16 



MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 



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 Tehuantepec a low valley sepa- 

 rates the highland area of Mexico 

 from that of Central America. 

 This second table-land is not so 

 wide as the one we have just con- 

 sidered and is more deeply dis- 

 sected by rivers. The mountains 

 of Guatemala rise to a consider- 

 able altitude, the highest being 

 Tacana with 13,976 feet eleva- 

 tion. Active volcanoes are num- 

 erous and earthquakes frequent 

 and often disastrous. The Volcan 

 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 capitals 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 systems. The Cockscomb Moun- 

 tains 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 mid- 

 way along the narrow strip of land, with peaks that rise 

 above 11,000 feet. 



Fig. 2. The Smoke 

 reaches the Stars, a 

 Mexican Picture of a 

 Volcanic Eruption in 

 the Codex Telleriano- 

 Remensis. 



