30 
ENGINEERING REPORTS. 
myself with a compass and quadrant, by means of which a con 
nected survey was made of the route traversed as far as Tesis te- 
pee ; the relative position of Mt. Encantada being approximate- 
ly determined by triangulation, taking the distance between 
Jaltipan and Tesistepec as a base-line. 
Leaving Mina-titlan on the 3d of January in company with 
Messrs. Davidge and Baldwin, and taking the mule-road leading 
to Tesistepec, via Otiapa and Chinameca, we reached the village 
of Cosuliacaque, distant seven and a half miles from Mina-titlan, 
in a westerly direction. This is situated on the summit of an 
elevated broken ridge, which separates the head-waters of the 
Tacoteno River from a number of small streams discharging into 
the Coatzacoalcos above Mina-titlan. This portion of our route 
traversed a moderately elevated table-land or plateau but par- 
tially wooded, the trees being generally small and of little 
value. 
A short distance to the left of the road, the ground uniformly 
descends to the level of the river-bottoms ; but on the right we 
find broad, level savannas, alternating with occasional patches 
of timber, and extending many miles in a northerly and wester- 
ly direction. In the vicinity of the road the soil is light and 
sandy, the rock formation being a coarse ferruginous sandstone. 
About one and a half miles from Cosuliacaque is a small 
place called Otiapa, and two and a half miles further on, is Chi- 
nameca, a neat village of some 1400 inhabitants. 
Between Cosuliacaque and this place, the surface of the coun- 
try is considerably undulating, and the soil gravel and sandy 
loam. We passed some heavy timber on this portion of the 
route, including the Uale, Macaya, Encina, Juasimo, Ceiba, 
Nanche, Cedro, &c. 
From Chinameca to Jaltipan, a distance of five miles, the 
road traverses the summit of a sandy ridge, but sparsely cov- 
ered with a stunted growth of trees and bushes. 
On the right is an extensive alluvial basin, stretching as far 
as Mounts San Martin and Pelon, distant some twenty miles, 
and drained by the river Huasuntan and its tributaries, the Cha- 
calapa and Osaluapa. The Chacalapa heads in a small lake 
situated about three miles south of Acayucam, and the Osalu- 
