Still higher, above five thousand feet, a cool region is reached, which is known as the Tierra Fria. This includes the summit of the tableland and the pine covered slopes of the mountains up to the height at which some of the peaks are capped with perennial snows. Much of this high tableland is valuable only for pasture; towards the north and northeast, where the plateau is wider, the landscape becomes bare and dry, and salt lakes like those of the plateau region of the western United States appear. Deeply cut “cañons” or “barrancas,” gorges with steep walls furrowed out by the mountain torrents, are characteristic of the plateau.
Production and Industry.—The vegetation of Mexico has the same wide range as the climate. In the lowlands dye woods and valuable timbers abound in the virgin forests, as well as medicinal plants, india rubber, palms, etc.; and oranges and bananas, many varieties of cactus, agave, sisal, olives, sugar, coffee, cocoa, rice, indigo, cotton and tobacco, besides the omnipresent maize, all thrive. The vine flourishes in some districts, especially near El Paso, Durango, and Parras, in Coahuila, where a good wine is made; and mulberry plants have been imported from Europe to develop the silk industry. In Lower California a good deal of archil is collected, and chicle gum is extracted and prepared in the forests along the coast.
Agriculture in Mexico is steadily developing. Silver mining has been an important industry ever since the conquest. Gold is also produced. Copper is largely mined in some sections, being found in a pure state in Chiapas and Guanajuato, and elsewhere associated with gold. Other important minerals are iron, including enormous masses of meteoric iron ore, and the mountain a mile from Durango, the Cerro de Mercado, a solid mass of magnetic iron ore; lead, found associated with silver; and sulpher, zinc, quicksilver, platinum, cinnabar, asphalt and petroleum, besides salt, marble, alabaster, gypsum, and rock salt in great quantities. There are also said to be large deposits of coal, some of excellent quality.
Mexico is the original home of the “cattle range” business, and there vast herds of horses, cattle, and sheep form the principal wealth of the people.
Woolen and cotton spinning and weaving, and other branches of industry are encouraged by high protective duties.
People.—The population of Mexico consists mainly of the indigenous Indian race, and of the dominant Spaniards or their descendants. Spaniards born in Europe are now very few in number, but the government of the country is in the hands of the “Creoles,” or people of Spanish descent born in Mexico. They number about twenty per cent, mixed Hispano-Americans, or mestizos, forty-three per cent, and full blood Indians thirty-five per cent of the whole population. The mestizos are the farmers and rancheros, the muleteers and servants. Whites and mestizos speak Spanish.
The Roman Catholic is the religion of the country, but all beliefs are tolerated, and education, now free and compulsory, is making steady progress.
Government.—The Mexican constitution is closely modeled upon that of the United States. The president, who is assisted by secretaries of state, is elected for four years, and can be re-elected for a second term. The [671] legislative power is vested in a Congress, consisting of a Senate of fifty-six members, and a Chamber of Deputies of two hundred and thirty-three members. The judicial system occupies the same position as that of the United States; and the several states have elective governors and legislatures.
Owing to revolutionary conditions the civil government was practically suspended in September, 1914. (See under [History of Mexico].)
