co. It was a large slice to cut off the territory of
Mexico, as it would make, so far as size goes, over thirty States as
large as Massachusetts. It contains at this writing about two million
inhabitants, and the value of its taxable property is nearly or quite
eight hundred millions of dollars.

Finally we reached Eagle Pass, which is the American town on the north
bank of the Rio Grande, Piedras Negras being its Mexican neighbor on the
other side of the shallow river. Previous to the opening of the Mexican
Central Railroad, which was completed March 8, 1884, nine tenths of the
travelers who visited the country entered it from the south, at the port
of Vera Cruz, journeying northward to the city of Mexico by way of
Orizaba and Puebla, and returning by the same route; but the completion
and perfection of the railroad system between the north and the south
has changed this. Since 1888, when the International Branch Railroad was
opened, the favorite plan is to cross the border from the north, say at
Eagle Pass; and on the homeward route, after visiting the central and
southern portions of the republic, to recross the dividing river at Paso
del Norte. This was the route followed by the author, the Rio Grande
being crossed at the international bridge, and Mexican territory entered
at the town of Piedras Negras in the State of Coahuila, a thriving place
of some four thousand inhabitants.

One pauses thoughtfully for a moment to contrast the present means of
crossing the dividing river with the primitive rope ferry which answered
the purpose here not long since. A little flutter of anticipation also
moves us when it is realized that the territory of another country is
reached, that we are actually on a foreign soil, where a strange tongue
is spoken, where a new emblem floats from the flagstaffs, and where
another race possesses the land. The Rio Grande, which we cross at this
point, is not a navigable stream; in fact, river navigation is
practically unknown in Mexico, though some of the watercourses are of
considerable size. The Rio Grande has a total length of fifteen hundred
miles, rising in Colorado and emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. In the
rainy season, and when the snow melts in the mountains, the Rio Grande
is flooded to its full capacity, often overflowing its banks in marshy
regions. The first bridge built by the railway company at this point was
of wood, which was swept away like chaff by the next flood of the riv