Page:Young Folks History Of Mexico.pdf/19



of the United States, stretching away towards Central America, lies the country of Mexico. It has a large extent of territory being fifteen hundred miles in length, and quite eight hundred miles in width in its broadest part. It has a coast line of nearly five hundred miles, and lies between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Being so much farther to the South than the United States, its climate would naturally be much hotter, yet such is not the case all over Mexico. Though it extends into the tropics more than six degrees, yet the greater portion of its territory enjoys a temperate climate. This is due to the fact that it is a mountainous country. We know that in going up a high mountain the temperature gets lower, or colder, the higher we ascend. So it is that Mexico, though extending far down the temperate zone, except along its coasts and in the far south.

We might say that the back-bone of Mexico is a long mountain-range, with ribs of hills spreading away on either side to the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, or that the mountain system of the Andes we naturally think of