras, in Coahuila; Tezcuco, in the immediate vicinity of the capital; and Chas canab, in Yucatan. Several large salt-water lagoons fringe the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the chief of which are Madre, Tampico, Tanagså, and Terminos.

Minerals. Mexico has long been celebrated for its minerals, and especially for the inexhaustible supply of the precious metals which it contains.

To obtain possession of the latter was the great motive that led to the discovery and conquest of the country on the part of Spain early in the sixteenth century. More silver has been obtained from its mines than from all the rest of the world, while the produce of its gold mines has only been inferior to those of Peru, and latterly to those of California and Australia. Humboldt states that, at the period of his visit, there were 3000 mines of gold and silver in the country. The total gold and silver coinage of the Mexican mints, from 1535 to 1850, amounted to five hundred and fifty-five millions sterling, giving an average of nearly two millions annually, while only one-tenth of the whole was gold. In the beginning of the present century the annual produce exceeded £5,000,000, but during the troubles of the revolutionary war the mines were neglected, and many of them wholly ruined. Vast numbers of the people, however, are at present daily en gaged in mining on their own account, but in small companies, and in a very de sultory manner. Guanaxuato is the centre of the richest mining district. Its principal silver mine, discovered in 1558, has alone yielded more than a quarter of the whole produce of Mexico. San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, Durango, Chihuahua, and Mexico, are also highly productive. In 1850, an extremely rich quick-silver mine was discovered near Pitec, in Sonora, which promises to give a new impetus to mining operations in Mexico. Valuable copper mines are also wrought in Chr huahua; iron ore is abundant in Durango; tin, lead, zinc, and antimony in seve ral states; but, hitherto, coal has nowhere been found.

Climate and Vegetation.-Owing to the great elevation and semitropical position of Mexico, the climate is exceedingly various. Three regions, however, may be distinguished--the tropical, temperate, and

cold.

The first embraces the low grounds on the east and west sides, to the height of 2000 feet, having a mean annual temperature varying from 68° Fah, in the N., to

78° in the S. It produces in abundance all the ordinary vegetation of the tropics, including maize, manioc, pepper, vanilla, indigo, cotton, coffee, sugar-cane, and the banana; but the excessive heat and the great fall of rain render it almost uninhabitable. At Vera Cruz, for example, the average fall of rain for nine years (from 1822 to 1830) was no less than 185 inches, but in some years it is greatly less. The yellow fever and other virulent diseases are very prevalent, and it affords an admirable illustration of the maxim in physical geography, that wherever vegetation attains its most luxuriant development, there human life languishes. The temperate region is of small extent, embracing the slopes of the table-land to the height of about 6000 feet. Here the climate is mild and gentle, and the vegetation includes most of the cereals and fruit-trees of Europe. The cold region embraces the whole remainder of the country, including the vast table-land. The climate, though agreeable and healthy, is excessively dry, and the mean annual temperature is about 62°, while the vegetable productions include the Mexican oak, pine, agave, arbutus, dahlia, geranium, and cactus. Among cultivated plants may be mentioned the potatoe, which is extensively reared, and which in its wild state is sometimes met with at an elevation of 10,000 feet; maize, wheat, barley, cacao (a species of nut in shape and size resembling the almond), and Spanish pepper or capsicum, which is consumed by the inhabitants in enormous quantities. Among the cultivated plants of Mexico there is none more important or characteristic than the maguey (Agave Americana, the pulque of the Spaniards, the octli of the Aztecs), from the sap of which is prepared the favourite drink of all classes. It thrives on the poorest soil. so that near a town or populous district a plantation of it always forms a valuable estate.

Zoology. The wild animals are exceedingly numerous, comprising the bison or American buffalo, which in mid-winter enters the country in immense herds from the forests of the north-west, the tapir, jaguar, puma, ocelot, tiger-cat, weasel, sloth, glutton, ant-eater, porcupine, grisly bear, wild swine, and monkeys.

