THE MEXICAN UPLANDS. 



35 



belonging to the central axis of the mountain region, attains a height of 10,300 

 feet ; but the culminating point is the Zampoal-tepetl, which lies on a secondary- 

 branch, and which, according to Garcia Cubas, exceeds 11,200 feet. From its 

 summit a view is commanded both of the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. 



South of these irregular uplands, which form the fractured stem of the central 

 chain, the Sierra del Sur, a more continuous and better-defined range, stretches 

 south-eastwards along the Pacific coast. This range, which is also sometimes called a 

 Sierra Madre, is said to reach an altitude of 9,200 feet in the Cimaltepec district, 



Kg. IG. — Various Altitudes of the Mexican Mountains and Towns. 



south of Oaxaca. Near Juquila, on the sea-coast, stands an isolated headland, the 

 extinct Chacahua volcano, whose crater is now filled with sulj)hur. Another 

 cone, one of the ten still active volcanoes in Mexico, lies farther east near Pochutla. 

 -Before 1870, when it suddenly ejected scoriae and vapours, it was supposed to 

 be extinct, all memory of any previous explosions having died out. 



In the isthmus of Tehuantepec the Mexican ranges are continued on the 

 Pacific side by a series of uplands which are crossed by six passes at a low eleva- 

 tion. The lowest, which takes the name of Portillo de Tarifa from a neighbouring 



