MEURSIXJS. 398 MEXICAN ARCHEOLOGY. novius's Thesaurus Antiriuitatum Grwcarum. The Ulossarium Grccco-Iiarbarum (lt)14) and Athena; Batavce (102;)) also deserve mention. His complete works were edited iii 12 volumes by Laniie (Florence, 1741-03). MEURTHE-ET-MOSELLE, m&rt'u-mA'zel'. .V frontier de|iartiiirMt in tl](' iiurtheast of France, part of the old I'rovince of Lorraine, and com- posed of the remnants of the departments of Jlourthe and Jloselle wliiih remained to France after the Treaty of Frankfort, 1871 (;Map: France. M 2) . Area. 202.5 square miles. Popula- tion, in 1890, 40tj,')7!); in li)01, 484.722. It is named from the principal rivers which traverse the department. The surface is diversified and picturesque, the eastern border beinj; marked by the wooded Vosj;es Mountains, which attain a maximum altitude of 2!loo feet. Iron, eop])er, lead, rock salt, pypsum, and building; stone are the chief mineral jiroducts; and the fertile soil yields abundant crops of cereals, liops, jrrapcs, and other fruits. There are manufactures of steel, iron, railway materials, textiles, pottery, filass, paper, chemicals, wine, and beer. Capital. Xancy. SCETJSE, mez. A frontier department in the northeast of France, part of the ancient Province of Lorraine, and bordered on the north by Bel- gium (Map: France. M 2). Area. 204.5 scpiare miles. Population, in 181IG, 288.876; in 1001, 283,480. It is traversed from southeast to north- west by the valley of the Meuse. flanked by the wooded Arpronne ranjjes of hills. The department is well forested, and the valleys are fertile and well cultivated, producing wheat, oats, and hemp; grapes are largely grown for wine, and beet-roots for sugar. Minerals and manufactures are un- inqinrtant. Capital, linr Ic Due. MEUSE, mez, or MAAS, miis. One of the ])rincipal rivers of Western Europe. It rises on the Plateau of Langres in the Department of Haute-Marne, Xortheastern France, and (lows at first north through a narrow, winding valley with high and steep sides, sometimes becoming canon-like with rocky clilTs. and through the wild forest region of Ardennes (Map: France, ^I 2). It then (lows northeast through lielgiiim into Holland, the land Ix-eoming gradually lower, changing through the heath lands of Northern Belgium to the extensive peat-bogs known as De Peel in S(mtheastern Holland. Finally the river turns westward, joins the Waal, one of the arms of the Rhine, opposite Oorkum, and emp- ties into the North Sea through the great delta common to the two rivers, a large, compound estuary consisting of broad, sandy, and shallow channels inclosing a number nf low. Hat islands. The united Meuse and Waal first divide into two arms, one of which, the llollandseh Diep. flows southwest, and, after communieating southward with the dclt.a of (he Scheldt (q.v.), enters the sea through the broail Haringvliet. The other arm flows west and again divides into the Old and the New Meuse, whii'h. uniting at several points, flow parallel to the sea. The Old Meuse coinmunicates by side channids with the Haring- vliet, and the S'ew Meuse receives the T.ek. an
- irni of the Rhine. The New .Meuse, whi<'h passes
Rotterdam, is the main channel for navigation. The total length of the Meuse is 408 miles, and it is navigable for .l.l;') miles. Its principal trilm- taries are the .Sambre from the left, and the Bcmov, Ourthe, and lioer from the right. It con- nects with extensive canal systems in Belgium and in Holland. Above XeufcliAteau. in the De- lia rtnient of Vosges, the river loses itself under- ground for .some miles. The chief cities on its banks are Verdun (the head of navigation), .S'llan, and Charleville in France; Nainur and Lii'ge in Belgium ; and Maastricht, Dordrecht, and Rotterdam in Holland. MEW, or Sea-Mew. In Great Britain, a gull (q.v.). MEXBOROUGH, m6ks'bur-o. A town in the We.-t Riding uf Yorkshire, Kngland. on the Don, 5'.j miles northeast of Kotherham (Map: Eng- land, E 3). It has large iron and jxitters' in- dustries. The markets are municipal propertv. Population, in 1801, 7700; in 1000, 10.400. MEXCALA, mes-kiila. A river of Mexico. See .Mks<ala. MEXICAN ARCHAEOLOGY. Among the many (lilies which occupied .Mi'xico in former times, six may be said to have attained a con- siderable degree of culture. The Nahuas. whose chief seat at the time of the Spanish Conquest) was in the Valley of Mexico, had come from the North, and their influence extended, by rea.son of conquest and migration, southward as far as Costii Rica. It is impossilile to state the exact limits of Nahua remains in Mexico, owing to our meagre knowledge of the antiquities of cer- tain parts of the country, and the confused tradi- tions of the migrations of the people. The Tarascans were settled in what is now Michoacan and probably parts of .lalisco, Tepic. and Colinia. In Oaxaca are found the remains of the Mixtees and Zapotecs, with traces of an earlier settle- ment of the Nahuas. In Vera Cruz the Huax tecs, linguistically a branch of the great Maya- tjuichc family, are found; and the Totonacs, whose territory lay between that of the Huaxtecs and Nahuas, had a distinct culture, although un- doubtedly influenced by both of the former peo- ples. To the east of the Isthmus of Tchuantepee, and extending eastward over the States of Chia- pas, Tabasco, and Yucatan, and northward through Guatemala to Northern Honduras, are llic remains of the Maya-(^uic)ii' family, whose civilization was. in many respects, the most advanced in ancient America. This region is geographically as well as culturally a part of Central America. The remains found in Chiliuahua show an ancient culture similar to that which existed in the valleys of the (Jila and Salt rivers in Arizona, but of a slightly higher grade. The people seem to have reached ;iii intermediate stage, between the Nahuas on the south and the Pueblo ])coples on the north, but nearer the lat- ter than the former. In this region the ruins of Casa Grande (q.v.) are the only noteworthy gi'oup. The potterj- from the vicinity of this ruin is of an advanced type and somewhat re- sembles the ceramics of .rizonn and New Mexico, but it has distinct peculiarities and bears the marks of contact with the pcn|)le of the south. In the dense forests of (he State of Taniaulipas, on the coast of the (iulf of Mexico, ruins have been reported which ari' related to the culture of the south, and probably liclong to the Huaxtec or Tolonac peoples. We lind the first important remains of the higher Mexican civilization in the very centre of that (lart of ^lexico which lies north nf (he Isthmus of Tehuantepec. in the im-
