tractive surroundings. The chief lakes are Chapala_(described at p. 152); Patzcuaro (p. 213); Cuitzeo (p. 225); Texcoco (in the Valley of Mexico, p. 244); Zirahuen (p. 226); Yuririapúndaro (p. 145); Zipimeo and Tecacho (in Michoacan, p. 224); and the Laguna de los Caimanes (p. 188).

Very few bays indent the coast. Among these are Ascensión, Espíritu Santo, and Chetmul, on the Yucatan Peninsula; Manzanillo, on the Pacific; and Magdalena and others in Lower California. The east coast is broken by extensive lagoons (lagunas) like that of Términos described at p. 569. The great Gulf of California separates the peninsula of that name from the main portion of Mexico. The only peninsulas are Lower California and Yucatan. Some islands of minor importance lie off the coasts.

The Mexican River System is neither varied nor extensive. The rugged configuration of the country converts most of the rivers into impetuous torrents, which quickly drain the surface of the table-land and form innumerable waterfalls as they plunge downward to the tierra caliente, on their way to the sea. Even the longest rivers are navigable for but a short distance. Shallow draught steamboats ply inland on some of the southern rivers the Usumacinta, the Coatzacoalcos, etc. Sand-bars obstruct the mouths of nearly all the rivers emptying into the ocean, and over these bars but three or four feet of water is found at low tide. The best known river (1,644 M. long) is the Rio Grande del Norte, which forms a part of the boundary-line between Mexico and the United States.

The Gulf of (Golfo de) Mexico, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean, is bounded on the N. by the United States and on the S. and W. by Mexico. It is oval in form: its greatest length is from E. to W., about 1,000 miles; from N. to S., about 800 M.; area about 700,000 sq. M. It has a continuous coast-line of about 3,000 M. Its maximum depth is about 12,715 ft., and within the basin, exclusive of the submerged coastal plain, the average depth is about 9,000 ft. The outlet of the Gulf is on the E. between the peninsulas of Yucatan and Florida, a distance of about 400 M. The Yucatan channel opens into the Caribbean Sea, and the Florida Strait enters the Atlantic.

The temperature of the Gulf is from 8° to 9° higher than in the Atlantic in the same latitude. The temperature at the point of greatest depth is 39° C. The chief current is the Gulf Stream (a name applied to it by Benjamin Franklin), which enters the Gulf through the Yucatan Channel, circles the interior, and passes out through the Florida Strait. The basin off the Mexican coast sinks rapidly to the submarine plain, and a short distance from the shore reaches the maximum depth. The Bay of Campeche is the largest indentation. The level of the Gulf is thought to be a trifle higher than

that of the Atlantic Ocean, which may account for the great velocity of the stream (from 60 to 120 miles per day), one of the strongest on record.

XIV. Historical Sketch of Art in Mexico before and after the

Conquest

Architecture.1 "The architecture that grew up in Mexico with the Spanish Conquest and colonization of the country has qualities that justify an effort to make lovers of art in the world at large better acquainted than they have been with its more important examples. It furnishes the most extensive illustration of the transfer to the soil of the New World of a notable phase of depictive art. It is by no means an overstatement to say that in Mexico there is to be found more architecture of a monumental character than in all other parts of the western hemisphere. The reasons for this are to be found in the enormous wealth of New Spain, particularly in the development of its marvellous mineral resources; the comparative tranquillity of the country throughout the nearly three centuries of Spanish rule, the abundance of building material that lends itself to expression in substantial and permanent form, and a corresponding scarcity of material that encourages slight, crude, and necessarily temporary construction, and the dominance of ideas, political and religious, that naturally found realization in rich and impressive shapes. The Provincial-Mexican work, as it may be called, has its chief interest in a sort of forceful picturesqueness, mainly resulting from the heavy masses worked up out of a material like adobe, whose expressive capacity is necessarily limited to the production of broad, general effects.

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So extensive was the architectural activity in Mexico throughout the historic periods of the Spanish-Colonial occupation, so prolific in results, so general, and-for this continent so unexampled in its lavish employment of the decorative arts, that it might be easy for a student of its phases to subject himself to the charge of over-enthusiasm, of an overestimate of its qualities. These qualities reside largely in strongly impressive effects, such as a monumental domination of environment, a union with, and accentuation of, the fascinating elements of landscape and climate, inexhaustibly picturesque and enchantingly spectacular. Classic in fundamental derivation, and possessing markedly Oriental attributes, this architecture is freely romantic in its development

- often most waywardly so. In these traits, of course, it is thoroughly Spanish; as, indeed, it is Spanish practically throughout. But the foreign flavoring imparted to home-de

1 Spanish Colonial Architecture in Mexico, by Sylvester Baxter (Boston, J. B. Millet & Co.).

rived essentials in the colonial parts of an imperial domain is customarily distinctive; as in the present instance.

"A merit of this architecture, and a very high one, is the frankly organic character of the structural work, freely confessing itself in all its functions. A closely related and complementary trait, likewise an acquisition of Spanish architecture from the Orient through the Arabs, is the universal concentration of ornament at a few salient points.

"The contrast between the plain and the decorative parts of the typical morumental edifices in Mexico is of the strongest description, producing, in the height of emphasis thereby attained, an extraordinary vividness of effect. The transition is immediate, the demarcation between the plain and the decorated surfaces being as abrupt as that between sea and shore the former, as a rule, kept absolutely devoid of all ornamentation; the latter decorative in the extreme. The huge bulk of the structure looms above its surroundings in a mass of rude masonry almost cyclopean in its rough-hewn character, like a gigantic monolith a great block of stone that seems akin to a cliff carved by the elements. At certain points on this mass there is an efflorescence of rich ornament, much as Nature in places clothes the rock-face with a luxuriance of foliage and flowers.

