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greso, our present port, besides being but a little better off in that respect, are without protection from storms.

The area of the peninsula according to the most accepted computations is 8,363 square leagues, equal to 146,825 square kilometers-56,739 miles. This land to which historians have ascribed different names as those of Ulumilkutz and Ulumilceh, the land of wild turkies and deer, and Yucalpeten (the neck of the peninsula), was most probably called Mayab, land of the Mayas. The Spaniards on their first arrival in 1517 called it Yucatan, and from that date, through the conquest, and through the colonial government, and for thirty-seven years after our independence, that name was applied to the whole peninsula as one community; but in 1858, the district of Campeche towards the southwest, became a state under that name, and very lately in 1903 the general government declared the eastern section which had just been wrested from the Indian rebels who possessed it for over fifty years, a federal territory under the name of Quintana Roo, one of the most illustrious founders of the Mexican Independence, born in this state. The English colony of Belice fills the southwestern corner of the peninsula.

This is now politically divided thus: the state of Yucatan covers an area of about 18,018 square miles and has a population of about 315,000 inhabitants, that dwell in seven cities, 14 villas, which may be called towns, 157 villages, and 2493 rural establishments spread over 16 partidos, which may be called districts; Merida, Progreso, Tixcocob, Motul, Hunucma, and Acanceh, first group; Yzamal, Temax and Sotuta, the centre group; Maxcanu, Ticul, Tekax and Peto, the southwestern group; and Espita, Valladolid and Tizimun, the eastern.

The state of Campeche comprises the five partidos of Campeche, Carmen, Hecelchakan, Champoton and Chenes, that contain two cities, 8 villas, 25 villages and 350 haciendas, ranchos and small plantations, spread over 19 sq. miles.

The Quintana Roo territory was formed by sections of the partidos of Valladolid, Tizimun, Sotuta, Tekax and Peto, and it has about 8,000 inhabitants, the capital of which is Chan Santa Cruz, the old headquarters of the rebels for half a century, at the distance of 220 miles from Merida, with a few small seaports.

The colony of British Honduras, the boundary lines of which were definitely settled by the Spenser-Mariscal treaty, has about 5,000 inhabitants dwelling in the capital Belize and in a few towns and rural establishments.

The aspect of the country is that of a long extended plain that goes on rising gradually from the water's edge to the foot of a ridge called the Sierra, which begins seven miles from the town of Maxcunu, in the western part of the state, and follows a winding course to the east and the southeast for the distance of ninety miles, and after leaving on its northern slope the picturesque towns of Muna, Ticul, Oxkutzcab and Tecax disappears near Kambul in the district of Peto. This Sierra is called Puc in Maya; its maximum height is 500 feet above the sea level, and is a rocky and barren structure from its beginning to about six miles before Tecax, where a stratum of rich vegetable soil begins to appear.

There is another branch of hills forming a broken chain that starts at a short distance from the coast, below the small town of Seybaplaya in the bay of Campeche, some of the peaks of which attain a considerable height. This runs parallel to the sea-side for a short distance, then it turns round forming a sort of amphitheatre where the city of Campeche is beautifully situated, after which, following a northern direction by the sea-side for two miles beyond, it turns to the northeast, goes on crossing the district of Hecelchakan and after following its course to the east and southeast, it approaches the lake of Chichankannab, near the end of the first ridge. From this point this range takes a southern course in a broken line, and goes to join the great chain

which under the different names of Rocky mountains, Sierra Madre, and Andes are the backbone of the American continent. This system is not a continuous chain like the first ridge. It is formed by a series of high hills or peaks called Uitzes, which are separated by narrow valleys the surface of which is at least as high as that of the first Sierra, and they are covered by a thick bed of vegetable soil, proper for the cultivation of corn, sugar-cane, tobacco and most tropical plants.

