16 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 
White Woman. These volcanic crests rise into the 
snowy zone from the table-land which is itself about 
8,000 feet above the sea. 
In southern Mexico the plateau area enclosed between 
the principal sierras narrows perceptibly, because the 
shore line of the Pacific and the 
mountain range that parallels it 
swing more and more towards the 
east. At the Isthmus of Tehuan- 
tepec a low valley separates the 
highland area of Mexico from that 
of Central America. This second 
table-land is not so wide as the 
one we have just considered and 
is more deeply dissected by rivers. 
The mountains of Guatemala rise 
to a considerable altitude, the 
highest being Tacana with 13,976 
Fig. 2. The Smoke feet elevation. Active volcanoes 
reaches the Stars, a 
Mexican Picture of a are numerous and _ earthquakes 
hes lige se cova frequent and often disastrous. 
Remensis. _ The Volean de Agua and the 
Volcan de Fuego (Volcano of 
Water and Volcano of Fire) look down upon Cuidad 
Vieja and Antigua Guatemala, the old Spanish capi- 
tals which each in turn destroyed. The cordillera 
still presents its most abrupt front to the Pacific and on 
the eastern side, in Guatemala and Honduras, there 
are high forest-bearing ridges between the river sys- 
tems. ‘The Cockscomb Mountains in British Honduras 
are a low outlying group. In southern Nicaragua the 
main chain is broken by a low broad valley that extends 
from ocean to ocean. In Costa Rica and Panama a 
single range stretches midway along the narrow strip 
of land, with peaks that rise above 11,000 feet. 
