Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/206

198 at an altitude of six thousand feet; here the pines commence, though oaks were met with two thousand feet below, while corn, the great tasselled chieftain of the West, being on indigenous soil, has marched with us all the way from the coast, and climbed with us up the sides of the mountains. At about seven thousand feet, the great plains are reached that lie between the eastern and western Cordilleras, and cover an area of some fifteen hundred miles in length by five hundred in breadth. Here cactus and aloe, cypress and cedar, proclaim another zone, the tierra fria, or "cold country," where not a trace of tropical vegetation exists except in the equivocal cacti and maguey. Shooting above the plateau, the great volcanoes, Orizaba, Ixtaccihuatl, and Popocatapetl, lift their hoary heads high into the clouds, and if we ascend their sides to their summits, we shall have traced vegetation to its last limit,—from the palms, bananas, and sugar-cane of the heated coast, through the oranges, apples, peaches of the temperate belt, the wheat, barley, aloes, the oaks, pines, and hemlocks of the tierra fria, to the last starry cryptogam that flecks the borders of the eternal snows!

In no country in the world can you pass so rapidly from zone to zone,—from the blazing shores of the heated tropics to the region of perpetual winter, from the land of the palm and vine to that of the pine and lichen,—for in twenty hours this can be accomplished, and the traveller may ascend a snow peak with the sands of the shore still upon his shoes.

In going over the Mexican railroad, one witnesses a perfect exposition of the products of the entire country, for it cuts the backbone of the continent, and climbs from hot, unhealthy coast to frigid mountain-top. Fancying yourself again in Vera Cruz, and that you have seen the few objects of interest,—the plaza, the municipal palace, custom-house, convent, and library,—you are awaiting anxiously the train that leaves for the capital. The heavy cars roll finally out of the station, across the line of ancient fortifications (now levelled), and over the broad llanos that border the coast. As we speed over these plains, we may, if the moon be shining, obtain a parting glimpse of the domed and turreted town, set in a framework of tropical