138 



MEXICO, CENTEAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



Horse Chestnut" is now divided into three distinct stems, throug-li which a road 

 has been driven ; the dragon-tree of Orotava, which had a girth of 46 feet, has 

 disappeared ; the gigantic sequoias of California were felled in 1855 ; the Mon- 

 travail oak near Saintes is 86 feet round, and the largest baobabs and otîier 

 African giants are described by Cadamosto, Adanson, and others as from 96 to 

 112 feet in circumference. But in 1882 the Tule cypress had a girth of no less 

 tban 118 feet three or four feet from the ground, and 150 feet including all the 

 prominences and cavities of the trunk. 



The route from Oaxaca to the sea, leaving on the right the valley of the 



Fig. 57. — -Chief Ruins of Central Mexico. 

 Pmle I : 9.000,000. 



124 Miles. 



Atoyac, which winds away westwards to the frontiers of Guerrero, runs at an 

 altitude of 7,460 feet over the crest of the Cinialtepec coast range. Near the summit 

 stands the industrial village of Miahuatlan, whose inhabitants are skilful straw- 

 plaiters, which they work into a thousand fancy articles exported far and wide. 

 The cocliineal industry was formerly the chief resource of the district, but the 

 southern slopes are now covered with coffee plantations which yield excellent 

 results. Hence the cultivation of the shrub has been rapidly developed even to 

 a distance of 40 or 50 miles inland. The high prices obtained by the growers 

 have enabled them to introduce costly m;ichinery for drying and sorting the 

 berry. Thanks to this growing industry Puerto Angel, the badly sheltered outlet 



