Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/375

Rh has become interesting in our history, inasmuch as it was the city in which the treaty of peace between Mexico and the United States was finally ratified by the Mexican Congress in 1848.

The other important towns are those of San Juan del Rio, San Pedro de la Cañada, and Cadereyta.

The chief mining district, and the only one of any note in the State, is that of El Doctor, in the district of Cadereyta. Its principal veins are those of El Doctor and San Cristoval; but famous as they once were, they are now of but little importance. The quicksilver mine of San Onófre, in the same region, is also failing.

The mining districts of El Doctor, Rio Blanco, Maconi and Escanelella, contain 216 mines—divided as follows: five of gold; 193 of silver; 7 of copper; 1 of lead; 1 of tin; 6 of quicksilver; 2 of antimony; 1 of jaldre.

The State of Guanajuato is comprehended between 20° and 21° 49' of north latitude, and 0° 31' 05" and 2° 51' of longitude west from the meridian of Mexico, and is situated upon the grand Mexican Cordillera. It is bounded on the north by the State of San Luis Potosi, on the south by Mechoacan, on the east by Querétaro, and on the west by Jalisco and Zacatecas. Its superficial extent is 1,545 Mexican leagues of 26½ to the degree. With the exception of the State of Querétaro, Guanajuato is the smallest of the Republic, yet it contains, comparatively, the greatest number of inhabitants, as will be seen hereafter.

Large portions of the soil of Guanajuato are fertile; especially the magnificent and productive plains of the Bajio, in the southern part of the State, which extend for more than 34 leagues from Apasco to beyond Leon;—and, in the north, where the splendid plains or Llanos of San Félipe spread far and wide.

All the Sierra of Santa Rosa forms a chain of porphyritic mountains and elevations of greater or less elevation, which pass under the general name of Cerros. The highest of these, two leagues, north of the capital is known as the Cerro de los Llanitos. It rises to the height of 3,359 varas above the level of the sea, and is the loftiest in the State. Besides these, there are the Cerros del Gigante, El Cubilete, La Bufa, La Garrida, La Beata and San Juan de Mendoza.

The river Lerma, anciently known as Tolotlan, and commonly designated in Guanajuato as the Rio Grande, is the only one which