Again, much is to be gained by the use of these waters for the gen-
erating of power for the use of factories, mines, electric lighting, rail-
ways, and street cars, even should one hundred miles or more intervene
between the generating plant and the machinery it is proposed to apply
to it.
It seems marvellous that the Mexico of to-day — presenting, as it
does, more natural resources, a greater variety of climate, cheaper
labor, and better facilities for the construction of dams, reservoirs,
canals, etc., than almost any other countr)' — should be so far behind
the times in a matter that has become an absolute necessity before the
greater portion of its area can be thoroughly populated. The great
increase in value of a piece of land after it is irrigated ought to be in-
ducement enough for capital to be invested in such works. Compe-
tent engineers contend that Mexico, owing to its topographical and
geological features, will be found to present most favorable conditions
for the construction of reservoirs, dams, gravitation canals, the erection
of pumping plants driven by wind, steam, gasoline, electricity, or even
water power, and also for the cutting off and bringing to the surface
of the underflowing waters, which are known to exist in greater abun-
dance there than elsewhere on the face of the globe, as nature has
been very prodigal to it in these respects.
Irrigation in arid countries is the corner-stone of civilization, and,
to make a country self-sustaining, agriculture should be the first aim
of its inhabitants. Agriculture must come first ; manufacturing and
mining cannot thrive until the food supply is forthcoming.
With the extension of railway lines and the notable imi)ulse given
to agricultural enterprise within the last twenty years, Mexican land-
owners have improved more and more upon the earlier methods, and
have, to an increasing extent, applied the principles of engineering
science to the methodical cultivation of the large tracts into which
their holdings are usually divided.
The Nazas Irrigation. — Some notice of an irrigation enterprise in
Mexico will show how much we are now doing in this line.
The great plan of northern Mexico embraces nearly the whole of
the States of Chihuahua and Coahuila, being bounded east and west
by the sierras of the Pacific and Gulf coasts respectively. It consists
of two watersheds, — that of the Rio Grande to the north, and the
the so-called desert of the Rolson of Mapimi in the south. It is
about four hundred miles wide by six hundred long, and maintains
a general level of about four thousand feet above the sea, although
much broken by local mountain ranges. The Bolson of Mapimi
has much the same formation as the basin of the Great Salt Lake.
68 (BeoQrapbical IRotes on /iDcjico.
It receives the drainage of all the eastern slopes of the Durango
sierras and the western slopes of the Coahuila ranges, but possesses no
outlet. As a consequence, throughout its whole area, the rivers run
into broad, shallow lakes, whence the waters are gradually lost by
evaporation during the dry season. Of these rivers, the largest is the
Nazas, which has a course of nearly three hundred miles from its
source to where it is dispersed over the shallows, called on modern
maps Lake Mayran. Sixty or seventy years ago the Nazas discharged
its waters into a series of extensive lagoons, occupying what is now
the fertile Laguna district of Durango and Coahuila.
At that time a phenomenal and long-continued rainfall so over-
charged the, then, bed of the Nazas as to cause it to open a new
course, and leave the Cayman lagoons thirty miles on one side. In
the course of years these lagoons were converted into a mesquite wil-
derness, almost dead level, and composed of a deposit of the finest
detritus, of unknown depth. The central depression of this lake-bed
filled a broad valley running north and south, and surrounded by a
parallelogram of mountains. The area thus comprised was about two
hundred and ten square miles of pure vegetable loam, locally known as the
Lake of Tlahualilo. This cuenca, or bowl, was the spot chosen about
six years ago for the establishment of the great irrigation enterprise.
The problems involved called for courage and high administrative
qualities, as well as technical engineering knowledge. It had early
developed that the lands left dry by the changed course of the river
were of extraordinary fertility, and half a century ago these tracts,
immediately adjacent to the river, had been taken up and brought
under irrigation after the rough methods then practised. The result
was that, by 1890, about 250,000 acres of this land were under ditch,
and the region was producing the greatest part of the cotton grown in
Mexico, as well as heavy crops of corn and wheat. The Tlahualilo
basin was known to be the richest portion of this district, but the
thirty miles of sun-baked desert separating it from the present course
of the river presented an obstacle to utilization which proved too
formidable for the cultivators of the Laguna country. In 1889 a
project was formulated for carrying a ditch across the intervening
desert to the head of the Tlahualilo cuenca, and converting the
whole of the latter area into a huge hacienda.
