1. AREA, BOUNDARIES, ETC. Mex ico's total area is 767,326 square miles, and its boundaries are the United States on the north, Guatemala and Belize on the southeast, the Pacific Ocean on the south and west, and the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea on the east. Its coast line on the east is 1,772 miles in length and on the west or Pacific side, 4,541 miles. The northern or United States bound ary was fixed by treaty 2 Feb. 1818 and .k Dec. 1853, and extends from the mouth of the Rio Grande, on the Gulf of Mexico, follown that river a distance of 1,136 miles, helm: El Paso, Texas; thence to a point on the Pacific Ocean, one marine league due south the southernmost point on the Bay of Saz Diego. The total length of the northern bound ary line is 1,833 miles. The Guatemalan bound ary line was fixed by treaty 27 Sept. 1883 and 1 April 1895; and the Belize line by treaty signed 8 July 1893 and ratified 19 April lg The length of the southern boundary of Mexico is 642 miles.
By the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, ra.: fied 2 Feb. 1848, and the Gadsden treaty of X Dec. 1853, Mexico ceded to the United State 930,590 square miles of her territory, or 163,N more than half. The first-named treaty in volved 362,487 square miles of domain, nos part and parcel of the United States, aj follows: Texas, 265,780 square miles; Coll rado (in part), 18,000; Kansas (in 7,766; New Mexico, 65,201; Oklahoma, 5741) Under the terms of the second or treaty the United States acquired 522,568 square miles, which are now held as follows: Ar zona, 82,381- California, 157,801; Colorado (ir. part), 29,500; Nevada, 112,090; New Metier 42,000; Utah, 84,476; Wyoming (in part), 14. 320. By virtue of the same treaty a later adI tion was ceded, consisting of 31,535 squrr miles to Arizona and 14,000 to New Mexico Political Divisions and Population.— Mex ico is divided politically into 27 states, thn. territories and a federal district. These with their areas and populations, capitals and pop lations, are as follows: The official statement of the Mexican government that the population of the country had increased to 8,743,014 in 1869, to 10,791,685 in 1886, to 13,607,259 in 1900 and to 15,063,207 in 1910, does not necessarily mean that the population had increased at the rate this increase in the census enumeration would seem to indicate, but rather that the gradual pacification of the country under the Diaz ad ministration, the extension far and wide throughout the land of the administrative arms of the government, and a certain decrease in illiteracy had made the work of the census taker more effective. A prominent official con nected with the census department in Mexico City expressed it as his opinion, in the pres ence of the writer, in 1910, that the actual popu lation of 'Mexico was at that date nearer 20,000,000 than 15,000,000. Fundamentally the population of Mexico is Indian and mestizo (a mixture of Indian and European). (See MExIco—ETHNOLOGY). The official census of 1910 showed about 20 per cent white popula tion; but it must be remembered that a large percentage of the so-called whites have a cer tain amount of Indian blood in their veins; in fact there are very few of the older families that have not come under this influence. All children born of Mexican parents, whether in Mexico or in a foreign land, are, in the eyes of the law, Mexican citizens; and foreigners may become Mexican citizens by naturaliza tion by making application to the department of foreign relations, provided they have re sided five years in the country.