The feathered tribes exist in countless numbers, and comprise many species found also in the United States. Reptiles include the Mexican crocodile, the alligator, cayman, and rattlesnake. The coasts are frequented by the whale, seal, and sea-cow, and the rivers abound in fish. The pearl-fishery, in the Gulf of California, once so profitable, is now abandoned; but a species of murex yields a valuable purple dye. Perhaps the most useful animal in the Mexican fauna, is the cochineal insect, which yields, next to the precious metals, the most important article of export. The domestic animals were all introduced by the Spaniards; for, notwithstanding the degree of civilisation to which the ancient Mexicans had attained, they did not possess the art of taming any of their wild animals.

Ethnography. The population of Mexico is composed, as in other Spanish American States, of three distinct races-aboriginal Indians, Europeans who are nearly all Spaniards, and Africans or negroes, who were formerly in a state of slavery. Besides these there are various mixed races-mestizos, zambos, mulattoes, quadroons, &c.

The Indian population is by far the most numerous, being variously estimated from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000: they form the great mass of the labouring population, are averse to the mechanical arts, and in many places assert a wild independence. The Europeans or whites are reckoned at about 1,000,000; they are the wealthiest and most powerful section of the community, and are distinguished as chapetones, or those born in Spain, and whose number is now very small, and creoles, or descendants of Spanish colonists. The negroes, or chinos, do not exceed 6000, and are rapidly decreasing in number, notwithstanding the abolition of slavery. The Mestizos, formed by the commingling of European and Indian blood, number about 2,000,000, and are generally engaged in trade and mechanical pursuits. The Mulattoes, descended from Europeans and Africans, and the Zambos, from the mixture of African and Indian races, are few in number and deficient in intellect. The distinctions of colour and race are now of far less importance than they were formerly, as the privileges of caste no longer exist, and equal political rights are conceded to all.

LANGUAGES AND CIVILISATION.-Spanish is the universal language of the white population and the general medium of intercourse. No fewer than thirty-five

imperfectly known.

distinct tongues are spoken by the various Indian tribes within the limits of the Confederation. The chief of these are the Mexican or Aztec, Otomi, Tersace, Misteco, Zapoteca, and Mayan. Mexican was the language of the semi-civilised tribes at the time of the Spanish conquest of the country, and it still prevallis n the States of Mexico, Vera Cruz, and Tabasco. It possesses the same general characteristics as the other American tongues, and is closely allied to them a internal structure. It is distinguished, however, from all the other members of its class by the possession of a special form, called the "reverential," which pervades the entire language, every vocable of which, when articulated, reminds the hearer of the social position of the speaker. This peculiarity of the Aztec is a striking monument of the highly artificial state of society that must have pr vailed in ancient Mexico, and of the subordination in which the mass of the people were held by their rulers. (See under "Antiquities.") The Otomi lar guage is remarkable for its monosyllabic structure, and for some curious thea remote affinities, which apparently connect it with the Chinese. The Mara language is spoken in Yucatan, and resembles, in general, the other Ameri dialects, but is destitute of the sounds represented by the letters d, f, g, j, 4, 5 s, and r. The language of the Toltecs, now extinct, and many others, are very ANTIQUITIES.-The ancient Mexicans, Toltecs, and Yucatanese had attained to a very considerable degree of civilisation before the arrival of the Spaniards, a the early part of the sixteenth century. They possessed a regular monarchical government; they had stationary abodes, and pursued agriculture with stereSS; maize was the staple crop, cacao was cultivated for chocolate, and vanilla H used as with us; mining was extensively practised, and the precious metals sod in the markets; they were well skilled in architecture, raised great edifices, në structed vast palaces, pyramids, roads, aqueducts, and bridges-the arch being of a peculiar triangular shape, formed by courses of stones projecting over each other. One of the most stupendous monuments of this style of architecture was the great temple at Palenque, which comprised within its extensive precincts various sanctuaries and sepulchres, courts and cloisters, subterranean galleries, and cells for the priests. It is now, however, eclipsed by the more recently dis covered ruins of Itzalana in Yucatan, which indicate a style of art distinct from that of the Aztecs. The remains of sculpture found in Mexico are numerous and of great variety of form and material. Feather-painting was a favourite art, a which the gorgeous plumage of tropical birds was employed to produce exqu sitely-finished pictures. They had a more accurate calendar than the Egyptians, Greeks, or Romans; while the splendid ruins of Palenque exhibit medals, musical instruments, colossal statues, and well-executed figures in low relief, adorned with characters which appear to be real hieroglyphics. By means of these they were able to record many facts connected with their national history. They usually wrote on cotton cloth, on the prepared skins of animals, and on a species of paper made of the leaves of the great aloe, similar to that manufactured by the ancient Egyptians from the papyrus. Numerous manuscripts, executed in this mode of picture-writing, were committed to the flames by the Spaniards; but a few precious relics still survive in some of the libraries of Europe. The Aztecs and Toltees entered Mexico from the N., the former in A. D. 1196, and the latter in 648. Both tribes appear to have migrated hither from the great valley of the Mississippi. Their various arts differ so widely from those of any nation of the Old World, that it is now generally allowed to have been American both in its origin and development; for the ruined cities which are found in so many locali ties are generally allowed to have been built only a short time before the arrival of Europeans in the New World. (See under South America, art. “Ethnography.) RELIGION.-The established religion, and, indeed, the only one recognised by the government, is the Roman Catholic; and though others are tolerated by law, the intense bigotry of the people allows in practice little freedom of worship, Almost the entire white population are devoted Romanists, and, with few exceptions, the votaries of pleasure, profligacy, and crime. The Aztecs and other native tribes also profess a nominal adherence to that Church, interweaving its ceremonies with the idolatrous rites of their ancestors. The annual revenue of the Church is estimated at nearly twenty million dollars, and the religious edifices are distinguished by their costly decorations.