Preliminary survey showed that the lowest level of the basin to be
irrigated was about 100 feet below the point on the river Nazas
which it was proposed to dam ; that the main canal, on account of
topographical conditions, would require a development of 39 miles ;
and that the slope of the lands within the basin was such that about
175 square miles out of the 210 composing the basin could be advan-
tageously irrigated. A company was formed to undertake the work.
Ifrrioation, 69
A dam of piles and riprap was thrown across the river at a point where
it is about 1500 feet wide at flood. From this dam the line of the
main canal was traced to the entrance of the Tlahualilo, — a distance
of 39 miles. The canal terminated in a distributing tank at the en-
trance to the irrigable area, whence it bifurcated, one arm being car-
ried along the western side of the basin.
The rainfall in the Bolson of Mapimi is confined to a few days of
heavy showers about the beginning of June and the beginning of De-
cember. But up in the mountains of Durango, where the Nazas takes
its rise, the rainfall at the same season is very heavy and protracted,
resulting in high water in the river, which lasts for several weeks at a
time. It is during these freshets that the cultivated lands in the Nazas
district are irrigated. For the rest of the year they receive no water,
except from occasional brief showers. In the Tlahualilo basin, a week
or ten days of irrigation is all that is needed in the course of a year,
the water soaking easily and quickly through the almost impalpable
silt, and the hot sun forming a protecting crust which checks evapora-
tion, and retains the moisture in the subsoil for a surprisingly long
time. In fact, owing to their long roots, the cotton plants strictly re-
quire irrigation only once every other year, but corn and wheat, of
course, must receive it at each planting. The distribution of the
waters is regulated by government schedule, each property on the
river being allotted its proportion of water, according to priority of
settlement. Each canal on the river is permitted to take as many irri-
gations as it desires during the season of high waters, but in strict
rotation. That is, after a property has taken one quota, it cannot re-
peat the process until all the others have taken theirs, when its second
quota is available. Where another property, as often happens, does
not care to use all the water to which it is entitled, its further allot-
ments may be used by its neighbor. The waters, on leaving the river,
are heavily charged with sediment largely volcanic in its origin, and
this is deposited on the lands at each flooding in the shape of extremely
fine mud.
Six years of experience with this property demonstrates the fact
that irrigation, when applied to fertile land under a carefully planned
and thoroughly executed system, where the water supply is owned by
the user, puts agriculture among the least dubious of industries. The
system adopted by the Tlahualilo Company is especially worthy of atten-
tion, because of the notable unity of plan pursued from the inception
of the enterprise to its fullest development, and of its resultant econo-
mies. It was on this proi)erty that a disastrous experiment of colo-
nization from Alabama took place in the year 1896, when hundreds of
negroes were taken from Alabama and other points of the southern
portion of the United States under the supposition that they could
70 ©cotjrapbical IRotes on /iDejico.
withstand the down-pour of the tropical sun of Mexico, and by their
knowledge of the cultivation of cotton succeed in carrying out the
puri^ose of the men wlio undertook the enterprise. Unused to food
conditions in Mexico, especially for want of bacon and corn bread,
they were infested with sickness, which caused great mortality among
them, and frightened and demoralized they fled from Tlahualilo, this
experiment showing very plainly that Mexican planters cannot rely for
lal)or on the colored peoj)le of the United States.
The production of cotton and corn in the vicinity of Torreon can
be increased eightfold by building reservoirs in the Nazas River and
its tributary caiions, to hold the water back for the irrigation of the
vast area of fine cotton and corn lands that are yet unproductive,
simply through the non-retention of the great amount of water flowing
to the sea, unused, annually, and the same result could be obtained
by doing the same thing with many other rivers in Mexico. With one-
fourth of the water now needed to produce a good crop, the same
amount of grain can be produced by good cultivation. The reason is
that by the methods now in vogue in most parts of the country, so little
soil is loosened by the plow that nearly all the water runs off, where
rain is relied on, and only with a great amount of rain can a crop be
raised. When irrigation is used, the water required to keep the hard
ground moist is entirely in excess of the reservoir, rain, and river sup-
plies. This is the reason of the short grain supply and of the necessity
for importing during years of drought large quantities of corn. If the
ground were plowed deep and well, it would absorb most of the rainfall
and create sufficient surface moisture to meet the moisture from below,
which would counteract the dry action of the atmosphere on the soil
and roots of the grain, which, by its luxuriant growth, would soon shade
the ground, and thus contribute still further to the retention of moisture.
