92 [October, 



ever, principally in company with scouting parties, to visit that part of the country 

 between the range of volcanoes, bounding the plains of Perote and Puebla on the 

 east, and the Gulph of Mexico, comprising the greater part of the f^tate of Vera 

 Cruz, and to make some collections in Natural History. 



J'he general outlines of the country I presume it is unnecessary for me to 

 detail. The plains of Cuetlachlan, or the fierra culienie. as they are more usually 

 called, comprise that region of country bordering the Gulph of Mexico. They 

 are about twenty. five miles in width, extending back to the Plan del Rio by a 

 gradual ascent of thirty feet per mile, with but lew elevations or depressions, 

 except at the river Antigua, and other small streams which pass through them in 

 a north easterly direction. Beyond the Plan del Rio the ascent increases over a 

 regular succession of hills and plains, until you reach the loot of the range of 

 mountains in which the peaks of Orizaba, Perote and others are situated. This 

 range forms the rim or eastern boundary of the plains of Anahuac, which are 

 more commonly known as the tierra ieniplada, and are about thirty five miles in 

 width. The sides and top of this mountain range are called the tierra fria, 

 immediately beyond which lay the great table lands of Mexico. 



The table lands extend, with little or no variation in their general level, to the 

 Cordilleras bordering the Pacific Ocean, though they are divided into several 

 plains by ranges of volcanoes and porphyritic rocks. 



'J'he iierra callcnie is bordered on the Gulph of Mexico by low sand hills, 

 from four to six miles in width, not bare as has been represented, but coveied 

 with a thick chapparel, or thicket of Cacti and thorn bushes, to within reach of 

 the water. Great numbers of fresh water and land shells are found on these hills 

 and on the beach, thrown up from the Gulph, which may be referred to living 

 species. 



After passing these hills a few miles, I notired at one locality a layer of lime- 

 stone. It is covered by a coarse conglomerate of volcanic and porphyritic rocks, 

 which extends over the whole upper part of the tierra culienie, rendering the 

 surlace rou^h and stony. At the Puenta Nacional it is exposed to the de| th of 

 two hundred leet, interstratified irregularly with veins of fine sandstone. Deep 

 gullies are worn through it to the rivers, by the drainage of the plains during the 

 wet season. The rivers are the only source of irrigation, receiving no supplies 

 in their con se from the mountains to the coast. 



'J'he greater part of the plains is covered with a dense growth of vegetation, 

 so thick that it would seem almost impossible for the soil to support more, and 

 ihe trees and busnes are loaded with an innumerable variety of parasitical plants 

 and vines, interlacing and binding them together, in such a manner as to render 

 them absolutely impenetrable. On other parts, particularly between the con- 

 glomerate and the coast, the chapparel is more open, dotted with clumps of low 

 dwarfish trees and Cacti, and atlbrd grazing to herds of half wild cattle, in which 

 the property of the inhabitants principally consists. To the south of Vera Cruz 

 the cultivation of cotton has been introduced; it is of white fine quality, but 

 perhaps from want of proper cultivation, the staple is very short, so that when 

 worked it requires to be mixed with other varieties. 



The inhabitants live mostly on the small bottom lands of the rivers, their 

 crops consisting of corn, chili, and frijoles. They are a puny and sickly peo- 

 ple, being subject to intermittent and typhoid fevers, during the months after 

 the close of the wet season. Though the temperature at the Puenta Nacional, 



