CHAPTER V.

The call for congress in that year estimated the population of the State at 1,389,502, to which if we add 10 per cent. for increase since that period, we shall have a population at present of about 1,528,452.

The Federal District includes the city of Mexico, in the valley of that name, together with the towns and villages of Tacubaya, Chapultepec, Santa Fé, Tacuba, Guadalupe, Azcapotzalco, Los Reyes, St. Angel, Mixcoac, and Mexicalcingo. Its inhabitants may be estimated at 450,000,—about 200,000 of whom reside in the capital.

The Valley of Mexico is in the midst of the ridges of the Mexican Sierras, at a height of 7,500 feet above the level of the ocean. It is oval in shape, and hemmed in on all sides by porphyritic mountains and eminences, from which the volcanoes of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, shoot up beyond the region of eternal snow.

Its greatest length, from the mouth of the stream of Tenango in the lake of Chalco, to the foot of the Cerro de Sinóc, in the neighborhood of the canal Huehuetoca is 19¹/₂ leagues, and its greatest breadth, from San Gabriel at Tezcoco, to the sources of the river Acapusalco at Quisquiluca, is 13¹/₄ leagues. Its area is 258³/₈ square leagues, 23¹/₃ of which are covered by lakes. On the south, east, and west, the mountains maintain a probable average height of 10,000 feet above the sea, while at the north their depression is considerable, and through the gaps and vallies the waters of the lakes are discharged towards the Gulf of Mexico.