The fact is, taking Mexico as a whole, that there is not a year so
dry but that with good cultivation, sufficient grain can be raised to
supply domestic demands, while all the excess above that quantity in
favorable seasons should be used as feed for stock, which would supply
the large quantities of lard, tallow, hard-oil, etc., now being imported,
and would leave a large amount for export, together with a consider-
able quantity of meat for the same purpose, thus helping to cover the
balance of foreign trade and keeping our silver dollars in the hands
of the farmers and stockmen, to improve and increase their lands,
herds, and flocks.
The present Mexican fauna belongs, like its flora, to the North
American zone, so far as regards the plateau regions, and to the An-
tilles in respect to the coast lands round the Gulf, while that of the
jfauna. 71
Pacific seaboard is intermediate between the Californian and South
American. In the general aspect of its terrestrial animals, Mexico
is connected more with the United States, whereas in its marine forms
the reverse movement has taken place. Thus the prevailing species in
the Gulf of Mexico as far as Tamaulipas and Texas, and the Pacific
coast northwards to Sonora and Lower California, have migrated from
South America. The species in the two oceanic basins differ almost
completely ; and, despite the proximity of the Pacific and Atlantic
shores, their shells are quite distinct.
The fauna includes three species of large felidse, the puma or
American lion, jaguar, and ocelot ; among the smaller is the wildcat.
Wolves are common in the northern States, and also the coyote ; be-
sides which there are bears, wild boars, and bisons. A species of
sloth is found in the southern forests, with five varieties of monkeys.
Of the other wild animals the principal are hares, rabbits, squirrels,
two or three kinds of deer, beavers, moles, martens, and otters.
All the domestic animals introduced by the early Spanish settlers
have multiplied prodigiously. The horses, though small, retain the
spirit and graceful form of the Andalusian or Arabian stock, from
which they mainly sprang.
The waters of the estuaries and coast streams teem with fishes, all
the numerous varieties of which differ on the two oceanic slopes, but
still present a certain analogy in their general distribution. Turtles
are taken in considerable numbers on the coast, and the carey, or
turtle-shell, of Yucatan and Guerrero is the object of a trade valued at
^20,000 yearly.
The ophidians are represented by a few boas in the southern forests,
and several species of snakes, some extremely venomous, as the rattle
and coral snakes. The largest lizard is the iguana, whose flesh is by
some of the natives used as food. Noxious insects infest the hot
regions in myriads ; alacranes, or scorpions, in two different varieties,
are everywhere feared, and many children were every year killed by
their sting in the city of Durango before the proper antidote was
found and used. Scolopendras, gigantic spiders, tarantulas, and mos-
quitoes abound.
Bees are numerous and their wax is an article of export, and the
silkworm, though comparatively neglected, yields an annual profit of
some importance. The birds of prey are eagles, hawks, and zopilotes,
or turkey-buzzards, the scavengers of the coast towns, with three or
four species of owls. Domestic fowl are extremely abundant. The
parrots, humming-birds, trogons, and so forth, vie in richness of
plumage with those of Brazil, and the Mexican songsters, the ])rince
of which is the zenzontle, or mocking-bird, are unequalled by those of
any other country.
72
6eoorapblcal Botes on /IDcjico.
Of all the Mexican fauna, two only have been domesticated : the
huahulotl {Me/eagn's Mexicand)^ which is a species of duck, and the
turkey, introduced into Europe by the Spaniards from the West Indies,
hence by the French called " coc^ d'Inde." The techichi, an edible
dumb dog, was soon exterminated when taxed by the Spanish authori-
ties. The other farmyard animals have all been introduced into Mex-
ico by the conquerors.
In the Gulf of California, and especially near La Paz, and the neigh-
boring archipelagoes, extensive beds of pearl oysters are fished. Some
other islands in the same gulf are frequented by myriads of various
species of aquatic birds, and have already yielded many hundred car-
goes of guano.
