sojourning in
or passing through. Civilisation has advanced more upon the great
plateau, threaded by numerous railway systems, than in the less
accessible regions of the Pacific and Atlantic slopes. Mexican national
life has not developed much upon the littoral. A harbourless and
riverless country, aboriginal civilisation made little use of its
coasts, and the same natural conditions have existed until to-day,
although now, at great cost, harbours are being created and transverse
railway lines being built.

[Illustration: THE PACIFIC COAST ZONE: COCOA-NUT PALMS AT COLIMA.]

Yet upon the great plateau, which, indeed, embodies a large part of
Mexico, life is harder--at any rate for the labouring classes--than in
the tropical regions bordering upon the Pacific and Atlantic slopes,
and of that equally or more tropical region to the south of the Sierra
Madres. Scantily clad, the _peon_ suffers from the brusque change from
torrid day to bitterly cold night which the climate of the great
tableland produces. The ground is generally sterile by nature--as
elsewhere described--and all produce is grown under irrigation. In many
parts of the region water is scarce, or is employed for the irrigation
of highly remunerative crops, such as cotton, leaving a minimum for the
growing of food products. In this arid region natural pasture is
scarce, with a consequent dearth of cattle and their produce, whilst
cereals, fruits, and vegetables are far from plentiful. Consequently
the _peon_ has but a small choice of comestibles.

In the more tropical belt, however, the vegetation is profuse, and
fruits, cereals, and any product of the vegetable world grows almost
spontaneously, or with a minimum of care. Bananas, oranges, sweet
potatoes, sugar-cane, and a variety of eatables--all easily
acquired--increase his range of food products, even if they do not
augment his working powers.

Not all the _peon_ inhabitants of Mexico are necessarily attached to
the large estates. Upon the great tableland the traveller, as he
pursues his sun-beat and dusty road, will constantly come upon small
hamlets and even single dwellings, set near the base of some hill or in
the broken ground of a ravine, or _arroyo_, where perchance a feeble
stream or spring provides the inhabitants with the means of satisfying
their thirst. Failing that a dammed-up pond may form the only supply of
water.

These places are generally of the most primitive and miserable
character