Geographic Character: Southern: Division. 113 
4. Southern Division. 
a. Mexico. 
Mexico lies between 14° 30’42” and 32° 4ı' north latitude and 86° 46’ 8” 
and 117° 7’ 31" longitude west from Greenwich. It is approximately in the 
form of an inverted cornucopia with the waters of the Gulf of Mexico on the 
east and those of the Pacific Ocean on the west. Its greatest length is about 
1900 miles (3157 km), and its greatest width 750 miles (1204 km), and its least 
width at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec about 100 miles (161 km). 
Mexico is clearly divided by the low-Iying Tehuantepec Isthmus into two 
distinct geographic regions. The section to the south belongs partly to the 
Central American mountain system partly to the limestone plateau for- 
mation of Yucatan. The section north of the Tehuantepec is a plateau 
flanked on the east and west by two great mountain chains. Rising rapidiy 
by a succession of terraces from the low sandy coasts on the east and west, 
it culminates in this central plateau, running in a northwesterly and south- 
easterly direction, and having an elevation ranging from 4000 to 8000 feet 
(t200— 2400 m) above the sea. High above this plateau, which was raised in 
Cretaceous times and has stood undisturbed by depression since then, tower 
the snow-capped summits of several volcanoes, as Popocatepetl: 17,540 
(17,500, 17,748) feet (5450 m), Orizaba or Citlaltepetl: 18,250 (17,362, 17,373) 
feet (5580 m), Ixtaccihuatl: 16,076 (16,900) feet, Toluca: 15,091 (14,950) feet, 
Colima (Nevado de): 14,363 (14,100, 14,120) feet (4378 m), Volcan de Colima: 
12,750 feet, and Ajusco: 13,628 feet. 
Two mountain ranges traverse Mexico, the Sierra Madre Oriental, 
parallelling the Gulf coast and Sierra Madre Occidental, the Pacific coast. 
The eastern range runs from ı0 to 100 miles (16—ı60 km) from the coast 
and its eastern slopes are terraced from the Gulf to the level of the tableland 
above. In the Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas sections, it is scarcely more than 
6000 feet high and several passes are less than 5000 feet. “North of the Cofre 
de Perote Volcano in Vera Cruz, the eastern Sierra Madre skirts the shores of 
the Gulf of Mexico without any break, as far, as the Rio Panuco on the frontier 
of the State of Tamaulipas. In this section it slopes somewhat gently seawards, 
and much more abruptly westward down to the Anahuac plateau. Beyond 
the Panuco the main range having thrown off several spurs and ridges towards 
the central plains, begins to diverge gradually from the coast-line taking a 
normal north-westerly trend along the eastern edge of the plateau for the rest 
of its course to the Rio Grande” '). 
The western Sierra Madre mountains approach much nearer the coast. 
They are loftier and more continuous and maintain with little interruption a 
Krane. A.H.: Central and South America, Vol. II Stanford’s Compendium of Geography 
1 
and Travel, new issue I90I. p. 42. 
Harshberger, Survey N.-America. 8 
