Lerdo is well brought to mind in considering the geographical
environment: "Between weakness and strength--the desert!"

[Illustration: ORIZABA, CAPPED WITH PERPETUAL SNOW: VIEW ON THE MEXICAN
RAILWAY AT CORDOVA.]

But away from the railways, and the roads where _diligencias_ ply their
lumbering and dusty course, the saddle is the only, and indeed the most
characteristic, mode of travel; and the _arriero_ and his string of
pack-mules is the common carrier, and the mountain road or dusty desert
trail the means of communication from place to place. Along these the
horseman follows, day after day, his hard but interesting road, for to
the lover of Nature and incident the saddle ever brings matter of
interest unattainable by other means of locomotion. The glorious
morning air, the unfolding panorama of landscape--even the desert and
the far-off mountain spur which he must round ere evening falls, are
sources, of exhilaration and interest. The simple people and their
quaint dwellings, where in acute struggle for life with Nature they
wrest a living from rocks and thorns--are these not subjects, even,
worthy of some passing philosophical thought? Not a hilltop in the
vicinity of any human habitations--be they but the wretched _jacales_
or wattle-huts of the poorest peasants--but is surmounted by a cross:
not a spring or well but is adorned with flowers in honour of that
patron saint whose name it bears; and not a field or hamlet or mine but
has some religious nomenclature or attribute. For the Mexicans are a
race into which the religion of the Conquistadores penetrated
indelibly, whose hold upon them time scarcely unlooses. The creeds of
the priests, moreover, are interwoven with the remains of Aztec
theistic influence, and the superstitions of both systems hold the
ignorant peasantry of Mexico in enduring thrall. Much of beauty and
pathetic quaintness there is in this strong religious sentiment, which
no thinking observer will deride; much of retrograde ignorance, which
he will lament to see.

The Great Plateau tapers away towards the south, terminating in the
Valley of Mexico, bounded by the snowy Cordillera of Anahuac. Within
this range are two great volcanic uplifts, two beautiful mountain
peaks, crowned with perpetual snow--the culminating orographical
features of the Sierras, and the highest points in Mexico. The loftiest
of these is Popocatepetl, "the smoking mountain," and its companion is
Ixtaccihuatl, the "sleep