Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/221

 is crossed, dark holes that pierce the mountain buttresses, the first of which is taken at the end of the viaduct. Three minutes from the time we leave the right bank of the barranca we are running a parallel course, diving in and out of successive tunnels, having plunged into an immense cul-de-sac, as it were, on one side, and found our way out on the other. At times there are curves on which we can see the train from end to end, and all the time we are continually ascending.

From the last of the tunnels we emerge upon a great tableland, and look out over broad stretches of cultivable acres, peaceful plains dotted with cattle, billowy ranges, spurs and peaks, and, above all, the great volcano, smiling serenely upon us. How beautiful are these high plains! Right in sight is the land of snow, before us and behind us the land of tropic heat. The valley into which the great ravine opens is a vast field of coffee, rice, sugar-cane, tobacco, and corn. The area between Cordova and Orizaba is, perhaps, the most fertile and desirable to live in, in Mexico. Here the products of three zones mingle; corn and coffee interlace their leaves, peach trees lift their heads above fields of tasselled cane, and grapes and mangos grow together in blooming gardens. With a stable government and with thorough cultivation, what might not this territory attain to! The scenery is magnificent; elevated knolls along the road give desirable spots for building sites; great sugar estates are yellow with cane, good as any raised in the West Indies. Nothing is wrong or misplaced except the inhabitants, who have disfigured the face of nature with their vile habitations.

And these habitations, by the material of which they are built and their manner of construction, indicate of themselves the increase in altitude and consequent depression of the thermometer. In the tierra caliente they are constructed of bamboo and light poles, open alike to wind and sun, for a slight shelter suffices for the tropics. In the tierra templada the wood used is heavier, and the structure more durable, while the better classes, especially in the towns, are of mud or stone. On the uplands of the tierra fria the dwellings are of adobe, or sun-dried brick, and of stone.