Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/39

Rh The luxuriancy of Tropical vegetation replaces the stunted growth peculiar to the central plateau; the birds assume a more variegated plumage; the inhabitants a more relaxed and indolent expression; and the whole scene the characteristics of another world.

The same effects are produced wherever the same causes occur; and as, on a mountain chain, the inequalities of the surface are naturally very great, it is hardly possible to proceed to any distance, either to the East, or to the West of the Capital, without experiencing these transitions, which sometimes are met with repeatedly in the course of a single day. The natives, without inquiring into their origin, express the fact, by designating these hot, low ravines, as Tierra Caliente; a term which always implies a portion of the country, in which (from whatever causes) there is a sufficiency of heat to produce the fruits, and with the fruits, the diseases of the Tropics. Tierra fria (the cold country) is applied to the mountainous districts which rise above the level of the Capital, up to the limits of eternal snow; while Tierra templada (the temperate region) embraces, in its most general acceptation, all that is not included under one of the other two divisions. By many, however, it is thought to apply more particularly to a climate such as that of Jălāpă and Chilpănzīngŏ, (on the Eastern and Western ascent from the coast,) both of which are very much below the level of the Table-land: and I have myself found,