The elevations, north of the valley of Toluca, which separate it from the valley of the river Tula, vary from 10,000 to 7,500 feet, and, in the bosom of the latter vale, is found the town of Tula, twenty-two leagues north-west of the capital. It is regularly built, on broad streets, and is celebrated for its Sunday-market, to which the Indians and Mestizos of the adjacent country flock in numbers.
Tulanzingo and Apam, are the chief towns of the districts;—Pachuca is a mining town 8,112 feet above the sea, and, next to Tasco, the oldest mineral work in Mexico. It contains, with its suburbs of Pachuquillo, about 5,000 inhabitants.
Real del Monte, is another mining town, two leagues northerly from Pachuca, at an elevation of about 9,000 feet. Its climate is cold, and its extremely rarefied air is dangerous for lungs unaccustomed to breathe the atmosphere of such lofty regions. Within a few leagues of this place is the celebrated Cascade of Regla.
Atotonilco el Chico, or El Chico, is also a mining village, 7,737 feet above the sea, 4 leagues north-west from Pachuca, and 25 north-east from Mexico. It is situated on the slope of a beautiful valley, surrounded by high mountains, whose peaks peer above the tops of the forest. In the vicinity of Chico, about 5 leagues west and north-west lie the mines of Capula and Santa Rosa.
Atotonilco el Grande is a village 7 leagues north of Real del Monte.
Actopan and Itzmicuilpan lie in the midst of fine agricultural regions.
Zimapan, is a mining town, about 10 leagues north-west of Itzmicuilpan, and 42 from Mexico, situated on the slope of a wide and deep valley, which is watered by a copious brook.
San José del Oro, is a village and mining district, north of Zimapan.
Huejutla; Mextitlan; and Zacualtipan, complete the enumeration of important towns or villages in this part of the State.
From the height of 9,784 feet above the sea, at the Cruz del Marquez, the road descends across the sierra at the southern end of the valley of Mexico, into the valley of Cuernavaca, which, as we have already remarked in the historical part of this work, is a corruption of the Aztec "Quaunahuac." This broad, beautiful and rich valley, lying between three and four thousand feet lower than the valley of Mexico, winds gradually into the vallies of Cuautla and Puebla around the eastern spurs of Popocatepetl, and is remarkable for its fruitfulness and salubrity Sugar, coffee,
