Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/36

 in taking observations, and tracing their route through the various parts of the country, which their avocations oblige them to visit.

The result of their inquiries, when combined with the statistical information which the governments of the different States are labouring to collect, and the military surveys of the Estado Mayor, will be extremely valuable; and many years will, probably, not elapse, before the interior of Mexico will be as well known as that of most countries in the Old World.

The territory of Mexico presents, according to Humboldt, a surface of 118,478 square leagues, of twenty-five to the degree; but this estimate does not include the space between the Northern extremity of New Mexico and Sonora, and the boundary line, as fixed more recently by the treaty of Washington, the extent of which is not yet well ascertained. Thirty-six thousand five hundred square leagues, comprising the states of Zăcătēcăs, Guădălajāră, Guănăjūātŏ, Vāllădŏlīd, Mēxĭcŏ, La Pūēblă, Vĕrăcrūz, Ǒăxācă, and Mērĭdă, are within the Tropics, or, what is usually denominated, the torrid zone; while New Mexico, Dŭrāngŏ, New and Old California, Sǒnōrǎ, and a great part of the old Intendancy of San Luis Pǒtǒsī, containing, in all, 82,000 square leagues, are without the Tropics, or under the temperate zone. The whole extent of the Republic is equal to one-fourth of Europe, or to France, Austria, Spain, Portugal, and Great Britain, put together; and the difference of latitude alone, on so enormous a surface, would naturally have the effect of