roducts,
however, are the dyewoods--famous for their quality--and timber,
including cedar and mahogany; sugar-cane, maize, and rice are produced,
and the inevitable _chicle_--chewing gum--for export to New York,
whilst the numerous fruits of the tropical zone are freely raised. The
great tracts of virgin forests and unutilised resources of the state
call for foreign capital, and the Americans are those who have
responded principally. Chinese and Korean labour are employed to a
certain extent, as well as Jamaica negroes. Some of the plantations
have light railway lines, and several steam railways are projected or
under construction. Shipbuilding is an old-established industry of this
coast, and the first vessel to carry the Mexican flag to Europe was
constructed, it is stated, at Campeche.

The State of Yucatan stretches over the greater part of the area of
this remarkable peninsula, from which it takes its name. With its
eastern part--the region known as the Territory of Quintana Roo--it is
a neighbour of the British Empire, bordering as it does upon British
Honduras, or Belize. To the south it adjoins the Republic of Guatemala.
Its area is 35,200 square miles, with a population of about 300,000
inhabitants. Similar in character to the rest of the peninsula this
state consists of one vast plain, of small elevation above the level of
the sea, its flat topography being relieved only by a low range of
hills towards the centre, running northwards into Campeche, whose
greatest altitude does not reach 3,000 feet.

The capital city, Merida, lies in the north-west part of the state.
This is a vast flat region of dreary aspect, unwatered by rivers or
streams, arid and dry, stretching to the Bay of Campeche on the one
hand, and the great Terminos lagoon. This desolate region,
nevertheless, affords the main source of wealth of the state, and that
for which it has become famous, the _henequen_, or Sisal hemp, the
valuable fibre-producing plant which grows there in millions. In this
region are the curious wells, or natural ground-caves of water, which
excite the notice of the traveller, and which appear to be connected
with underground streams.

Other agricultural products are sugar-cane and cereals, whilst there
are extensive woods of valuable timber, bordering upon Guatemala and
British Honduras, including the famous dye-woods, and other classes for
constructional purposes. In the southern part of the state also, there
is a gr