Page:The War with Mexico, Vol 1.djvu/31

2 2000 to about 4000 feet, where the rainfall, though less abundant than on the coast, is ample, and the climate far more salubrious than below. Here, in view of superb mountains and even of perpetual snows, one ﬁnds a sort of eternal spring and a certain blending of the tropical and the temperate zones. Wheat and sugar sometimes grow on the same plantation, and both of them luxuriantly; while strawberries and coffee are not far apart.

The central plateau lacks moisture and at present lacks trees. The greater part of it is indeed a semi-desert, though a garden

wherever water can be supplied. During the wet season June to October  it is covered with wild growths, but the rains merely dig huge gullies or barrancas, and almost as soon as they are over, most of the vegetation begins to wither away. The climate of the plateau is quite equable, never hot and never cold. Wheat, Indian corn and maguey the plant from which pulque, the drink of the common people, is made  are the most important products; and at the north great herds of cattle roam. In the mountains, ﬁnally, numberless mines yield large quantities of silver, some gold, and a considerable amount of copper and lead.

The principal cities on the eastern coast are Vera Cruz, the chief seaport, and Tampico, not far south of the Rio Grande River. In the temperate zone between Vera Cruz and Mexico lie Jalapa and Orizaba, and behind Tampico lies Monterey. On the central plateau one ﬁnds the capital reposing at an elevation of about eight thousand feet and, about seventy miles toward the southeast, Puebla; while on the other side of the capital