Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican/Volume 2/Book 5/Chapter 13

APPENDIX NO. 1.

 

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PROFILE OF THE PLATEAU — MEXICO TO SANTA FÉ — SANTA FE TO THE GULF.

In order to afford the geographical student an idea of the central configuration of Mexico, we annex the following tables of the lines of levelling made by Baron Humboldt, Dr. Wislizenius, Oteiza, and Burkart, northwardly from the city of Mexico to Santa Fé; and eastwardly from Santa Fé to Reynosa near the Gulf of Mexico. From the first of these we learn that the plateau which forms the broad crest of the Mexican Cordillera by no means sinks down to an inconsiderable height as was long supposed to be the case but that it maintains, throughout, its majestic elevation.

1st. Elevation above the sea from the city of Mexico to Santa Fe.				2d. From Santa Fe in New Mexico to Reynosa on the Rio Grande.
Mexico		7,469	ft. above sea.		Santa Fe		7,047	ft. above sea
Tula		6,733	”””		3miles N. of Alburquerque near the Rio Grande		4,813	”””
San Juan del Rio		6,490	”””		Jornado del Muerto		4,452	”””
Querétaro		6,362	”””		Brazito		3,918	”””
Celaya		6,017	”””		Upon crossing of the Rio Grande		3,797	”””
Salamanca		5,761	”””		Paso del Norte		3,810	”””
Guanajuato		6,836	”””		S. of Rio Carmen		4,219	”””
Silao		5,911	”””		S. of Gallego		5,317	”””
Villa de Leon		6,133	”””		Rio Sacramento		4,940	”””
Lagos		6,376	”””		Chihuahua		4,638	”””
Aguas Calientes		6,261	”””		Aguachi		5,952	”””
San Luis Potosi		6,090	”””		Cosihuiriachi		6,273	”””
Zacatécas		8,038	”””		Bachimba		3,956	”””
Fresnillo		7,244	”””		El Saucillo		3,955	”””
Durango		6,848	”””		Cadena		5,056	”””
Parras		4,985	”””		Mapimi		4,487	”””
Saltillo,		5,240	”””		El Bolson de Mapimi		3,785	”””
El Bolson de Mapimi		3,785	”””		Parras		4,985	”””
Chihuahua		4,638	”””		La Encantada		6,104	”””
Cosihuiriachi		6,273	”””		Saltillo		5,240	”””
Paso del Norte on the Rio Grande		3,810	”””		Rinconada		3,381	”””
Santa Fé in New Mexico		7,047	”””		Monterey		1,626	”””
					Marin		1,354	”””
					Ceralvo		1,006	”””
					Mier		417	”””
					Camargo		422	”””
					[1] Reynosa		104	”””

"If we consider,"—says Humboldt in his Views of Nature,—"that in the north and south direction the difference of latitude between Santa Fé and the city of Mexico is more than sixteen degrees, and that consequently the distance in a meridian direction, independently of curvatures on the road is more than 960 miles, we are led to ask whether in the whole world, there exists any similar formation of equal extent and height, between 5,000 and 7,500 feet, above the level of the sea. Four-wheeled wagons can travel from Mexico to Santa Fé. The plateau whose levelling is here described is formed solely by the broad undulating flattened crest of the chain of the Mexican Andes; it is not the swelling of a valley between two mountain chains, such as the Great Basin between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada of California in the Northern Hemisphere; or the elevated plateau of the Lake of Titicaca, between the eastern and northern chains of Bolivia; or the plateau of Tibet between the Himilaya and Quenlun, in the Southern Hemisphere."—Page 209, Humb. Views of Nature.

1. See Humboldt's Views of Nature, London edition, 1850, p. 208, and Dr. Wislizenius's Profiles of the country in his Memoir on New Mexico, &c., &c.