| THE PACIFIC COAST ZONE: THE PLAZA AND ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF COLIMA. |
With a short littoral zone upon the Pacific, the State of Michoacan stretches far inland towards the Great Plateau. From the burning sun which beats upon its shores to the cold mountain regions on the borders of Querétaro this state has a wide range of climate and temperature, with a flora and agricultural products of corresponding diversity, such as described for its sister states of this zone. The area is about 22,600 square miles, and the population 931,000 inhabitants approximately.
The state, in certain portions, is exceedingly well-timbered, and provides material for sleepers for the railways throughout the Republic. Agriculture is the chief industry, among which coffee, wheat, sugar, and rice are prominent, whilst the wild rubber-tree which abounds on the hot zone might be made a source of profit. Mining is not neglected. High-grade silver ores are produced and sent to the smelting works at Aguascalientes, and copper mines are being actively worked, as well as gold ores. Coal beds exist also, and will be of importance to the state.
Several railways enter this territory, and give outlet to the produce of its eastern side, but none reach the coast, although such a line has long been projected, to terminate at the port of Manzanillo in Colima. The great Balsas river traverses a portion of the state, emptying thence into the Pacific Ocean. Morelia, the capital of this rich zone of Mexican territory, stands at an elevation of 6,500 feet above sea-level, and with its handsome cathedral and square is a typical city of Mexico.
In Guerrero we are reaching the narrow portion of Mexico, and the coast-line has turned more in east and west direction. Consequently the southern side of this state is bathed by the Pacific. Remote from the railways and isolated from the rest of the Republic by the great Southern Sierra Madre, Guerrero, notwithstanding its varied natural resources, has remained in a comparatively undeveloped condition.
The area of this state is 28,200 square miles, with a population of 480,000 inhabitants. The long coast-line of 310 miles affords various ports, and the famous bay of Acapulco is classed among the finest harbours in the world. Indeed, it has been placed second. The state is mountainous almost throughout its entire area, with narrow valleys between the spurs of the Sierra Madre—which approaches near to the coast here—with small plains upon the margins of the streams. The highest peaks of the Sierra reach the height of 8,300 feet and 9,250 feet. The principal river is the Balsas, which flows for a very considerable distance from the east of the Cordillera or Sierra—more than 1,200 miles from its source to its outlet in the Pacific. It is navigable for about 150 miles for launches and other small craft.
The climate varies greatly upon the coast, excessive heat being encountered, ranging thence through the temperate zone up to the exceeding cold of the mountains. The state as a whole is healthy, and the mountain breezes bracing, but the coast is subject to the usual paludismo or malarial fevers of Western America generally. Pinto, the curious mottled skin disease, is encountered in some of the valleys: as in Morelos.
Of railways there are none, the main route of travel from the City of Mexico to Acapulco having been, ever since the time of Cortes, a mountain track, the Camino Real, of difficult transit. Various projects to reach Acapulco by rail have been put forward, but none consummated so far, the nearest rail point being that of the terminus of the Mexican Central Railway on the Balsas river.
The principal products of the state attest its varied and profuse natural resources; sugar-cane, rubber, coffee, cotton, cocoa, cereals, are among these, whilst the extensive forests afford a great variety of timber. Oak grows abundantly. Mining is an important industry. The historic mines of Taxco, mentioned elsewhere, are situated in the district of that name near the picturesque town of Taxco; and the quicksilver mines of Ahuituzco, and the iron deposits of Chilpancingo, the capital, are notable occurrences of the rich mineral zone of this state. There can be no doubt that the future holds much in store commercially for Guerrero, and, indeed, recently much attention has been drawn to it as a field for enterprise, both by British and American capitalists. The state is unique in its resources of huge forests, iron and quicksilver mines, whilst it is traversed by the longest of Mexico's rivers, and possesses thousands of square miles of unexplored territory. The prehistoric ruins which are encountered in such large numbers, and the remarkable number of aboriginal tribes which inhabit it, speaking various languages, render it of much interest ethnologically.