opinion of the richness of the whole country. Stock-raising is the principal industry, and has an annual value of nearly £3,000,000. It is said that the pasturage in Vera Cruz is perhaps the finest in the world, and the animals raised there are of a superb strain. The town of Vera Cruz is the largest port in Mexico. Works which record travel in Mexico a generation ago speak of it as a wretched place, full of slums and pulque shops; but if the travellers who then decried it were to revisit it and behold it as it now is—an up-to-date and thoroughly equipped port, from whose harbours hundreds of great ships carry the produce of wealthy Mexico they would undoubtedly receive a surprise. It is not, however, a suitable place to reside in; and in this respect it has not changed much within the last century, the prime reason for this being that it is situated in the hot lands and is thus regarded as unhealthy by Europeans, who, on landing, usually catch the first train for Mexico city. But Vera Cruz city is by no means so fever-ridden as it once was, and as a matter of fact, its death-rate is less than that of the capital. Phthisis is a far more common scourge in Vera Cruz than "Yellow Jack," and no wonder, for parts of the place are squalid to a degree. Jalapa, the capital of the State, is a well-built, modern city, with clean, wide streets and handsome buildings. Orizaba is an attractive holiday resort, and was frequently patronised by Maximilian.
Campeché, one of the most luxuriant and verdant States in the Union, is, unfortunately, the most unhealthy of all, for within her borders there lurk those Campeché. terrible tropical fevers so fatal to the European. This State comprises the western part of the peninsula of Yucatan, and is named after the Campeche, or logwood, its principal product. Rare woods, mahogany, palms, and dyewoods are exported, and the labour which fells these and brings them to the coast is almost exclusively Indian. There are practically no other means of communication than those afforded by the rivers
