lts around the peninsula. The country is of a limestone
formation, and is only slightly elevated above the sea. Its general
character is level, but in certain districts there are table lands; and
a mountain range runs north-easterly to the town of Maxcanu, and thence
extends south-westerly to near the centre of the State. The soil is
generally of but little depth, but is exceedingly fertile.

There are no rivers in the northern part of the province, and only the
rivers Champoton, and the Uzumacinta with its branches, in the
south-western portion; but there are several small lakes in the centre
of Yucatan, and a large number of artificial ponds in the central and
southern districts. The scarcity of water is the one great natural
difficulty to be surmounted in most parts of the country; but a supply
can commonly be obtained by digging wells, though often at so great a
depth that the cost is formidable. The result is that the number of
wells is small, and in the cities of Merida and Campeachy rain water is
frequently stored in large cisterns for domestic purposes. From the
existence of cenotes or ponds with an inexhaustible supply of water at
the bottom of caves, and because water can be reached by digging and
blasting, though with great effort and expense, the theory prevails in
Yucatan that their territory lies above a great underground lake, which
offers a source of supply in those sections where lakes, rivers and
springs, are entirely unknown.

A very healthful tropical climate prevails, and the year is divided into
the wet and the dry season, the former beginning in June and lasting
until October, the latter covering the remaining portions of the year.
During the dry season of 1861-2, the thermometer ranged from 75 deg. to
78 deg. in December and January, and from 78 deg. to 82 deg. in February,
March and April. Early in the dry season vegetation is luxuriant, the
crops are ripening, and the country is covered with verdure; but as the
season progresses the continued drouth, which is almost uninterrupted,
produces the same effect upon the external aspect of the fields and woods
as a northern winter. Most of the trees lose their leaves, the herbage
dries up, and the roads become covered with a thick dust. During
exceptionally dry seasons thousands of cattle perish from the entire
lack of subsistence, first having exhausted the herbage and then the
leaves and shrubbery.

The population of the peninsula is now about 502