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152 deep ocean beds which, later, evaporated in the fierce sun of the tropics. These, besides being so deep, often cover hundreds of square miles. At present, of course, considerations of capital and freightage render it impossible to exploit these vast beds even were the country dwelling in a golden age of peace; and here it may be fitting to remark that just as Brazil is the world's great storehouse of medicinal chemicals, so Mexico is one of the world's great natural storehouses of industrial chemicals: for not only is petroleum discovered there, but the elements which compose many other lubricants. Asphalt and naphtha are largely worked, chiefly by Chinese coolies, and the by-products of the lubricant industry are numerous and valuable. The most ingenious methods of loading tank steamers with oil have been invented, for at Tuxpam, to which port large vessels cannot approach, very close pipes for conveying the oil to the reservoirs of the ship which is to carry it are actually laid along the bottom of the sea for a couple of miles, where the ends are raised above the surface and secured to large floats.

The leather trade flourishes in Mexico, notwithstanding that the native wears guarachas, or sandals, or else goes barefoot. The chief centres of this industry are Mexico city and the Northern States of Léon, where, in the towns of Saltillo, Monterey, and elsewhere, there are a number of shoe factories, some of which have an output of 2,000 pairs a day. Saddlery is a fine art in Mexico, a truly native industry; but the gorgeous saddles once in vogue, encrusted with gold and silver, are for the most part confined in their use to the Rurales and the haciendados in the country districts, and the English saddle is coming into general use.

Mexican finance at the present moment is very naturally in a somewhat chaotic condition. This state of affairs is chiefly owing to the circumstance that merchants refuse to accept the old Government issue of paper at the standard set by