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I am still in the piedmont lands the tierras calientes. The templadas are yet far higher. I am only a thousand yards or so above sea-level. I am in the "foot-hills" of the Northern Andes. How sudden is this change! It is less than an hour since I parted from the plains below, and yet the surface-aspect around me is like that of another land.
The natives call the three zones into which they divide their country the Tierras Calidas, or hot countries rising not more that 2000 feet above the sea, and in which only tropical plants and fruits flourish; the Tierras Templadas, or temperate country from 2000 to 7000 feet above the sea, where the agricultural productions of Europe succeed best; and the Tierras Frias, or cold countries which rise above the former, to the height of 15,000 feet, the summits of the mountains reaching 148 feet above the snow-line.
The earth has a cultivated aspect an aspect of civilisation: for these high plateaux the tierras templadas are the seat of Mexican civilisation. Here are the towns the great cities, with their rich cathedrals and convents here dwells the bulk of the population. Here are whole villages of such huts, inhabited by the dark-skinned descendants of the ancient Aztecs. Fertile fields are around me.
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