o to 30s. or 50s. per square
yard at present, and they are still rising. The cost of building is
also exceedingly high. These conditions refer, of course, to the
capital. Elsewhere values are often exceedingly low.

The capital and the Federal District, which is that containing the city
and its suburban towns, are administered by _Ayuntamientos_, or
Municipal Councils, with Boards of Health and Department of Public
Works. The city is policed by mounted and unmounted _gendarmes_, a
total of some 2,300, and travellers may bear witness to the vigilance
and courtesy of these officials. Whilst the ordinary _gendarmes_ are
recruited from the Indian class largely, they are efficient. The
British traveller finds them as obliging as London police, in their
more humble sphere, and the American is startled at the possibilities
of official courtesy after the rude and aggressive policemen of the
United States. The water-supply of the city belongs to the Federal
authorities, and is being augmented from the springs of Xochimilco, as
the present amount _per capita_ of 137 litres is not sufficient. The
new works will ensure a _per capita_ supply of 400 litres, for a
population of 550,000 inhabitants. The lighting of the city and suburbs
is by electricity, and is efficiently performed, giving the capital the
reputation of being an excellently illumined community. A Canadian
Company, the Mexican Light and Power Company, holds the contract for
this work. The drainage and sewerage of the capital form a fine modern
sanitation system, which has recently been completed at a cost of
nearly six million _pesos_; and these works, in connection with the
great drainage canal and tunnel already described, form one of the most
perfect systems in the world, and a point of interest to visitors.

The system of electric tramways embodies more than 100 miles of line,
and gives an efficient urban service as well as furnishing
communication with the suburbs and residential towns, as Tacubaya, San
Angel, Tlalpam, Guadalupe, and others. There are still some 40 miles of
mule-car in operation, such as a few years ago existed over the whole
system. The mules were kept going at a gallop over these lines by the
incessant thwacking and shouts of the drivers, and the modern system,
if less picturesque, is more humane and speedier. The Mexicans, both
upper and lower class, are inveterate travellers--many of the latter
simply journey on the cars for amusement--and, pi