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Peak of Orizaba, seen from the forest of Xalapa

leaving the eastern part of the kingdom it runs to the north-west, towards the cities of San Miguel el Grande and Guanaxuato. To the north of this last city, considered as the Potosi of Mexico, the Sierra Madre becomes of an extraordinary breadth. It divides immediately into three branches, of which the most eastern runs in the direction of Charcas and the Real de Catorce, and loses itself in the new kingdom of Leon. The western branch occupies a part of the intendancy of Guadalaxara. After passing Bolaños it sinks rapidly, and stretches by Culiacan and Arispe, in the intendancy of Sonora, to the banks of the Rio Gila. However, it acquires again a considerable degree of height under the 30° of lati❤ tude in Tarahumara, near the gulf of California, where it forms the mountains de la Primeria alta, celebrated for the gold washed down from them. The third branch of the Sierra Madre, which may be considered as the central chain of the Mexican Andes, occupies the whole extent of the intendancy of Zacatecas. We may follow it through Durango and the Parral in New Biscay, to the Sierra de los Mimbres (situated to the west of the Rio grande del Norte). From thence it traverses New Mexico, and joins the crane mountains (Montagnes de la Grue) and the Sierra Verde. This mountainous country, situated under the 40° of latitude, was examined in 1777 by Fathers Escalante and Font. The Rio

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Gila rises here, of which the sources are near those of the Rio del Norte. It is the crest of this central branch of the Sierra Madre which divides the waters between the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean. It was a continuation of this branch which Fidler and the intrepid Mackenzie examined under the 50° and 55° of north latitude.

We have thus sketched a view of the Cordilleras of New Spain. We have remarked that the coasts alone of this vast kingdom possess a warm climate adapted for the productions of the West Indies. The intendancy of Vera Cruz, with the exception of the plain which extends from Perote to the Pic d'Orizaba, Yucatan, the coast of Oaxaca, the maritime provinces of New Santander and Texas, the new kingdom of Leon, the province of Cohahuila, the uncultivated country called Bolson de Mapimi, the coast of California, the western part of Sonora, Cinaloa, and New Gallicia, the southern regions of the intendancies of Valladolid, Mexico, and La Puebla, are low grounds intersected with very inconsiderable hills. The mean temperature of these plains, of those at least situated within the tropics, and whose elevation above the level of the sea does not exceed 300* metres, is from 25° to 26°† of the centigrade thermometer; that is to say, from 8° to 9° greater than the mean heat of Naples.

* 984 feet. Trans. † 77° of Fahrenheit's. Trans, From 14° to 16° of Fahrenheit.

Trans.

These fertile regions, which the natives call Tierras calientes, produce in abundance sugar, indigo, cotton, and bananas. But when Europeans, not seasoned to the climate, remain in these countries for any time, particularly in populous cities, they become the abode of the yellow fever, known by the name of black vomiting, or vomito prieto. The port of Acapulco, and the vallies of Papagayo and Peregrino, are among the hottest and unhealthy places of the earth. On the eastern coast of New Spain, the great heats are occasionally interrupted by strata of cold air, brought by the winds from Hudson's Bay towards the parallels of the Havannah and Vera Cruz. These impetuous winds blow from October to March; they are announced by the extraordinary manner in which they disturb the regular recurrence of the small atmospherical tides*, or horary variations of the barometer; and they frequently cool the air to such a degree, that at Havannah the centigrade thermometer descends to o°t, and at Vera Cruz to 16°; a prodigious fall for countries in the torrid zone.

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On the declivity of the Cordillera, at the elevation of 12 or 1500§ metres, there reigns perpetu

* I have explained this phenomenon in the first volume of my Travels (Physique generale), p. 92, 94.

† 32° of Fahrenheit. Trans. ‡ 60° of Fahrenheit. Trans. § From 3936 to 4920 feet. Trans.

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