Nearly In The Parallel Of The City Of Mexico, Between Toluca, Xalapa And Cordoba, It Attains Its Maximum Height; Several Colossal Summits Rising To 2400 And 2770 Toises.

Farther north the chain called Sierra Madre runs north 40 degrees west towards San Miguel el Grande and Guanaxuato.

Near the latter town (latitude 21 degrees 0 minutes 15 seconds) where the richest silver mines of the known world are situated, it widens in an extraordinary degree and separates into three branches. The most eastern branch advances towards Charcas and the Real de Catorce, and lowers progressively (turning to north-east) in the ancient kingdom of Leon, in the province of Cohahuila and Texas. That branch is prolonged from the Rio Colorado de Texas, crossing the Arkansas near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri (latitude 38 degrees 51 minutes). In those countries it bears the name of the Mountains of Ozark,* and attains 300 toises of height. (* Ozark is at once the ancient name of Arkansas and of the tribe of Quawpaw Indians who inhabit the banks of that great river. The culminant point of the Mountains of Ozark is in latitude 37 1/2 degrees, between the sources of the White and Osage rivers.) It has been supposed that on the east of the Mississippi (latitude 44 to 46 degrees) the Wisconsin Hills, which stretch out to north-north-east in the direction of Lake Superior, may be a continuation of the mountains of Ozark. Their metallic wealth seems to denote that they are a prolongation of the eastern Cordillera of Mexico. The western branch or Cordillera occupies a part of the province of Guadalajara and stretches by Culiacan, Aripe and the auriferous lands of the Pimeria Alta and La Sonora, as far as the banks of the Rio Gila (latitude 33 to 34 degrees), one of the most ancient dwellings of the Aztek nations. We shall soon see that this western chain appears to be linked by the spurs that advance to the west, with the maritime Alps of California. Finally, the central Cordillera of Anahuac, which is the most elevated, runs first from south-east to north-west, by Zacatecas towards Durango, and afterwards from south to north, by Chihuahua, towards New Mexico. It takes successively the names of Sierra de Acha, Sierra de Los Mimbres, Sierra Verde, and Sierra de las Grullas, and about the 29 and 39 degrees of latitude, it is connected by spurs with two lateral chains, those of the Texas and La Sonora, which renders the separation of the chains more imperfect than the trifurcations of the Andes in South America.

That part of the Cordilleras of Mexico which is richest in silver beds and veins, is comprehended between the parallels of Oaxaca and Cosiquiriachi (latitude 16 1/2 to 29 degrees); the alluvial soil that contains disseminated gold extends some degrees still further northwards. It is a very striking phenomenon that the gold-washing of Cinaloa and Sonora, like that of Barbacoas and Choco on the south and north of the isthmus of Panama, is uniformly situated on the west of the central chain, on the descent opposite the Pacific.

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