Mexico, its ancient and modern civilisation, history and political conditions, topography and natural resources, industries and general development; . 7,250 feet above sea-level, and it is ofcharacteristic conical form. The third perpetually snow-capped peak is Ixtacihuatl—the Sleeping Woman, sonamed by the natives from the fanciful suggestiveness ofa reclining woman—and its summit is 16,960 feet abovethe sea. The Indian names of these striking monumentsof nature serve to show the poetical nomenclature whichthe natives of the Americas ever gave to topographicalfeatures. Especially was this the
Mexico, its ancient and modern civilisation, history and political conditions, topography and natural resources, industries and general development; . 7,250 feet above sea-level, and it is ofcharacteristic conical form. The third perpetually snow-capped peak is Ixtacihuatl—the Sleeping Woman, sonamed by the natives from the fanciful suggestiveness ofa reclining woman—and its summit is 16,960 feet abovethe sea. The Indian names of these striking monumentsof nature serve to show the poetical nomenclature whichthe natives of the Americas ever gave to topographicalfeatures. Especially was this the case among the Aztecsof Mexico and the Incas of Peru. The last-namedmountain is not of the characteristic conical form whichvolcanoes generally have, its outline—beautiful as it is—forming a serrated edge, and it appeared singularlystriking from Tacubaya, where I first beheld it. Never-theless, all these three mountains—the highest pointsin the country—are of volcanic origin. The majesticand poetic peaks of the Smoking Mountain and the Sleeping Woman form part of the Sierra Nevada, orCordillera of Anahuac, in company with Malinche,. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 141 another of the highest culminating peaks, 14,630 feetabove sea-level. This chain is a cross ridge of volcanicand more recent formation than that of the generalsystem of the Mexican Cordilleras, and forms, as itwere, a line of volcanic action at right angles to thegeneral Andine trend, associated perhaps with Orizabaon the east and the volcano of Colima (12,990 feet ele-vation) on the west. -This latter mountain is the onlyactive crater in Mexico at the present time. The greatMalinche, or Malintzin—possibly named after the fairinterpreter of Cortez—is a mountain of striking form,with its brow often snow-covered, upon the borders ofthe plateau of Tlaxcala, whilst the singular Cofre dePerote, with its box or coffin-like summit (13,400 feetabove sea-level), is a prominent landmark of the easternslope of Mexicos r
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