huca, &c.,
321 miles--all of standard gauge. The total share capital for a line of
this mileage is heavy, the whole of the stock and shares reaching
7,820,780 pounds sterling. The general growth of Mexico's trade and the
careful management of the line are causing an improvement in its
financial condition. In January, 1902, a dividend of only 2-1/2 per
cent. was paid upon the first preference stock, and nothing upon the
second nor upon the ordinary shares, whilst an increase in the
following years, through 6 per cent. and 8 per cent., accrued to the
first, so that for the last half-year of 1907, 8 per cent.--its full
rate--was paid upon the first preference stock, 5-3/4 on the second,
and nothing on the ordinary shares. The returns at present are
suffering from the results consequent upon the late financial crisis in
the United States, which seriously affected Mexico.

[Footnote 44: See my "Peru."]

[Illustration: BRIDGES OVER THE ATOYAC RIVER: MEXICAN RAILWAY.]

The Mexican Central is the next line in importance. It is a noteworthy
feature of Mexico's relations in the middle of last century with its
neighbour--the United States, that President Lerdo discouraged the idea
of traversing the deserts of the great plateau with a railway, fearful
of American political and commercial machinations, as showed by his
famous axiom, which I have quoted elsewhere, relating to the
intervening desert. To the broader outlook of President Diaz this line
owes its being, upon a concession transferred to an Englishman, who was
associated with American capitalists. A company was formed, and the
railway--which was subsidised by the Government--was opened for traffic
from the City of Mexico to the United States frontier at El Paso on
March 22, 1884. To-day, with its numerous branches, one of which runs
eastwardly to the Gulf Coast at Tampico, and another, westwardly to
Guadalajara and beyond, with yet another to Cuernavaca, it is a large
system of 3,823 miles. The construction was inferior to that of the
Vera Cruz Railway, as it obeyed the cheaper and more rapid American
method rather than the more enduring British. It is a standard gauge
line. The route traversed by the main line of this railway adown the
_mesa central_, for 1,225 miles, passes through vast areas of dry and
treeless plains and among numerous squalid hamlets, and here the
unlovely side of Mexican life and travel is laid bare to the traveller.
Nevertheless, these conditions