Durango lies upon the great plateau, but an imposing Cordillera--the Western Sierra Madre--bounds and crosses it on the west, shutting off the State of Sinaloa and the Pacific Ocean. North and east great barren sun-beat plains stretch their verdureless wastes, intersected by ranges of sterile hills, both extending into the neighbouring States of Chihuahua and Coahuila. Here in former times the savage Indians roamed. But before entering upon these plains we have traversed the fertile country upon the eastern slope of the Western Sierra, watered by the various rivers which descend therefrom--pleasing landscape and fertile soil. The area of the state is 43,750 square miles, and its population 380,000. The city of Durango, one of the foremost of the fine Spanish-built cities of the Mexican tableland, has a population of somewhat more than 30,000 inhabitants. It stands upon a broad though barren plain at the elevation of 6,350 feet above sea-level, and its climate is subject to abrupt changes of heat and cold. The culminating peaks of the mountain ranges of Durango are in some cases singular and beautiful. Among these may be cited the splendid granite uplift of legendary Teyra,[37] which rises to an elevation of 9,240 feet above sea-level. Its colossal crest towers upwards from the tableland, riveting the attention of the traveller from all points of the compass by its majesty. From this one gets a magnificent view over a vast expanse of country. It does not, however, reach the perpetual snow-line, although this is passed by Tarahumara of the Sierra Madre. This remarkable peak shows the _flora_ of three zones--the hot, with bananas and other fruits growing at the base of the mountain; the temperate, where pines and other _flora_ of this zone flourish; and the simple cryptogamous plant life of an arctic temperature, cooled by the almost perpetual snow above it upon the mountain summit. [Footnote 37: Visited by the Author.] The plains of Durango, in common with some of those of its native states, present the curious physical structure described in another chapter--of having no hydrographic outlet. The rivers which flow eastwardly from the Sierra, form lakes whose only means of exhaustion is by evaporation. Of this nature is the great arid tract known as the Bolson of Mapimi. The Mexican Nile, the River Nazas, the principal stream of the state traverses this, and affords the means of irrigation to the numerous cotton plantations of the region. These, which constitute an important industry, are described in the chapter on agriculture. The climate varies much according to the topography of the region, being temperate or hot according to the elevation. In addition to the cotton various agricultural products are raised, whilst the mountain uplands yield pine, oak, cedar, ash, and other classes of timber. The _fauna_ includes leopards, bears, coyotes, peccaries, deer, eagles, cranes, pheasants, &c.