Climate, ProduCts. —The differences of climate, depending upon the different degrees of altitude, are so great in Mexico that the vegetable products of this vast country include almost all that are to be found between the equator and the polar circle. In the course of a few hours, the traveler may experience every gradation of climate, embracing torrid beat and glacial cold, and pass through different zones of vegetation, inbluding wheat and the sugar-cane, thd ash and the paltn, apples, olives, and guavas. The Span iards, on their first occupation of Mexico, distinguished its great climatic divisions under the characteristic names, which are still retained, of the tierras ccaientes (hot or littoral lands), tierras templadas (temperate lands), and tierras frias (cold or high lands). The mean annual heat of the tierras calientes is 77'; and the soil; which is generally fertile, produces maize, rice where water can be procured for irrigation, bananas, pine-apples, oranges, manioc; and sarsaparilla, jalap, and vanilla in the littoral swampy forests. This tract bas only two seasons—the winter, or season of north winds, and the summer, or season of breezes. In the former, the hunicanes are the terror of navigators, but the coast is clear of yellow-fever, which prevails in the hot season. On the medium eleva tions of the tierras templadas, the temperature is extremely equable, varying only from about 70° to 80° F.; the climate healthy. and wherever water is abundant, a perpetual summer reigns, yielding a varied and active veffetation, which embraces all the cereals, fruits, and vegetables of central and southern Europe, amongst which maize, oranges, lemons, grapes, and olives are produced in the most exuberant abundance. The tierras frias, which would scarcely have been characterized as cold by discoverers belonging to a less southern climate than Spain, possess a generally temperate climate, the mean annual heat ranging between 66° and 63° F.; but on the highest of the table-lands, the air is keener, and the soil more arid, and agriculture is limited to the cultivation of bar ley and of the agave, or Mexican aloe, which held the place of the vine among the ancient Aztecs, and is still extensively cultivated for the sake of its juice, which is made into the fermented drink known under the name of pulque. In addition to the vegetable products already referred to, Mexico yields coffee, tobacco--whose growth is, however, limited by governmental restrictions—yams, capsicums, pepper, pimento, indigo, ipe cacuanha, dragon's-blood, copaiva, fan-pahns, india-rubber trees, mahogany, rosewood, ebony, etc.
The products of the mines, which rank among the richest in the world, include the precious metals. The gold mines of Mexico occur principally on the w. side of the Sierra Madre, n. of 24° n. lat., and, until the discovery of the metal in Australia, their yield surpassed the produce of any other part of the world. Silver mines abound in hlexico, and the argentiferous veins, which may be said to intersect every part of the western declivities of the Andes, occur in sot–. places, as in the Vela _Madre lode at Guanajuato, in beds varying from 10 to 50 yards in depth; the precious metal being in these cases intermixed with sulphur compounds, antimony, and arsenic. But although these mines possess the additional special aavanthge of being situatea 'fertile districts, affording abundant food to miners and their cattle, their working has been very imper fectly carried on, owing to the unsettled state of the country. At the close of the last,
and the beginning of the present century, the annual value of the gold and silver of Mexico was upwards of £6,000,000, of which nine-tenths were yielded by the silver; but the political disturbances, preceding and consequent on the wars of independence, have very considerably reduced this sum, which has probably never been reached since Mexico was finally- separated from the mother-country., In addition to gold and silver, Mexico yields tin, antimony, mercury, copper, lead, iron, and zinc; while carbonate of soda, used in smelting silver, is found crystallized on the surface of several lakes, and occurs, together with common salt, in dry seasons, on the more arid parts of the surface of the elevated table-lands.
Cattle, horses, asses, mules, and sheep abound in Mexico, where, in consequence of the extent and excellence of the pasture-grounds, all the domestic animals introduced from the old world have multiplied excessively. Buffaloes feed in the lower plains; goats and sheep are plentiful; the tapir, wolf, American lynx, jaguar, wild cat, several species of tlie skunk, the brown porcupine, stag, deer, etc., are to be found. Parrots, humming-birds, and wild game birds, including, turkey-s, are abundant; and alniost all the lakes yield large quantities of fish. The cochineal insect and the silk-worm are reared with great success on the table-land of Mixtecapan.
Commerce, etc.—Notwithstanding the enormous advantages presented by her natural productions, and the important geographical position which she occupies between the Atlantic and the Pacific, Mexico, owing to her unsettled government, and the consequent insecurity of life and property, lia.s not been able to develop her foreign commerce beyond the value of about £10,000,000. The precious metals constitute, it is estimated, nearly nine-tenths of the exports, the remainder being made up by productions of the soil, and industrial products, such as cotton, woolen and silk goods, soap, leather, saddlery, gold and silver lace, cigars, brandy, etc. England, France, Hamburg, and Lubeck, and the United States, are the principal powers with which Mexico maintains relations of foreign commerce; w hile the city of Mexico is the chief focus of internal trade, and Vera Cruz the principal port for maritime commerce. The total value of the foreign trade of Mexico in 1876 was—for imports, £5,600,000; for exports, £5,100,000. For the number of ships entering and clearing the ports of Mexico, see VF.RA Cnoz and TAMPICO. Mexico possesses about 400 m. of railway, the line from Vera Cruz to Mexico being one of the most wonderful pieces of engineering enterprise in the world. The annual traffic amounts to about 250,000 passengers, and 190,000 tons of freight. The financial con dition of Mexico has been allowed to fall into such disorder since the establishment of independence that the expenditure has been continually increasing beyond the receipts. According to the printed estimates, the estimated amount of the budget for 1875-76 was £4,760,000. The total expenditure for the same year was estimated at £4,980,000. The revenue is derived mainly from the customs. The total amount of the national debt cannot be stated. The loans contracted by the imperial government are entirely repudiated by the present government.