Cordillera in the neighborhood of the sources of the Panuco, in 22° 4´ 58´´ north latitude, 103° 7´ west longitude from Paris, 5,959 feet above the sea. It is a regular, well built city, with broad, paved streets, a fine plaza or public square, and six handsome churches, three convents, and one hospital. Its population may be estimated at 35,000.
Guadalcazar, is the capital of the partido or district of that name, 18 leagues north-west of San Luis Potosi, in 22° 31´ 25´´ north latitude and 102° 59´ 30´´ west longitude from Paris, 5,132 feet above the sea, in a valley south of a mountain group which was once extremely productive in mineral riches.
Rio Verde is the capital of the Department of Rio Verde, 34 leagues east of San Luis. The town of Valles, with 3,500 inhabitants, lies on the left bank of the Rio Montezuma, in the tierra caliente, on the boundary of the State of Vera Cruz. Its neighborhood is rich in sugar plantations and in tropical productions generally.
Venado, 29 leagues north of San Luis, is the chief town of its Department; it lies on the road from the capital of the State to Catorcé, and contains about 8,000 inhabitants.
In the partido Ojocaliente lies the town of that name, 28 leagues north-west of the city of San Luis, and 10 leagues south-east of the capital of Zacatécas, 6,714 feet above the sea.
Catorcé is a mining town, likewise in the department of Venado, and is sometimes known by the sounding title of "Real de la purisima Concepcion de Alamos de los Catorcé." The name is supposed to be derived from the slaughter of fourteen Spanish soldiers who are said to have been killed in its vicinity by a tribe of savages inhabiting these wild mountain regions before the discovery of the adjacent mines.
Nothing can be more dreary, bleak and desolate than the aspect of the Cordillera of Catorcé. A few narrow mule paths, or the worn bed of a