grand results.

We expressed surprise to an intelligent citizen at seeing long lines of
burros laden with freight beside the railroad, and going in the same
direction, remarking to him that the railway ought to be able to compete
with the jackasses. "You must take into consideration," said our
informant, "that a man who owns a score of these cheap animals can
himself drive them all to market or any given point. His time he counts
as nothing; his burros feed beside the way, and their sustenance costs
him nothing. Wages average throughout the country something less than
thirty cents per day, and the cost of living among the peons is
proportionately low. A railway is an expensive system to support, and
must charge accordingly; consequently the burros, as a means of
transportation for a certain class of goods, are quite able to compete
with the locomotive and the rail." Of course, as other avenues for
remunerative employment are opened to the common people, this antiquated
style of transportation will gradually go out of use, and the locomotive
will take the goods which are now carried by these patient and
economical animals.

Zacatecas is the capital of the state of the same name, and has a
population of nearly fifty thousand. This is one of the oldest and most
productive silver mining regions in Mexico. The town seems actually to
be built on a huge vein of silver, which has been penetrated in scores
of places. Eight or ten miles below the city the cars begin to climb
laboriously a grade of one hundred and seventy-five feet to the mile,
presenting some of the most abrupt curves we have ever seen in a railway
track. Here we are in the midst of Rocky Mountain scenery. One can
easily imagine himself on the Northern or Canadian Pacific road, among
their giant peaks, hazardous roadbeds, and narrow defiles. The huge
engine pants and trembles like an animal, in its struggle to drag the
long train up the incline and around the sharp bends, until finally the
summit is reached. To mount this remarkable grade a double engine has
been specially built, having two sets of driving wheels; but it is often
necessary to stop for a few moments to generate sufficient steam to
overcome the resistance of the steep grade.

Here we are on the great table-land of the country, about eight thousand
feet above the level of the sea, in a narrow valley surrounded by groups
of hills all teeming with the precious ore. These rich mines of
Zacatecas ha