The plain that we mentioned as stretching from the north coast to the foot of the first Sierra, and as being of calcareous formation comprises several zones or belts. The first one extends over a great part of the peninsula from the village of Buctzotz in the district of Temax, about fiftyfour miles to the northeast of Merida, to the district of Hecelchakan in the state of Campeche. This belt rests on a bed of limestone covered by a thin layer of vegetable soil and comprises the district of Merida, Acamceh, Yzamal, Maxcanu and part of Hecelchakan. Here corn, beans, and other articles of food, cattle and horses were raised to some extent, but now hemp, for which the soil is very well adapted, is raised on a great scale, and that has not only saved this state from poverty, but it has made of it one of the most prosperous of the Mexican confederacy. From Buctzotz eastward to Yalahau and from Hecelchakan to Campeche, the ground though still stony is good for the cultivation of sugar-cane, rice, etc., and improves as we advance, the soil becomes more moist and the woods are thicker and higher.

On all sides of these tracks, that is, from Yalahau on the northeastern coast to Bacalar on the southeast, and from Campechc to Champoton in the west and to the Sierras in the south, the soil attains all the luxuriance and richness of the tropics, and while all the produce of those regions can be got there, magnificent forests of a great variety of trees cover also those extensive grounds.

The lands around Ticul are of an intermediate quality, between these and those of the north, and they are still better from Tekax and Peto to Chichankanab and Saban.

If we draw a cross section or profile from the port of Progreso through Merida, Ticul, and Tzibalchen to the southern boundaries of the peninsula and Guatemala, we find first a very narrow strip of sand along the shore, then a belt of moving monticules of sand from three to eight hundred yards wide covered by a thin coating of thorny weeds and small palm trees, bordered by long patches of salt beds. Next comes the Cienega, a marshy kind of stream with a bottom of white mud, full of water weeds, two or three miles wide, dry in the dry season, with a narrow thread of water in the centre, and overflowed in the rainy season, where some islets called Petenes are found here and there, and also interrupted now and then by a peculiar kind of stream called Ojo-de-agua (water-holes). Next comes the Savana or prairie from a mile to a mile and one-half wide, which gradually disappears, giving place to a very stony formation called Tzekel, poorly covered by thorny shrubs, some lonely palm trees and wild hemp plants. This rough stony bed extends for about eight miles changing then to a better soil upon which Merida stands over 28 feet above the sea level and 28 miles from Progreso. The ground goes on rising with a smooth grading for eighteen miles more, at the end of which the surface becomes more and more rugged, so that in the railroad lines, cuts fifteen feet high are formed. For six miles before getting to Ticul, the approach to the Sierra is known, the layer of earth growing thicker and the color of it changing to a darkish red.

Two miles from the city of Ticul, the foot of the Puc is reached, the ascent to the summit of which is a mile long, its height being four hundred feet above the level of the plain. The descent on the opposite side is at most onefourth the ascent, coming down then to a high table land

that stretches from the west of Santa Helena to the borders of Chichankanab Lake over an area twenty-five miles wide from north to south. Here the most magnificent ruins of the country are found: Uxmal, Santana Tabi, San Francisco, etc., which afford a wide field of study to the scientific man and interest to the mere tourist. Bordering this section on the south the broken chain of hills called Uitzes within the limits of the inhabited sections of the peninsula, the line of which may be traced through the villages of Tzibalchen, Yturbide Xul Becanchen.

Beyond this line an extent of land supposed to be of no less than eight thousand square miles, stretches to the province of Peten in Guatemala, covered by a thick and uninhabited forest only crossed by three paths that start from Campeche and Bacalar to the Lake of Peten, through stations placed far from each other.

Now if we examine a map of Yucatan, we see that from the Champoton River that empties into the Campeche Bay, on the south end of the western coast to the Manatin river that empties into the Ascension Bay, about the middle of the opposite coast, there is no river or stream whatever worth the name, they are only small inlets of the sea or cuts made by the heavy showers of the rainy season. The Champoton River has a course seventy-five miles long, from Lake Jobonochac and is navigable by small craft of from 10 to 15 tons for the distance of 15 miles inland. The water courses of the eastern coast are of little importance, even those of San Jose and Hondo that water the extreme southern portion. As for the Nohbecan (the great stream in Maya) the Pocayxun, the Palizada and some brooks, they are only profitable to a small section of the southwestern corner of the peninsula.

Yucatan is very poor in lakes, those only that deserve that name are the Laguna de Chechankanab (small sea) about 20 miles in length by less than three wide; that called Ocon from which the Manatin River takes its course

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