160 MEXICO.

spects the features of its geography. It extends from lat. 15" 50 to 4'<! 0 N.:the intermediate space embracing every variety of soil, from the most recentalluvion to mountain valleys, or rather plains, of near 8000 feet above the con-tiguous oceans. These elevated plains are again broken and decorated by col-lossal summits, rising from 12 to upwards of 17,000 feet.

In one of those aerial valleys, stands the city of Mexico , 7,400 feet abovelevel of the Gulf of Mexico . From this difference of elevation, and from em-bracing such an extensive range within and without the tropics, Mexico may beconsidered as possessing every climate of the earth, and capable of producingevery vegetable necessary to the wants or the luxuries of human life. Its me-tallic wealth is no less abundant than its vegetables. From its bowels areextracted many of the most useful, and all the precious metals.

Mexico is perhaps better calculated than any other part of the earth, to forma political community capable of producing within its own limits, all that thenecessities, the arts, or elegancies of society can demand.

Mexico has no slaves worth notice; that class of its population not amounting, at the utmost, to more than 10,000; or as 1 to 584 of the entire body ofthe people. The civilized Indians form more than two-fifths of the whole, andare the laboring, productive, and efficient, though not the ruling people.

The manufactures of Mexico are said to be very considerable, consisting ofcotton, wool, leather, tobacco, gunpowder, &c.; but as no recent account hasbeen received of them, a description will be omitted.

M . Every reader knows, that those of the precious metals are generally

*' found among mountains; and that this is the country of silver andgold. The annual produce, in ordinary years, used seldom to fall below822,000,000 of silver. The gold is found in little straw-like fragments andveins. The richest mine, in its yield of native silver, is Bartopilas in NewBiscay. In most of them, the metal is extracted from red, black, muriated andsulphuretted ores of silver. In South America , the chief mines are found onthe summits of the Andes , in the regions of perpetual frost and ice. In Mexico ,on the contrary, the richest, such as those of Guanaxuato , Zacatecas , Tusco,and Real de Monte, are found between 5,500 and 6,500 feet high. The climateis delightful, and the vicinity abounds with forests, and every facility to workthe mines to advantage.* A catalogue of the names of 50 mines might easilybe given, extending from Santa Fe , at the sources of the Rio del Norte, to thePacific.

Mexico has but few good harbors ; some of the best and most frequented areVera Cruz and Tampico on the gulf of Mexico ; and Acapulco and San Biason the Pacific Ocean . Vera Cruz is the port through which most of the com-merce between Mexico and Europe has been carried on.

In the tropical regions the year is divided into only two seasons, called therainy and the dry. The rainy season commences in June or July, and con-tinues about four months, till September or October, when the dry season com-mences and continues about eight months. On the low' lands upon the coast,the climate is hot and unhealthy. On the declivity of the Cordillera at theelevation of 4 or 5000 feet, there reigns perpetually a soft spring temperature,which never varies more than eight or nine degrees. At the elevation of 7000feet, commences another region, the mean temperature of which is about 60°.Mexico is in this region, and the thermometer there has been known in a fewinstances to descend below the freezing point. It never rises above 75°.

The productions of this country are as various as its climate. In the courseof a few hundred miles, you may meet with almost all the fruits of the temper-ate and torrid zones. The soil of the table land is remarkably productive.Maize is far the most important object of agriculture, and in some places, fromtwo to three harvests may be taken annually. Wheat, rye, and barley areextensively cultivated.