San Juan de Teotihuacan, and Otumba, lie east of the lake of Tezcoco, and are interesting for the fertility of their neighborhood and for their antiquities.
A ridge of lofty mountains, west of the capital, rising from the plain beyond the limits of Tacubaya separates the valley of Mexico from the valley of Toluca, in which is found the town of Toluca at the foot of the porphyritic mountains of San Miguel Tutucuitlalpillo, at an elevation of 8,606 feet above the level of the sea. It is a beautiful town, celebrated for its soap and candle factories; and the epicures of hams and sausages, procure their choicest dainties from its neighborhood. Lerma, lies on the banks of the pond from which the river Lerma springs; and Istlahuaca, twelve leagues from Toluca, is found in a spur of the same valley.
The elevations, north of the valley of Toluca, which separate it from the valley of the river Tula, vary from 10,000 to 7,500 feet, and, in the bosom of the latter vale, is found the town of Tula, twenty-two leagues north-west of the capital. It is regularly built, on broad streets, and is celebrated for its Sunday-market, to which the Indians and Mestizos of the adjacent country flock in numbers.
Tulanzingo and Apam, are the chief towns of the districts;—Pachuca is a mining town 8,112 feet above the sea, and, next to Tasco, the oldest mineral work in Mexico. It contains, with its suburbs of Pachuquillo, about 5,000 inhabitants.
Real del Monte, is another mining town, two leagues northerly from Pachuca, at an elevation of about 9,000 feet. Its climate is cold, and its extremely rarefied air is dangerous for lungs unaccustomed to breathe the atmosphere of such lofty regions. Within a few leagues of this place is the celebrated Cascade of Regla.