In length of coast line the peninsula of Lower California leads with 1,864 miles, Yucatan following with 615, Sonora 524, Sinaloa 317, Vera Cruz and Guerrero 286 each, Oaxaca 255, Tamaulipas 249, Campeche 224, Chiapas 137, Tabasco 119, Colima 99 and Michoacan 81. The greatest length of the republic is from northwest to southeast, 1,942 miles; and the greatest width, east and west, is from the mouth of the Rio Grande to the United States' western boundary, 1,833 miles; and the narrowest is from the bar at Coatza coalcos (Puerto Mexico), on the Atlantic side, to San Francisco del Mar, on the Pacific, 134 miles. Mexico, California and Tehuantepec are the principal gulfs on the Mexican coast, the first named being the largest in the world. In the commercial development of this con tinent they have performed and still perform a most important part. Mexico's great mass is the lofty Rodcy Mountain plateau, which fills it almost from ocean to ocean, leaving but a narrow strip of coast. Entering from Guate mala (where a spur connects with the lime stone and coral tableland of Yucatan), the system trends west, forming a tableland 150 miles wide at Oaxaca, with a steep descent and slender coast on the Pacific, but a more grad ual one by terraces to the Gulf of Mexico in Tabasco and Vera Cruz. This spreads out and
stretches northward to the vast plateau of Anahuac, 4,000 to 8,000 feet high, where the oceanic relations are reversed, the Atlantic side being precipitous and the Pacific terraced. There is no single range corresponding to the Andes or Northern Rockies. The so-called cordilleras are merely the outer escarpments of the plateau, though often far above its mean level. Loftiest of these is the Sierra Madre of the Pacific, traceable at a mean elevation of over 10,000 feet from Oaxaca to the United States. It skirts the western coast within from 60 to 70 miles of the entrance to the Gulf of California. Thence onward a far wider coast land has silted up. Along the Gulf of Mexico are the correspondent cordilleras of Tamau lipas and Nuevo Leon, 6,000 feet in mean elevation. The southern central plateau main tains its height of 7,000 to 8,000 feet with great persistency to within 40 miles or less of the Atlantic. Through Lower California is a similar ridge some 3,000 feet high. The plateau is not a level surface. Railroad elevation north from the capital varies by 4,500 feet, declining northward; while the centre is intersected by short secondary ridges and valleys, mostly with the north-northwest trend. Most important of these is the Anahuac cordillera, surrounding the valleys of Mexico and Puebla; its cul minating point is the Nevado de Toluca (usnow peak”, 15,163 feet. But across this, and generally confounded with it, is a newer transverse ridge from ocean to ocean, traced by five active or recently quiescent volcanoes and several extinct cones, among which are Popocatepetl, 17,882 feet, and Ixtaccihuatl, 17,338 feet, in the centre, southeast of Mexico City, and Orizaba, eastward bordering Vera Cruz state, 18,696 feet. On the Pacific side is Colima (volcano), 12,989 feet; and the line runs out to the Revillagigedo volcanic islands. The sierras of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas are nearly parallel to this. The other high mountain peaks of the republic are the Ma linche, between the state of Tlaxcala and Puebla, 14,643 feet; the Coffre de Perote, Vera Cruz, 14,042; Ajusco, in the southern part of the Valley of Mexico, 13,075; Tancitaro, 12,661, and Petamban, 12,300, in Michoacan; Derrumbadas, 11,801, Ocelazin, 11,480, and Pefial, 10,744, in Puebla; Cempoaltepec, 11,139, Oaxaca; Lanitos, 11,021, Guanjuato; Tzirate, 11,022, Michoacan; Zumate, 10,994, and Nava jas, 10,289, Hidalgo; and Laurel, 10,138, Aguas calientes. The mountains of Mexico are ex ceptionally picturesque and interesting, afford ing innumerable views beautiful in the extreme. . Mexico possesses comparatively few rivers, and of these few are large and deep enough to be of commercial importance. Many of those marked on the map of the re public are either wholly or practically dry a part of each year. This is especially true of the northern half of the country. The most important rivers are the Rio Grande (Bravo del Norte) which forms the northern bound ary line of the republic for 1,097 miles; the Panuco which rises in the mountains of the state of Mexico and empties into the Gulf of Mexico at Tampico, after a course of 360 miles; the Papaloapan, the source of which is in the mountains of Oaxaca and which crosses the state of Vera Cruz, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico at Alvarado; the Coatzacoalcos, which also has its source in the state of Oaxaca, and crosses the state of Vera Cruz, emptying into the gulf at Coatzacoalcos, its length being 186 miles; the Grijalva, which rises in Guatemala and crosses the states of Chiapas and Tabasco, to the Gulf of Mexico, 327 miles away from its source; the Usu macinta, which also has its source in Guate mala, crossing the Mexican state of Tabasco and emptying into the gulf a short distance south of Frontera, its length being 450 miles. Official reports state this to be most navi gable river in Mexico?) The Tuxpan River, which has its source in the state of Hidalgo, crosses Puebla and Vera Cruz and empties Into the gulf at Tuxpan. It is navigable for small boats. The Lerma, 457 miles in length, which rises in the mountains of Tenango, in the state of Mexico, crosses Jalisco and Tepic and empties into the Pacific at San Blas. The Balsas, 428 miles long, the source of which is in Puebla and which crosses Mexico, Morelos, Guerrero and Michoacan, empties into the Pacific at Zacatula, in the latter state. The Yaqui, 391 miles long, which rises in the Tarahumari Mountains, in the state of Sonora, empties into the Gulf of California a short distance below Guaymas. The Fuerte, 335 miles long, which rises in the state of Chihuahua, crosses the state of Sinaloa and empties into the Gulf of California. Other rivers are the San Pedro, 298 miles; Nazas, 279; Ures, 260, and Sinaloa, 260.