"The ancient Aztec stone-carving is marked both by an excellent technique in the handling of most refractory material and by a bold freedom in design, with a large sweep in flowing movement as a conspicuous trait.

The earlier structures in Mexico, erected in the first generation succeeding the Conquest, had little architectural character. Utility was the sole consideration. The early ecclesiastical edifices were built under the supervision of the Franciscan friars, who were the pioneers of the Church in New Spain. These churches in various parts of the country have a rudely massive character, with a look of austere severity, frowningly sombre. They are commonly distinguished by battlements that suggest defensive functions, and are of an easily recognizable type that might be termed 'EARLY FRANCISCAN.' A noteworthy survival of this work is the old Franciscan church at Cuernavaca.

"The churches of this primitive period are characterized more by Middle-Age styles than by the Renaissance. A form of ribbed vaulting, reminiscent of the Gothic, is commonly employed. The great church of San Francisco at Cholula is fundamentally Gothic in type. On the other hand, the curious Capilla Real, or Royal Chapel, also at Cholula, likewise over a century later in date and built to accommodate a vast concourse of Indian worshippers, was suggested by the Mesdjid al-Djami, the great mosque of the Moors at Córdoba (Spain); having a similar plan, with sixty-four large round col

umns supporting the numerous little domes that form the roof.

"THE FREE RENAISSANCE and its subsequent decadent manifestations dominated architectural taste in Spain during the periods of greatest activity in the fine arts in Mexico, where the architecture of the land took shape accordingly. This accounts for the universal prevalence in Mexico of a characteristic feature of Renaissance.

"THE DOME, one of the noblest and most impressive forms of architectural expression, is the predominating architectural characteristic of the country. Mexico is peculiarly a land of domes. Outside of the Orient, probably no other country in the world has so many domes domes in the truest sense of

the word, arched of solid masonry. When nearly every Indian village in central Mexico has its domed church; when not a few small towns, so little known that they have no place on the general map, are to be seen clustering about a group of several domes so lordly that they would form a boasted landmark in any of our large cities, it will be seen that it is no exaggeration to say that domes are to be found in that country literally by the thousand.

"A common name for the dome, in Spanish, beside cúpula and cimborio, is la media-naranja, the half-orange. The dome made its appearance in some of the very earliest Mexican churches, and speedily became an almost universal feature, appearing to some extent in secular architecture, as well as religious. While the hemispherical shape commonly marks the type, the lines of Mexican domes vary greatly, and are often distinguished by exquisite delicacy in effect. Differences in architectural detail, in ornamentation, and in color lend a fascinating diversity to this predominant feature of the country. The earlier domes are more likely to be rather low, and somewhat depressed in form; in later periods a tendency toward original lines is manifest. The base is almost universally octagonal. The most common form has the arch springing directly from the level of the roof, with a dormer window in each section of the dome. Very frequently these dormers are so treated as to give the effect of a regular base for the dome, corresponding to a drum. In the City of Mexico this manner of treatment is illustrated in the dome of San Hipólito and that of San Fernando; and in the two lower domes of the San Francisco group; while in the upper dome of the latter we have a good instance of the frank segregation of the dormers. It is not uncommon, however, to have a genuine drum, as in the dome of La Santísima Trinidad and of the Cathedral of Mexico. Almost invariably the domes in Mexico are single in construction, having one shell and following the same lines within and without, while the interior is lighted both from the windows of the dormers, or of the drum, and

of the lantern. An exception to this rule is the dome of Santa Teresa la Antigua, in Mexico City. This dome, which has an interior shell, is of modern construction, having been built to replace the one designed by the first professor of architecture in the academy of San Carlos, Antonio Velasquez. "Another very general architectural feature in Mexico is the free use made of tiles, particularly GLAZED TILES, in decorative surface treatment. This, like the dome, is of Oriental origin, brought to Spain by the Arabs who, in turn, acquired the art from Persia, where it was carried to a remarkable degree of perfection. Whether the art is of Persian or Chinese origin may be questioned. The covering of domes and lanterns with glazed tiles is common throughout Mexico, and in some locations wall surfaces are similarly treated. The rich effect of color, the dazzling reflections, the sparkle, the luminous glow produced by these tile-covered domes and towers glittering under the tropical sun, against the deep blue of a cloudless sky, set gem-like in a glorious landscape, can hardly be imagined by those who have not been subjected by the spell of scenes that in a measure reproduce in the New World something of the enchantment of the ancient fairy-like glories of Moslem Spain.

"When the Renaissance made its influence felt, the dome was almost universally adopted. The vast revenues of the Church in the colony, its organization modelled upon that of Spain, where it was more dependent upon the King than upon the Papacy, furnished the means for the erection and decoration of magnificent temples. Under the tremendous energy of the conquering race fired by the lust for wealth and power, working hand in hand with religious zeal, New Spain blossomed in the space of a few short years into a marvellous kingdom, dotted throughout its length and breadth with the splendid cities that emerged from the primitive wilderness or occupied the sites of preëxistent cultures. And the vast domain remains a land of contrasts to this day.

"The influence of the full Renaissance was dominant in Spain when the great cathedrals of Mexico and Puebla were begun, in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Don Manuel G. Revilla, professor of the history of art in the National Academy of Fine Arts in Mexico, in the admirable study entitled 'El Arte en Mexico en la Epoca Antigua y durante el Gobierno Virreinal,' says of these two structures that they are the only edifices of the viceregal epoch up to the arrival of Gonzalez Velasquez and of Tolsa which are distinguished by correctness, simplicity, and sobriety.'

"In the remaining part of the sixteenth century and throughout the seventeenth, both religious and civil architecture were dominated by the BAROQUE, with its capricious proportions, its accidental profiles, its heavy and corpulent members, its