Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/169

Rh has several times been visited with frightful inundations, which have threatened to wash it from the earth. Of these the most wonderful was known as the "Fountain of Acucasexcatl," which sprang spontaneously from the ground during the reign of Ahuizotl. Another was the "Torrent," which, like the fountain, spread over the valley in the lowest places to the depth of about nine feet of water on the ordinary level. The death rate from drowning and disease, superinduced by the long-standing water, was terrible.

The chief cause of these inundations is believed to be the proximity of the lakes, which lie at unequal heights around the city. When the summer rains filled the highest, Lake Zumpango, it would overflow into the next, Lake of San Cristobal, and when that was full it in turn disgorged into a lower one, Texcoco, and so on until the waters overflowed into the plains of San Lazaro, and thence penetrated into the city. There is no danger from lakes Xochimilco and Chalco except in case of melting snows from Popocatapetl.

Seven times within the knowledge of man the city of Mexico has been inundated. Four times the calamitous visitation came in one century, twice in a brief interval of only three years; the latest occurred in 1629.

The finest engineering talent in the republic has been called into requisition to devise a system of drainage, but a wide difference of opinion as to the best means still prevails. Some favor a tunnel, but as the soil is spongy and treacherous, there could be no guarantee against its sinking. This, together with the prospect at any time of an earthquake, forbids the plan. Others recommend the extension of the Nochistongo, which is now utilized, and is partially effective. Several engineering companies from our northern States have attempted to investigate the gigantic and dangerous task of draining the city, and if the problem be finally solved it will probably be by means of Yankee ingenuity and machinery.

When the great earthquake of 1882 visited the capital, it is claimed that the nearness of the water to the surface of the earth saved it from destruction. The opinion prevails amongst intelligent