It is noteworthy that the Pacific islands, lying at some distance
from the coast, have all a fauna different from that of the mainland.
Thus the little Tres Marias group, about sixty miles off the coast of
Jalisco, has a special species of humming-bird. The Revillagigedo
Archipelago also forms a separate zoological zone, and the island of
Guadalupe, over one hundred and fifty miles distant from Lower Cali-
fornia, has eleven species of land birds, every one of which differs
from the corresponding species on the adjacent continent.
ETHNOLOGY.
Mexico is inhabited by native Indians found there during the Span-
ish conquest, by descendants of tlie conquerors of Mexico and other
European races, and by a mixture of the two. There are so few in-
habitants of African descent that it is hardly worth while speaking of
them. The proportion of this population is about as follows : Of Eu-
ropean descent, 19 per cent. ; native Indians, 43 per cent. ; mixed races,
38 per cent.
Mexican Indians. — The native Indians found by the Spaniards be-
long to several nations and tribes, having different features and entirely
distinct languages. The principal of these tribes are the following,
some of which are now extinct :
Otomi,
Chichimec,
Huaxtec,
Totonac,
Mixtec,
Zapotec,
Mahuas,
Toltec,
Olmecs,
Xicalancs,
Tula,
Apache,
Irritilas,
Tamaulioecs,
Zacotec,
Huastec,
Zoque,
Opata,
Guaicuri,
Yaqui,
Mayo,
Seri,
Tarahumara,
Tepehuan,
Sabaibos,
Acaxee,
Xixime,
Concho,
Manosprietas,
Comanche,
Cuachichils,
Tarascos,
Mixe.
These tribes have been classified in the following families :
Mexican Family ; Totonaca Family ;
Sonorense Opata-Pima Family ; Mixteco-Zapoteca Family ;
Guaicura y Cochimi Laimon Fam- Matlalzinga 6 Pirinda Family ;
ily ; Maya-Quiche Family ;
Seri Family ; Chontal Family :
Tarasco Family ; Huave Family ;
Zoque-Mixe Family ; Apache Family ;
Otomi Family.
There is a great deal of similarity between the Mexican Indians
and the Malay Asiatic races — especially the Japanese branch — which
gives foundation to the idea that the aborigines of Mexico originally
came from Asia, or vice versa.^ Their intensely black hair and eyes,
their brown or yellow color, their small stature and the slight obliquity
' The following extracts from the San Francisco, Cal., Bulletin of June 7, 1S97,
confirm my views on the subject :
" Information is received from Australia concerning the reports of F. W. Christian
of the Polynesian Society, who has returned to Sydney after an extended tour of the
islands of the South Seas, the Caroline group especially, where he has been on a suc-
cessful search for ethnological specimens. These reports are of great importance to the
scientific world and are said to let much light on a vexed question which has puzzled the
most learned savants for years. Mr. Christian has discovered extensive traces of the
Chinese and Japanese in the islands of the Pacific, and claims to have discovered evi-
dence pointing to the existence of a civilization of nearly two thousand years ago, which
is linked with the ancient civilization in Central America, and will probably explain the
origin of the Aztec races.
" Under the auspices of the Polynesian Society, according to advices from Sydney,
via Honolulu, received per Coptic yesterday, Mr. Christian worked. The gentleman
spent nearly two years looking for traces of the Chinese in the islands, and was lucky
enough to find ancient records, specimens of handiwork and weapons which proved
that Asiatic races were extensive traders among the South Sea group thousands of years
ago. Evidence of a very decisive nature was secured which shows that a large trade
was carried on via the islands of the Caroline group, between China and Central Am-
erica, and that the ancient Chinese were more inclined to emigrate than their latter-day
brethren and colonized extensively.
" Extensive inquiries were made as to the traditions of the islanders, and many
discoveries were made concerning the early history of the Malays with regard to naviga-
tion, all proving that the Torres strait's route to the Pacific was not taken, but that
voyages were made to many of the Caroline islands.
