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Rh the famous silver-bearing country of Potosi in Peru. It has a population to-day of over half a million, a delightfully mild climate, mountainous scenery in parts, and it is watered by several large rivers. Agriculture is in a high state of advancement, the sugar-cane and the maguey both yielding large returns, as do the native textile plants, the crops of which have a high annual value. But here, as elsewhere in the North, the unremitting search for the precious metal has caused agriculturists to be content with second place. The city of San Luis, its capital, is kept spotlessly clean, a great deal of municipal attention being paid to sanitary affairs. In no Mexican town do the natives appear so prosperous or so well-dressed. A dry climate demands a better water supply than the place has at present; and here it may be stated that in most Mexican towns the consumer of aqua pura must purchase it by the jar, and either send one of his servants for it to a drinking-fountain or else convey it home himself. San Luis is a manufacturing centre of some importance, and is very advanced in popular education.

Zacatecas has a climate unfavourable to agriculture, and bare and sterile scenery reminiscent of Spain; but it makes up for these deficiencies in its vast mineral wealth. Its commercial trade, taken on an annual basis, is very large—nearly £5,000,000—of which, perhaps, one-third is export and about as much import. This State has directed an unrelenting crusade against the pulque habit and, principally to assist in the eradication of this evil, it has instituted a really wonderful educational system. In Zacatecas, the capital, you can be trained as a lawyer, a doctor, or an engineer; and if you show any special ability or, indeed, give the State the least excuse for doing so, it will pack you off to Mexico city with a scholarship in your pocket. Such a community is worthy the respect of all men. Some very hard things have of late been said about Mexican education in American newspapers,