EDUCATION is in a backward condition, but several primary and private schools have been opened recently. There are also eight colleges of the Propaganda,

MEXICO.

several seminaries sustained and directed by the clergy, national colleges, a school of mining, a school of medicine, and a military school. Mexican public libraries are rich in books, MSS., and instruments for the study of the sciences; and there are 54 literary and political periodicals published in the confederation.

Government, &c.-From the conquest of the country, in 1521, till 1824, Mexico formed one of the four great Vice-royalties of Spanish America, and was sadly misgoverned. In the latter year the present political system-a representative, popular, and federal republic-was adopted, which in many of its features resembles that of the United States.

The legislative power is vested in a The president is elected for four years. general congress, consisting of a Senate and Chamber of Deputies. The deputies are elected by the people for two years,-there being one for every 50,000 of the population. Each State elects two senators, and a number equal to all the states is elected by the Senate, Supreme Court, and deputies conjointly. There are thus 69 senators, one-third of whom retire every two years. The laws are said to be excellent, but the continually-recurring insurrections and revolutions render the executive power little better than nominal; and the present probability is that the confederation will ere long fall to pieces, unless upheld by foreign intervention. According to statute, the military force consists of 91,299 men, including 26,353 permanent troops; but in 1855, only a half of the total number was organised. The navy consists of nine small vessels, carrying, in the aggregate, The receipts, in 1856, amounted to 8,500,000 dollars; 35 guns and 300 marines. the expenditure to 13,126,000 dollars; and the public debt to 133,524,242 dollars. During the last four years, however, the debt has been considerably increased.

Commerce and Industry.-The commerce of Mexico is inconsiderable. The principal ports on the Gulf of Mexico are Vera Cruz, Tampico, Matamoros, and Monterey; and on the Pacific coast, Mazatlan, Acapulco, San Blas, and Guaymas.