" The coincidence is a strange one that a despatch from Hermosillo, Mexico, dated
June 6th, reports that a rock recently discovered in the mountains of Magdalena dis-
trict, State of Sonora, which is covered with Chinese inscriptions, has just been visited
by Sen Yup, a well-educated Chinese of Guaymas. He says the inscriptions are Chi-
nese, but are somewhat indistinct. He made a copy of them, and has translated enough
of the lines to show that the writing was probably inscribed on the rock at least two
thousand years ago."
74 ©eoorapblcal Botes on ^ejico.
of their eyes, are features common to the Mexican Indians and the
Japanese. When I first came to Washington, at the end of 1859, not
having been out of Mexico before, I retained very vivid recollections
of the Mexican Indians, with whom I had been somewhat closely asso-
ciated ; and shortly afterwards the first Japanese Embassy came to this
country and was received in a very solemn manner by Mr. Buchanan,
then President of the United States. The Embassy consisted of about
forty persons altogether, comprising ministers, secretaries, interpret-
ers, servants, etc., and were dressed in their national gala costumes,
not having yet adopted the European one. The Diplomatic Corps
having been invited to the reception, I attended as a member of the
same, and was greatly struck by the remarkable similarity which I found
between the Japanese members of the Embassy and the Mexican In-
dians, whom I had just left. It seemed to me that had I collected at
random forty Mexican Indians and dressed them in the same gorgeous
costumes that the Japanese wore, nobody could have detected the
difference.
Some of the Indian languages seem to me to resemble strongly the
Oriental ones, though of course I cannot speak with authority, as I do
not know any of those languages and have heard only the Chinese,
Japanese, and Korean spoken ; but I am sure that if any educated and
intelligent Chinese should go to Mexico and spend some time among
the Indians, he would find traces, in the language which would con-
tribute greatly to clear up this problem. Mr. Tateno, a former Jajjanese
Minister, who visited Mexico, found, during his short stay in that coun-
try, several words that are used in Japan and that have the same mean-
ing in both countries. I am aware that Seiior Pimentel, a very learned
philologist, who made a special study of the languages of the Mexican
Indians, finds no similarity at all between them and the Chinese or
other Oriental languages ; and that even the Otomi language, which is
monosyllabic, he finds to have no similarity to the Chinese. But,
notwithstanding that great authority, I believe that the aborigines of
both continents, that is, Asiatic and American, were originally of the
same race, and that there must be some relationship between their
respective languages.
The Indians of the different tribes do not generally mix with one
another, but intermarry among themselves, and this fact contributes
largely to their physical decay, and makes very difficult, at least for
some time to come, the complete assimilation of all the Mexican popu-
lation.
The Mexican Indians are on the whole a hard-working, sober,
moral, and enduring race, and when educated they produce very dis-
tinguished men. Some of our most prominent public men in Mexico,
like Juarez as a statesman, and Morelos as a soldier, were pure-blooded
I
I
lEtbnoloas. 75
Indians,' and fortunately there is no prejudice against their race in
Mexico, and so when they are educated they are accepted in marriage
among the highest families of pure Spanish blood. ^
I have been a great deal among them, and my knowledge of their
characteristics only increases my sympathy and admiration for them.
In the State of Oaxaca, for instance, wliere I spent the early years of
my life, I have seen Indians from the mountain districts, who, when
they had to go to the capital, especially to carry money, would form
parties of eight or ten to make a ten days' round trip, carrying with
them their food, which consists of roasted ground corn, which they
take three times a day ; stopping at a brook to mix it with water, and
' Sir William Kingston, President of the Surgery Section in the Second Pan-
American Medical Congress, held at the City of Mexico in October, 1896, in an in-
terview which was published by The Gazette of Montreal, Canada, of December 2,
1896, said, concerning his visit to Mexico, among other things :
" The pure-blooded Indian was seen on all sides.
" The Spaniards would seem to have pursued the same course as was followed by
the original French settlers, they did not shove aside the native Indians as useless lum-
ber, to be got/en out of the loay, as a distinguished Harvard professor puts it, but they
treated them as people in possession of the soil, with whom it was not only right but
proper to ally in marriage. I have always regarded our North American Indian as
the best type of the aborigines in stature. I still believe he is, but not so in intellect.
The broad, massive forehead of the native of Mexico, and his soft but prominent and
intelligent eye, are evidences of mental power.