160 SELLING LATIN AMERICA 
namely, a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. 
Mexico, including the islands along its 
coast and Southern California, extends over an 
area of 767,097 square miles. Its northern 
boundary is the United States, a coast line of 
4574 miles on the Pacific Ocean marks its 
western and southern limit, in connection with 
a portion of Guatemala and British Honduras, 
while a little section of Guatemala, 1400 miles 
of the Gulf of Mexico and 327 miles on the 
Caribbean Sea form its eastern confines. 
Two mountain systems traverse the entire 
country between which are a series of plateaus 
of various altitudes and many fertile valleys. 
An evidence of the extent of these elevated 
table-lands may be formulated when one real 
izes that Mexico has fifty-three cities located 
above an altitude of 4000 feet. Mexico City 
in the valley of Anahuac is 7850 feet above sea 
level. The mountains have many high peaks 
and extinct volcanoes, always covered with 
snow, the chief ones being Popocatepetl, 17,- 
748 feet, Ixtaccihuatl, 16,176 feet, and Ajusco, 
13,628 feet.