Mexico / Its Ancient and Modern Civilisation, History, Political Conditions, Topography, Natural Resources, Industries and General Development

by C. Reginald Enock

Lakes of Andine character, and others, exist throughout Mexico, the remnants of much larger lake systems, which occupied the filled-up "troughs" of the mountains, before described. Some of these sheets of water are exceedingly beautiful in their disposition and environment. Foremost among them is Chapala, in the State of Jalisco, near the handsome city of Guadalajara; and equally picturesque those smaller sheets of water in Michoacan—Lakes Cuitzeo and Patzcuaro. The remarkable groups of lakes in the Valley of Mexico, around which the Aztec civilisation flourished, comprise six salt-water and one (that of Chalco) fresh-water lake. The two maps given in these pages, of the disposition of these lakes at the time of the Conquest[26] and at the present day, respectively, show how remarkably their waters have shrunk during the intervening centuries. Indeed, this may have followed a certain drying-up process which seems to have been going on throughout the whole Andine region of the Americas, and which is evidenced by retiring snow-caps in Peru, and the receding of Lake Titicaca.

26 See [page 76].

The climate and temperature of Mexico follow certain marked zones, depending upon elevation, as already indicated in the opening chapter. Both on the Atlantic and Pacific slopes these zones are encountered—the tierra caliente up to 3,000 feet elevation above sea-level; the tierra templada to 5,000 or 6,000; and the tierra fria above that altitude. On the tropical lowlands the heat of the torrid zone is experienced, but is not necessarily oppressive, although the European or American traveller who prefers a less enervating climate hastens to exchange that region for the more bracing air of the uplands. The night breezes, however, compensate largely for the heat of the sun, and render bearable, and indeed agreeable, the Vera Cruz littoral and the Yucatan peninsula, by the lowered temperature they afford. The rains also, which have their season from June to November, do much to refresh the atmosphere. Indeed, the year is divided mainly by the matter of rainfall into a wet and dry period, the summer and winter of other countries being unknown; or, rather, one might say, that the daytime is the summer and the night-time the winter, so marked are the diurnal changes of temperature.

In the tierra caliente the mean temperature varies from 77° to 80° F., but often rises to 100°, and in some of the hottest coast regions to 105° F. In the tierra templada the mean is from 62° to 70° F., and this is the climatic region which the Mexicans love to term "perpetual spring." In point of fact, it is a zone not unworthy of the designation, being equable, healthy, and with a beautiful and varied flora. It is to be recollected that the greater part of the area of the country lies in this temperate zone, although there is included in it a part of the great plateau, with its great range of heat and cold from day to night. It is, however, with reference to the Atlantic and Pacific slopes that these changes are ascribed, and this fine and enjoyable climate is encountered from Ameca in Jalisco to Chilpancingo in Guerrero on the western side; and from Jalapa northwards upon the Gulf—vast belts of territory of which any country might well be proud. Upwards from this zone is that of the tierra fria, with a mean temperature of 59° or 60° F., which varies little throughout the year, although the maximum and minimum from day to night is very marked.

THE PACIFIC COAST ZONE: GENERAL VIEW OF THE CITY AND ENVIRONS OF COLIMA.

As regards the climate of Mexico generally, it might have been supposed that it would be oppressively hot, the country lying, as it does, towards the Equator. But this is far from being the case; and the New Yorker may well leave the stifling heat of his own city in summer for the tonic breezes of the Mexican uplands, just as he may winter there to avoid the bitter winter of New York. And, as to the European, we may recollect that the northernmost point of Mexico is two degrees nearer the Equator than the southernmost point of Europe, whilst the mean annual temperature of the City of Mexico—61° F.—bears excellent comparison with such places as Algiers, 63°; Barcelona, 61°; Naples, 61°; Rome, 60°; Bordeaux, 57° F. The diurnal change in the City of Mexico, however, is very marked, rising to 89° F. during the day and falling to 35° F. at night, when the foreigner gladly dons his overcoat and the native his capa, or serape. On the whole, it is natural to describe the climate of Mexico as pleasing and invigorating, whilst bearing in mind the variation above described, due to elevation, latitude, rainfall, and wind agencies. The effects of these changes are so marked upon the vegetation of the country that all the vegetable products from the Equator to the Polar Circle can be found among them.

The rainfall throughout the country is mainly confined to the rainy season, from May or June to October or November. During the middle of this season the rains are, at times, exceedingly heavy, the dry stream beds of the plateau filling up in a few hours with a torrential flood which sweeps everything before it. The desert plains in some places are traversed by deep barrancas, or gullies, worn down perpendicularly through the soil; and woebetide the unlucky horseman who may be journeying along the bottom of one of these when the wave of water comes down from some sudden cloud-burst in the mountains, which happens not infrequently. Incautious Indians and peones, also, who have taken up their lodging in some cave or dug-out of the banks of the torrential rivers of the plateau, or who have laid drunk upon the sun-baked river-bed, are often surprised by the waters, and their bodies are recovered miles away, stranded upon some sand-bar. This serves as giving an idea of the sudden and rapid flow of water from the mountains under the torrential rains; and a good example of a river subject to such a regimen is that of the Nazas. I have crossed the dry bed of this river at Torreon on various occasions on horseback, but on the return journey an hour afterwards the horse was swimming, or, when the current was too fierce, it was necessary to make a long detour to the bridge, for the torrent was raging 300 feet wide from bank to bank.

The average rainfall varies greatly for different parts of the country. For example, in the City of Mexico a year's mean fall may be 25 inches, whilst in Monterrey, some 500 miles to the north, it would reach 130 inches. In the dry season, however, no rain falls in any of the three zones of hot, temperate, or cold lands. Snowfall is very rare as far south as the City of Mexico, but is not unknown. In the cities of the great plateau, to the north, it is almost equally rare, occurring perhaps once or twice in a lifetime. When such does take place it affords an unwonted spectacle for the peones, and causes them to wrap themselves in their serapes and muffle up their mouths as if they were in the polar regions, rather than experiencing a momentary fall of temperature! A scene of this nature occurred during my stay in Lerdo, one of the towns of this region, and is well depicted in the accompanying view. The low rainfall of the extreme north of Mexico, of two to three inches, on the border of Arizona, and the excessive fall, reaching 156 inches, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, with the high rate for Monterrey and the moderate fall for the capital, show how remarkable are the hygrometric conditions due to topography. The maximum rainfall is only exceeded in very few regions of the globe.