Identifier: mexicoitsancient01enoc (find matches)
Title: Mexico, its ancient and modern civilisation, history and political conditions, topography and natural resources, industries and general development;
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Enock, C. Reginald (Charles Reginald), 1868-1970
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Scribner
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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heir bodies are recovered miles away, stranded uponsome sand-bar. This serves as giving an idea of thesudden and rapid flow of water from the mountainsunder the torrential rains; and a good example of a riversubject to such a regimen is that of the Nazas. I havecrossed the dry bed of this river at Torreon on variousoccasions on horseback, but on the return journey anhour afterwards the horse was swimming, or, when thecurrent was too fierce, it was necessary to make a longdetour to the bridge, for the torrent was raging 300 feetwide from bank to bank. The average rainfall varies greatly for different parts ofthe country. For example, in the City of Mexico a yearsmean fall may be 25 inches, whilst in Monterrey, some500 miles to the north, it would reach 130 inches. In thedry season, however, no rain falls in any of the threezones of hot, temperate, or cold lands. Snowfall is veryrare as far south as the City of Mexico, but is notunknown. In the cities of the great plateau, to the north,
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PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 149 it is almost equally rare, occurring perhaps once or twicein a lifetime. When such does take place it affords anunwonted spectacle for the peones, and causes them towrap themselves in their scrapes and muffle up theirmouths as if they were in the polar regions, rather thanexperiencing a momentary fall of temperature 1 A sceneof this nature occurred during my stay in Lerdo, one ofthe towns of this region, and is well depicted in theaccompanying view. The low rainfall of the extremenorth of Mexico, of two to three inches, on the border ofArizona, and the excessive fall, reaching 156 inches, on theIsthmus of Tehuantepec, with the high rate for Monterreyand the moderate fall for the capital, show how remarkableare the hygrometric conditions due to topography. Themaximum rainfall is only exceeded in very few regions ofthe globe. If the geology and topography of Mexico are markedand peculiar, the organic world also presents its ownremarkable conditions ; for, as to i

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