Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/437

 through the centre of a belt of fifteen leagues in average breadth, bounded by the Tololotlan and Ameca rivers. The agricultural production will be notably increased in this belt, so well suited to the culture of coffee, cotton, cane, and rice, and the rivers will be taken advantage of for the establishment of mills of various kinds. On the railway reaching Tepic, it will strike a town of considerable commercial importance, dealing in rich and abundant agricultural, mineral, and industrial products. . . ..

"We will now notice some of the mining centres on the line of the road. On reaching Tula (on the main line), the railroad can there receive the metals and ore which come from Actopan, Zimapan, the Cardinal, Jacala, and Encarnacion, as well as from the other mining districts of the northern region of the road. We have taken for granted that the mineral products of Pachuca, Real del Monte, El Chico, etc., will come to the city of Mexico, which will be the centre of deposit and export for the Mexican, the Central, the Construction Company's (Palmer and Sullivan), and the Southern railways.

"At San Juan del Rio the Central road will receive a great part of the mineral productions of the Sierra Gorda, while the mines of Las Aguas, El Doctor, Maconi, Jalpam, Rio Blanco, and others, will receive a powerful impulse. The Las Aguas mine abounds in argentiferous veins, as is also the case in the celebrated 'Doctor' mine, near which are found deposits of mercury and of anthracite coal. The whole of this region is an extensive mineral belt, which may be explored with the best results. To these productions must be added the excellent marbles of Vizarron, and the precious opals which are found so plentifully on the estate of Esperanza and in Amealco, at short distances from the line of the railway.

"On approaching Guanajuato the road enters a metalliferous region of great importance, which is being actively worked. From Salamanca will be exported the kaoline and the white clays of that region, or there will be established new porcelain works, whose products will circulate throughout the country, or be taken abroad. Leon will furnish as freight its valuable building and ornamental stones, which are interspersed with