and well laid out, but the climate is intensely warm; and were it not for good natural irrigation, the neighbourhood might have been a desert one. As it is, the soil is sandy and easily raised by the wind, so that dust-clouds those pests of Northern Mexico are by no means infrequent. Under American enterprise, the town has grown apace as an iron-smelting centre, and brick factories flourish here. The price of land around Monterey is fairly high, and in the last twenty years has appreciated by nearly thirty times its original value, because of its appraisement for building and not for agricultural purposes. The town is entirely modern in plan; and its water supply, telephone system, and other municipal advantages, which were only installed within recent years, have greatly added to its amenity as a residential centre. As in so many Mexican States, mining is the industry round which most popular interest centres in this locality, though not necessarily the most profitable one. The Monterey Mining, Smelting, and Refining Company is a sound concern, paying 7 per cent, with great regularity.
The labour question here is in an unsatisfactory condition, owing to the lack of population. Good workmen can earn good wages in this State, mechanics of all kinds, railwaymen, bricklayers, and masons being in great request. The condition of the poorer classes—the unskilled labourers—is rather a dreadful one, and there is a real housing problem in Monterey. The people of this State are by no means active, and have won unenviable notoriety by means of their proneness to rebellion. They are hot-tempered, too, and some-what quick with the knife. General Reyes, the Governor of Nuevo Léon, was formerly Minister of War and Marine, and was unfortunately killed in the course of the Revolution at the age of 66. He was a truly patriotic man, and a brave and skilful soldier.
The State of San Luis Potosi is another centre of mineral wealth, its silver mines having been known of old to the ancient Mexicans. Indeed, it was named by the Spaniards after