The exports consist of metals, cochineal, hides, cattle, vanilla, jalap, and a In 1852, the exports to the United States alone were few other medicinal herbs. valued at 1,600,000 dollars. The imports consist chiefly of manufactured goods, earthenware, firearms, hardware, and machinery. The principal imports are from Great Britain and the United States, the former consisting principally of plain and printed calicoes, cotton-twist, silk, and linen goods, the total value of which, in the year mentioned, amounted to £200,000. The manufactures are unimportant, amounting in the aggregate to only 80,000,000 or 90,000,000 dollars annually. In some parts of Mexico soap and candles are extensively manufactured for home consumption, as also coarse articles of clothing, paper, gold and silver utensils and ornaments, delft and glass-ware, sugar refineries and distilleries. In 1850 there were 72 cotton factories, 6 woollen factories, 70 hand-machines for the manufacture of silk, and numerous mills for the preparation of olive oil. Carbonate of soda abounds on the table-land, and is extensively manufactured in several places. Agriculture is greatly neglected, and much of the land cultivated by the Spaniards is now lying fallow; but the natural fertility of the soil causes it to yield a sufficient supply for the wants of the inhabitants.

Internal Communication.-The roads are deplorably bad and impracticable for wheel-carriages. The descent from the table-land to the sea is everywhere precipitous, and presents such difficulties in the way of carrying goods as will probably always cut off the interior states from a fair participation in the commerce of the globe.

Mules are the only beasts of burden, and vast numbers of them are employed by carriers and in the mines. A short line of railway connects Mexico with Tacuba, a few miles to the N. E.; and another is constructed from Vera Cruz to San Juan del Rio, which will ultimately connect the capital with the principal seaport of the Confederation.

CENTRAL AMERICA.

Boundaries.-N. W., Yucatan and Chiapas; W. and S., the Pacific; E., the Granadian Confederation and the Caribbean Sea. Lat. 8° to 18° 30′ N.; lon., 81° 30′ to 93° 15′ W.

The volcano of Guanacaure, in the N. W. of Nicaragua (lat. 13°, long. 87°) in the centre of the area thus indicated, is on the same parallel of latitude with the island of St Vincent in the West Indies, Bathurst in W. Africa, Lake Tehad, Aden, Madras, Bankok, and the Philippine Isles; and on the same meridian as Lake Michigan, and as Pensacola in Florida.

The greatest length from N. W. to S. E. is about 900 miles; the breadth varies from 70 to 350 miles.

Area, Population, and Political Divisions.-Omitting the Mosquito Shore, on the E. coast of Honduras and Nicaragua, the boundaries and political character of which are not yet precisely determined, this region comprises six States, five of which are independent republics, and one (Balize) a British colony.

The united area, according to the above estimate, is about one and a half times that of the British Isles; but, according to other authorities, it is greatly larger. The aggregate population is considerably less than that of London. The following are the principal towns in the different States:

GUATEMALA.-New Guatemala 60, n., Old Guatemala 12, n., Chiquimula 6, n., Zacatepec 8, n. (Montagua), Coban 14 (Polokoc), Quesaltenango 14, Totonicapan 12, n. (Samala), Istapa (Pacific), St Thomas (Gulf of Honduras).

SAN SALVADOR.-Cojutepeque 15, n. (L. Ilopango), Sonsonate 10, Acajutla, La Libertad, Concordia (Pacific), La Union (Bay of Fonseca), San Vicente 8, Sacatecoluca 5, n., Ilobasco 4, Suchitoto 6, Santa Anna 10 (Lempa), San Miguel 8 (San Miguel).

HONDURAS.-Comayagua 18, Las Piedras 6 (Humuya, af. Ulna). Juticalpa 10, n., Catacamas (Patook), Poyais (Poyais), Omoa 2, Puerto, Caballos, Truxillo 5 (Gulf of Honduras), Tegucigalpa 10 (Choluteca).

NICARAGUA.-Leon 25, n., Managua 13 (L. Leon), Granada 10, Nicaragua 8 (Nicaragua), Chinondega 8, n., Rialeio 5, Masaya 13, n. (Pacific),