lu 



MEXICO, CENTEAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



rugged chains, whicli tlie running waters have carved into isolated masses or 

 irregular ridges, but which are mainly disposed parallel with the Sierra Madre. 



The central part of Chiapas may be regarded as a hill}^ plateau, above which 

 rise sharp peaks such as Hueitepec, east of San Cristobal, which is said to be 7,450 

 feet high. lYorthwards the plateau has been cut by the streams into rounded 

 hills, which gradually merge in the alluvial plains. Towards the west the 

 plateau terminates above the plains of the isthmus in the superb Mount Gineta. 



rig. 61. — Bank of Yucatan 

 Scale I : 6,500,000, 



2Cf 



st or breenwich 



Depths. 



to 100 

 ïathoms. 



100 F.athoms 

 and upwards. 



124 Miles. 



This gently undulating country, covered with woods and diversified wâth running 

 waters, is one of the finest regions in Mexico. 



In Yucatan proper there are no mountain ranges ; onl}^ in the southern 

 parts of the peninsula towards the Guatemalan and British Honduras frontiers 

 the surface is broken by a few low spurs and offshoots from the orographic 

 systems of those regions. The quadrangular mass limited southwards by a con- 

 ventional line drawn across the solitudes from the Termines to the Chetumal 

 lagoon, is nothing but a huge limestone plateau rising above the surrounding 

 waters, and broken here and there by a few narrow ridges. The mean altitude 

 scarcely exceeds 100 feet, while the highest rising grounds would appear to 



